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Minnesota Plant Life. 



Mousetails. The mousetail is a little herb three or four 

 inches in height, known to occur in the extreme southwestern 

 part of the state. The center of the flower is prolonged into 

 a spike-like axis upon which the nutlets are arranged in spirals. 

 From the resemblance of this axis or receptacle of the flower, 

 to the tail of a mouse has arisen, the common name. 



Buttercups. Buttercups are well-known plants, usually with 

 yellow flowers by which they may be distinguished from anem- 

 ones, the flowers of which are pale. There are a number of 

 sorts characterized by the different forms of the leaves, the sizes 



of the flowers and the shapes 

 of the nutlets or groups of 

 nutlets in the fruiting state. 

 Three buttercups in the 

 United States are aquatic, 

 and two of these occur 

 abundantly in Minnesota. 

 Owing to their aquatic habit 

 the water-buttercups have 

 finely dissected leaves con- 

 sisting of thread-like fila- 

 ments, and their flowers are 

 white. The two varieties 

 may be distinguished from 

 each other by the rigidity 

 of their stems when with- 



FIG. 129. Early meadow-rue. After Britton and c [ rawn f rom t h e water. The 

 Brown. 



white water-buttercup col- 

 lapses into a flabby bundle when lifted from the water, while 

 the stiff water-buttercup does not, but maintains the ends of its 

 stems in a rigid position. The water-buttercups are interesting 

 plants to observe on account of the automatic curvatures of the 

 flowering pedicels. The flowers are exposed above the sur- 

 face of the water and after pollination the stems bend over, as 

 if aware of what was needed, and thrust the flowers into the 

 water, so that the fruits are matured below the surface. Such 

 beneficial habits are ordinary among water plants, which are 

 generally compelled to expose their flowers for wind or for in- 

 sect pollination, but afterwards derive advantage from ripening 



