Minnesota Plant Life. 



ring in different clusters, and both kinds are arranged in erect 

 spikes or drooping catkins. The fruit is an oblong or rounded 

 capsule containing small seeds with numerous white silky hairs 

 instrumental in distribution of the plantlets in currents of air. 

 There is no albumen in the seeds. 



Poplars. The poplars in Minnesota are represented by the 

 very common white poplar, the large-toothed poplar, the cot- 

 tonwood, the balsam-poplar, the balm of Gilead, the silver- 

 leafed poplar sometimes called silver-leafed maple and the 

 Lombardy poplar. The last two are not native plants, but 

 occur spontaneously, having escaped from cultivation in some 



parts of the state. Of them 

 all, the white poplar is the 

 most abundant tree through- 

 out the northern part of the 

 state, and is not uncommon 

 in the southern counties. 

 This, indeed, is the most widely 

 distributed tree in North 

 America. It often reaches 

 a height of seventy-five or 

 one hundred feet, but in the 

 region of the Great Lakes does 

 not apparently grow so large. 

 The wood is soft and is of 

 great importance, together 

 FIG. 107. cottonwood. After Britton and with spruce, as the variety em- 



ployed in making wood-pulp, 



from which paper is manufactured. It is used also for fire- 

 wood, and is a most prominent plant in burned districts, readily 

 reaching them by its buoyant air-distributed seeds. The leaves 

 are hung upon stems of peculiar shape and tremble in the slight- 

 est breeze. 



The large-toothed poplar has much ampler leaves with broad 

 teeth upon their margins. By these characters it may be dis- 

 tinguished from the white poplar. It prefers soil damper than 

 does its relative and is generally found upon the more sheltered 

 banks of lakes. Its wood is also of value in the manufacture 

 of paper. 



