318 Minnesota Plant Life. 



ical capsule, an inch or so in diameter, becoming smoother with 

 maturity. The seeds, of which one or two are produced in a 

 fruit, are large and have glistening coats. The wood is soft 

 and white and, in Ohio and Indiana where the tree is more 

 abundant than farther northwest, is used in the manufacture 

 of woodenware. 



Touch-me-nots. There are two species of touch-me-nots in 

 Minnesota. Both of them are shade-loving plants, and grow 

 in swamps, damp woods and ravines, where the light is not too 

 strong. Their stems are translucent and one can see the fibrous 

 threads through the skin. The leaves are very thin, of ovate 

 shape, and with toothed margins. They wilt almost immediately 

 if removed from their stem. The flowers are colored in one 

 variety, orange speckled with brown, in the other pale yellow 

 and two-sided, looking a very little like snapdragon flowers, 

 to which, however, they are not related. The fruit is an ob- 

 long or slender capsule of a bright green color and succulent 

 when ripe. If pressed gently between the thumb and finger, 

 or if brushed against, the fruit splits violently into strips 

 which coil together, ejecting the seeds with explosive force. 

 The touch-me-nots are perfect examples of the adaptational 

 group of plants known as shade plants. They are pale in color 

 throughout, with thin, rather large leaves and an abundance of 

 moisture in their tissues. They do not secrete purple coloring 

 substances in marked quantities either in their leaves or in their 

 stems. They are very abundant in Minnesota near rivulets, in 

 wooded ravines, in tamarack swamps and around springs. 



