22 Minnesota Academy of Science 



Menyanthes, Tofeldia, Chelone, marsh rosemary and the small cran- 

 berry (Vaccinium Oxyccccus). Especially prized are the gentians, — 

 the larger and the smaller fringed and closed, all abundant and of 

 magnificent growth. The former, pronounced the most beautiful 

 blue flower of the world, florists have but recently learned how to 

 cultivate. The tall blue lobelia and three eupatoriums, — the pale 

 4>urple Jo-Pye weed, the less striking boneset, with its grayish 

 flowers, and the pure white-flowered snakeroot — are other adorn- 

 ments of the meadow. 



The wooded slopes of the garden are an attractive adjunct by 

 reason of the artistic arrangement of the trees and the rich and 

 varied coloring of the autumnal foliage. In the rich soil under the 

 trees, adjusted to their requisite degrees of moisture are our most 

 conspicuous shade plants, among them Sanguinaria, three species of 

 Erythronium, five of Trilium, and two dicentras, — Dutchman's 

 breeches and squirrel corn. 



For the instruction of the unwary harborage is given to poison- 

 ous plants like the water parsnip and hemlock, poison ivy and sumach, 

 and to the pernicious parasite, the Cuscuta or dodder, the enemy of 

 the cereals. 



On the treeless slopes the prairie plants are well established, — 

 euphorbias, liatras, asters, golden-rods, petalostemums, Vernonia, 

 Heliopsis being the leading genera. 



If we make any discrimination, it must be in favor of the ferns, 

 for nowhere else do they grow more luxuriantly. The most spec- 

 tacular features of the garden are a hillside completely covered with 

 the interrupted fern (Osmunda Claytoniana) and the large clumps 

 of maiden-hair, some of whose fronds measure a foot and a half 

 across.* Ten species of ferns are indigenous to the garden and 

 twenty-nine others have been introduced. Hence all the Minneso- 

 tan ferns are represented in the place except a few small or rare 

 forms that are difficult of access, like some species of Woodsia and 

 Cheilanthes, and the fragrant shield fern. 



In the list of plants the Bryophytes must be enumerated, — 

 among them abundant growths of the liverworts, Conocephalus and 

 Marchantia, and mosses in great variety greening the earth and 

 fallen tree trunks, as sphagnum, Bryum, Leucobryum, Thuidium, 

 Catharinea, Dicranum, Polytricum, Climacium, and the rare Timmaea. 



A bountiful harvest of mushrooms is gathered from the garden 

 in their season,— agarics, boleti, polypori, huge puffballs, lepiotas, 

 ^up-fungi, and earth-stars. Stumps and fallen tree trunks are care- 

 fully cherished to furnish food for them. Tall trunks of dead trees 

 also serve as a support for vines and as homes for birds that live 

 in holes in trees. 



Nearly four hundred species of plants have been introduced, 

 embracing seventy-five families and two hundred and twenty-two 

 genera. Together with the rich and varied indigenous flora, the 

 greater number of the most notable plants of the state are now 



• The ferns indigenous to the garden are,— Botrichium virginiaum, Os- 

 munda Claytoniana. < >. cinnamomea, Ad! an turn pedatum, Pteris aquilina 

 Asplenium filix-femina, Aspidium spinulosum, A. Thelypteris, A. cristatum, 

 Onoclea sensibilis. 



