470 



Minnesota Plant Life. 



sand-binding plants, such as the wild rye, the junipers, some 

 sedges, rushes and grasses. Mingled with the herbaceous 

 plants are a few shrubs and trees, such as the hackberries, choke- 

 berries, poplars, oaks and ashes, with brambles and roses as 

 underbrush. Sand barrens in Minnesota fall for the most part 

 into three classes, jack-pine-barrens, oak-barrens and sandy 

 wastes. The distinctive plant of the pine-barren, a common 

 formation in the central portion of the state, is the jack-pine. 

 Along with trees of this species, a number of underbrush plants, 

 herbs, mosses and lichens establish themselves. Here blueberry 

 bushes are abundant and other heaths. In such woods the de- 



FiG. 231. — Vegetation of sand dunes. Isle saux Sables, I<ake of the Woods. In the foreground 

 is the sand cherry and scrub jjoplar, in the center, a juniper bush and in the background, 

 plums. After photograi>h by the autlior. 



velopment of wand plants is common, and in the autumn the 

 forest floor is resplendent with the yellow heads of sunHowers, 

 the purple spikes of blazing-stars, and the white or blue inflo- 

 rescences of asters. Sandy wastes are characterized by the de- 

 velopment of mat plants, such as carpetweeds and spurges. 

 Mingled with these are to be sought many rosette plants like 

 the evening-primrose and the plantain. 



