280 



Minnesota Plant Life. 



four or five times as long as broad, while in yet another the 

 leaves are shaped almost like grass leaves, one to three inches 

 long and slightly spoon-shaped toward the tip. In all the dif- 

 ferent species the glandular hairs are present. When a small 

 insect alights upon one of the leaves the sticky secretions of 

 the hairs interfere with its movements, while the hairs at the 

 edge of the leaf bend inward and push the insect down into a 

 helpless position. The whole leaf then seems to close around 

 the unfortunate ant or fly, and after a time, by means of di- 

 gestive ferments, its body is converted into nutriment for the 

 plant. In Portugal and Spain a variety 

 of sundew is by the inhabitants com- 

 monly employed in place of fly-paper. 

 Another foreign variety lives in the wa- 

 ter, has leaves much like the Venus' fly- 

 trap and snaps up little water insects. 

 These plants do not depend for food en- 

 tirely upon the insects they catch. They 

 are all provided with leaf-green and de- 

 vour insects only in an incidental way. 



The eighteenth order includes the 

 riverweeds; the orpines; a family of 

 West Australian pitcher-plants ; the sax- 

 ifrages, to which the hydrangeas, goose- 

 berries and a number of herbs belong; 

 the witch-hazels ; the sycamores ; and the 

 roses. In the last-named family are in- 

 cluded the spiraeas, apples, quinces, 



mountain-ashes and June-berries, the roses, strawberries and a 

 number of related herbs, the raspberries, blackberries and bram- 

 bles and the plums, almonds, peaches and apricots. Further- 

 more, in this eighteenth order is included the great pulse family 

 with the acacias, the sensitive plants, the tamarinds, the red- 

 buds, the sennas, the honey-locusts, the lupines, brooms, la- 

 burnums, clovers, indigo-plants, locust-trees, ground-peas, pea- 

 nuts, beans, peas, and all the allied varieties in which the type 

 of pod known as the legume is formed. Besides, there are some 

 smaller families classified here, so that this is one of the largest 

 and most important of all the orders of flowering plants. 





