268 



Minnesota Plant Life. 



solitary seed rudiment. The fruit is like a miniature lotus nut. 

 There is no albumen, and the embryo is remarkable for having 

 four seed leaves instead of two. This, however, may be re- 

 garded as due to a forking of the seed leaves as they develop. 



Magnolias. Magnolias do not occur in Minnesota. Their 

 flowers are very much like those of the water-lilies, and they 

 may be regarded as terrestrial, tree-like water-lilies, or con- 

 versely, water-lilies might be considered as magnolia-like plants 

 which at an early time went into the water and adapted them- 

 selves to the aquatic life. Re- 

 lated to the magnolias are the 

 tulip-trees or whitewoods which 

 are such noble forms in the for- 

 ests of Indiana and Ohio. 



The pawpaws, abundant south- 

 ward, constitute a family of the 

 fifteenth order, but are not known 

 to occur so far north as Minne- 

 sota. 



Crowfoots. The crowfoot 

 family is abundantly represented 

 in Minnesota where there are to 

 be found one species of golden 

 root, two of marsh-marigolds, 

 one of goldthread, one of false 

 rue-anemone, two baneberries, 

 the red and the white, one colum- 

 bine, three larkspurs, seven or 

 eight anemones, two hepaticas, 



one rue-anemone, one pasque flower or gosling, two clematises, 

 one mousetail, twenty buttercups and their allies, and three 

 meadow-rues. Many of these are common flowers of the spring 

 and summer. The marsh-marigolds, termed also crocuses, are 

 abundant throughout the state, their yellow flowers blooming 

 in early spring. A peculiar form, known as the floating 

 marsh-marigold, occurs among the northern lakes. It is much 

 like the ordinary variety except that its leaves float upon the 

 surface of the water and the plant is generally small. The 

 goldthreads are little three-leaved plants with white, buttercup 



FIG. 126. Marsh-marigold or cowslip. 

 After Britton and Brown. 



