Minnesota Plant Life. 



475 



absorptive power of the roots, so that desert-succulents in par- 

 ticular might be regarded as plants that in a warm soil have 

 swollen themselves full of water and, during the course of gen- 

 erations, have adopted permanently the fleshy structure. 



Mesophytic vegetation. A number of other plant forma- 

 tions remain to be catalogued under the general head of meso- 

 phytic vegetation. The term is applied to those plants which 

 are intermediate, in their reaction to moisture, between hydro- 

 phytes and xerophytes. The characteristic mesophytic forma- 

 tions of Minnesota are the hardwood forests, the meadows, the 



r 



Fig. 2.34.— a Minnesota meadow bordered by shrubbery and deciduous forest. After photograph 



by Mr. W. A. Wheeler. 



cultivated fields and gardens, the roadsides and the mesophytic 

 shrub, such as underbrush at the edges of forests, or the widely 

 distributed scrub, composed of little oaks, sumacs and maples. 

 In all these formations the plant-covering is thick and a large 

 number of perennial species exist. 



Meadows. Meadows or pastures are composed for the most 

 part of grasses and accessory herbs, such as verbenas, flax, sor- 

 rels, buttercups, anemones and thistles. Here, too, gentians 

 and speedwells will be found, together with primroses and 



