198 



Minnesota Plant Life, 



arate carpels at the middle of a flower while grasses produce 

 but one. A variety of plants belonging to this division of the 

 vegetable kingdom exist in Minnesota. The class is divided 

 into orders of which eleven are recognized, and the orders are 

 divided into families. 



Cat-tails. The cat-tails belong to a small order, including 

 also the bur-reeds and the screw-pines, the latter of which are 

 not represented in the state. Cat-tails, however, are common 

 enough at the edges of marshes, swamps and lakes, and a single 

 species, the broad-leaved cat-tail, is familiar in such localities. 



It is provided with a 

 creeping rootstock which 

 lies imbedded in the mud. 

 The leaves are slender 

 and flat, sheathing the 

 upright branches of the 

 rootstock by their bases. 

 The flowers are of two 

 sorts, some containing 

 only carpels and others 

 only stamens. The two 

 kinds are produced in the 

 same spike-like cluster, 

 the staminate aggregated 

 above and the pistillate 

 below. The brown cyl- 

 inder or "cat-tail" is the 

 compact mass of pistillate 

 flowers. The little fruits are provided with cottony hairs and 

 burst when they have been lying in water for a short time. 

 Each seed consists of a hard shell within which is considerable 

 albumen surrounding a single embryo plantlet. 



Bur-reeds. There are at least six sorts of bur-reeds in Min- 

 nesota. They occupy similar habitats to those preferred by 

 the cat-tails. Their prostrate creeping rootstocks are rooted in 

 the mud and from them erect branches arise. On these are 

 developed grass-like leaves. The flowers are of two sorts as 

 in the cat-tails, and are gathered in globular heads, varying in 

 size from a pill to a large marble. The staminate heads are 



FIG. 76. Bur-reed. After Britton and Brown. 



