Wild Botanic Garden. 21 



by rank masses of raspberry, blackberry and wild rose; and the 

 vines by wild grape, Virginia creeper and bitter sv/eet. 



On the uplands flourish the oaks, — the burr, the red, the scarlet, 

 and the white. The largest white oak in Minneapolis is an inhabi- 

 tant of the garden. It is dying atop, but it is about to undergo 

 surgical treatment to prolong its life. The white birches have crept 

 up from the swamp and mingled with the oaks, among them a beau- 

 tiful, eight-boled specimen. Twenty species of trees and thirty- 

 nine of shrubs have been identified as indigenous to the garden. 



In specifying the herbs mention must be made of the large 

 specimen of Aralia racemosa, or spikenard, growing on the borders 

 of the swamp. Near by the wild calla flourishes in its adopted home 

 and its relative Symplocarpus, the skunk cabbage, one of our earliest 

 bog plants to bloom, for it literally thaws its way through the ice. 

 Deep in the recesses of the swamp are the orchids — coral root, 

 habenarias, and our state flower, the showy cypripedium. Of the 

 orchid family, either indigenous or introduced, are now in the gar- 

 den six species of cypripedium, eight of habenaria, Orchis specta- 

 blis, Pogonia, Calopogon, Arethusa, two species of twayblade (Li- 

 paris), Aplectrum, coral-root, and three species of rattlesnake plan- 

 tain ,Epipactis). Imbedded in the sphagnum, close by the lady's 

 slippers is the pitcher plant, the only species of this latitude. The 

 pitcher leaves are for the purpose of entrapping insects, with which 

 the plant ekes out its food. An insect seldom escapes, by reason 

 of the inner, slippery surface of the pitchers and their stiff, down- 

 ward-pointing hairs. The pistil 01 the flower expands into an um- 

 brella at the top, to keep the pollen and the nectar dry. 



In the treeless swamp is an abundance of the tiny, round-leaved 

 sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), another insectivorous plant. The 

 motile, sensitive hairs on the leaves are tipped with glands resem- 

 bling dewdrops; but which, unlike dew, do not disappear under the 

 influence of the sun, — hence the name, sundew. The leaf is a first- 

 class fly-trap, and the glistening glands contain an active, digestive 

 principle. When a thirsty insect 'lights on a leaf, the hairs bend 

 over it and firmly grasp it; the more the insect struggles, the tighter 

 it is held; more and more hairs entangle it, and finally the whole 

 leaf rounds over it. The fluid in the globules then oozes out and 

 digests the victim. 



Cat-tails abound in the neighborhood of the brook. Near them 

 have been established colonies of sweet flag ,Acorus) and fra- 

 grant vanilla grass, used by the Indians in basketry. In their sea- 

 son the rosy swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), asters and 

 golden-rods glorify the meadow. One of the most precious pos- 

 sessions of the garden is the twin-flower named for the great Lin- 

 naeus and said to be one of his favorite flowers. The day is memor- 

 able on which it is first enjoyed in its perfection. The wild garden 

 is its only station in Minneapolis. 



With the Linnaea is found the dwarf cornel, also local in Minne- 

 apolis, the herbaceous relative of the dogwood shrubs, valued for 

 hedges on account of their ornamental fruits and stems. The fruit 

 of this cornel is red and edible and is commonly called bunchberry. 

 Other indigenous rarities of the meadow are three-leaved smilacina, 



