336 Minnesota Plant Life. 



and has a stem composed of joints like those of the well-known 

 scouring-rushes. At each joint, however, is a whorl of from 

 six to twelve green, lance-shaped leaves. The plant cannot, 

 therefore, be mistaken for a scouring-rush, for it has functional 

 foliage leaves. Another kind of water-milfoil is the mermaid- 

 weed, with two sorts of leaves. If the plant has grown partly 

 submerged, the leaves below the surface of the water will be 

 like feathers, while the leaves above will be oval and only slightly 

 notched. The flow r ers are borne in the axils of the leaves above 

 the water and the fruit is triangular in cross section, with three 

 deep grooves. The true milfoils are exceedingly abundant in 

 the lakes and ponds of Minnesota. They may be recognized 

 by their jointed pale-reddish stems, with whorls of feather- 

 shaped leaves each with fine thread-like dissected lobes. The 

 flowers are borne in the axils of small, oval leaves, toward the 

 end of the stem, where it emerges from the water. The flow- 

 ering stem protrudes above the surface like the spike of a pond- 

 weed. No pondweed, however, has these whorls of feather- 

 shaped leaves. Three or four different varieties of water-mil- 

 foils occur within the state, and the plants need not be confused. 

 For the most part milfoils prefer deep water and are found grow- 

 ing along with pondweeds outside the lily-pad zone and on bars 

 or sandy bottoms. 



The twenty sixth order includes three families, each of which 

 is represented by Minnesota forms. These are the ginsengs, 

 the parsleys and the dogwoods. The Minnesota forms of the 

 ginsengs and parsleys are all herbs, while the dogwoods are all 

 of them shrubs one, the dwarf dogwood or cornel, being only 

 three or four inches high. The others, however, are shrubs 

 of good size. 



Spikenards, wild sarsaparillas and ginsengs. To the ginseng 

 family belong five Minnesota species the spikenard, the wild 

 sarsaparilla and wild elder, together with the ginseng or "sang" 

 and the dwarf ginseng or groundnut. The first three are char- 

 acterized by leaves made up of leaflets arranged as in the ash, 

 that is, the leaflets are pinnately grouped. In the last two the 

 leaflets are arranged as in the Virginia creeper that is, pal- 

 mately grouped. The spikenard is a large herb, from three to 

 six feet high, with thick, sweet-scented root. The leaflets, ar- 



