470 



Minnesota Plant Life. 



sand-binding plants, such as the wild rye, the junipers, some 

 sedges, rushes and grasses. Mingled with the herbaceous 

 plants are a few shrubs and trees, such as the hackberries, choke- 

 berries, poplars, oaks and ashes, with brambles and roses as 

 underbrush. Sand barrens in Minnesota fall for the most part 

 into three classes, jack-pine-barrens, oak-barrens and sandy 

 wastes. The distinctive plant of the pine-barren, a common 

 formation in the central portion of the state, is the jack-pine. 

 Along with trees of this species, a number of underbrush plants, 

 herbs, mosses and lichens establish themselves. Here blueberry 

 bushes are abundant and other heaths. In such woods the de- 





' 



FIG. 231. Vegetation of sand dunes, Isle saux Sables, Iake of the Woods. In the foreground 

 is the sand cherry and scrub poplar, in the center, a juniper bush and in the background, 

 plums. After photograph by the author. 



velopment of wand plants is common, and in the autumn the 

 forest floor is resplendent with the yellow heads of sunflowers, 

 the purple spikes of blazing-stars, and the white or blue inflo- 

 rescences of asters. Sandy wastes are characterized by the de- 

 velopment of mat plants, such as carpetweeds and spurges. 

 Mingled with these are to be sought many rosette plants like 

 the evening-primrose and the plantain. 



