Minnesota Plant Life. ->,-, 



borne in axillary cymes, the fruits are singular, deeply-lobed, 

 three or four-parted capsules. When the capsules split along 

 the sides, a red, fleshy mass is shown within similar to that 

 observed when the bittersweet capsules open. The cliinl .in- 

 habit of the bittersweet serves, however, at once to distingui>h 

 it from the common wahoo. A rare species of wahoo is a 

 trailing shrub. 



Bladdernuts. Bladdernuts are branching shrubs with pe- 

 culiar, large, deeply three-lobed bladdery capsules. The leaves 

 are made up of three leaflets and the clusters of flowers arise 

 in their axils. These plants may be readily recognized by the 

 capsules which resemble three small pea-pods blended together 

 by their backs and separate at their tips. They are not uncom- 

 mon in the southern part of the state, where they inhabit the 

 edges of woods. 



Maple trees. Seven kinds of maple, including the box-elder, 

 occur in Minnesota. These are the soft maple, the red maple, 

 the sugar or hard maple, the black maple, the moosewood 

 maple, the mountain maple, and the ash-leaved maple or box- 

 elder. All of these plants may be known by their production 

 of two-lobed fruits provided with wings. The fruits separate 

 into halves when ripe and each half, furnished with its wing, 

 obtains distribution by the wind. The box-elder is the only 

 Minnesota maple with pinnate leaves. In this plant each leaf 

 is made up of from three to seven leaflets. The other maples, 

 in which the leaves are simple, may be distinguished by their 

 flowers, leaves, bark and fruits. The soft maple and the red 

 maple display their flowers before the leaves emerge from the 

 buds and are among the earliest flowering Minnesota species. 

 The flowers of the common soft maple have no petals and are, 

 therefore, rather inconspicuous, while the flowers of the red 

 maple have showy red or yellow petals. The sugar-maple, 

 or hard maple, and the black maple form the flowers on long 

 drooping stalks and at the same time that the leaves unfold. 

 The leaves of the sugar-maple are smooth on the under side, 

 while in the black maple they are hairy below, usually over the 

 whole surface and always on the veins. The moosewood maple 

 and mountain maple open their flowers in terminal racemes after 

 the leaves have unfolded. In the moosewood maple the ra- 

 cemes are drooping, while in the mountain maple they are erect. 



