Minnesota Plant Life. 



327 



leaves are shaped like small willow leaves and are covered with 

 a gray growth of hairs. The petaled flowers are light yellow, 

 with hoary sepals. The fruit is a capsule ovoid in shape and 

 divided into three chambers, in each of which is a lar-e number 

 of seeds. 



Beach heathers. The Hndsonia, or beach heather, is a plant 

 of local occurrence in Minnesota, abundant on rocky islands at 

 Rainy lake ; on Sable island at Lake of the Woods ; on sand 

 dunes in Ancka, Sherburne and Wright counties ; and on rock 

 ledges in the Minnesota valley, along the St. Croix and lower 

 Mississippi. It is a densely 

 tufted herb, with very small, 

 oval leaves, covering each 

 other like shingles on a roof. 

 The flowers are small, yellow 

 and sessile, produced in clus- 

 ters towards the ends of the 

 branches. The whole plant 

 has a hoary aspect, from the 

 minute white hairs with which 

 its stems and leaves are cov- 

 ered. It is an abundant dune 

 and crevice plant along the 

 international boundary, more 

 frequent north than south, 

 but found on high rocks even 

 to the southern border of the 

 state. 



Pinweeds. The pinweeds grow in great abundance along 

 the St. Croix river, in open woods or by the roadside, but are 

 less common elsewhere in the state. Minnesota has one or 

 two varieties, which may be known by their small simple leaves, 

 in most instances less than half an inch in length, and by their 

 large numbers of green or purple flowers gathered in terminal 

 panicles. The common Minnesota variety is about a foot in 

 height, slender and usually unbranched below the region of the 

 flowers. The fruits, when they mature, are capsules with three 

 longitudinal furrows marking the three carpels of which they 

 are constructed. 



FIG. 160. Beach heather. After Britton and 

 Brown. 



