526 Minnesota Plant Life. 



instinct extends back o\er more than one generation, and not 

 only does the mother plant assist the young, but the spore- 

 producing plant, from the spores of which the motlier-plants 

 arose, helps the young, forming for tliem seed-coats and hold- 

 ing the seeds upon the scales of its cones, thus protecting them 

 until ready for distribution to a distance. 



In the care of the young, other plants and even animals are 

 utilized. Thus certain seedlings are nursed along by neighbor- 

 ing plants that protect them from winds, drought or too 

 brilliant sunshine. And animals carrying abotit upon their 

 feet or fur the burs and sticky seeds of various species serve also 

 as illustrations of the interdependence between ditierent kinds 

 of living things. 



Words in conclusion. My labor is now at an end, and if 

 I have succeeded in portraying the vegetation of Minnesota as 

 an assemblage of living creatures, as a world of infinite variety 

 yet with a fundamental unity of plan, as forms linked together 

 in structure, function, and adaptation, and as a field worthy of 

 study and enthusiasm, I shall feel content. Much has been left 

 unsaid. In the words of Newton, but a few pebbles have been 

 collected on the far-stretching strand of truth. The whole 

 story will never be told. 



