The Minnesota AluDlni Weekly Vol. 36 FEBRUARY 27, 1937 No. 22 fFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Just Good Business The volume of advertising in the Minnesota Alumni Weekly showed a definite increase during the business year 1935-36. Advertisers evidently felt that it was good business to carry their messages directly to more than 9,000 college graduates and former students through this personal news-magazine. It will be good business to advertise in the Minnesota Alumni W eekly during the coming year ... Because ... You buy quality circulation. You reach more than 9,000 college men and women. Both their discrimination and their buying power are above the average. As prospective customers they have a high rating. A zone analysis of our circulation will be sent upon request. Your advertisement will be read. The men and women who read the Alumni Weekly are not urged into it by high pressure methods. They buy it because they want to read it from cover to cover. And it's small enough so that every advertiser gets pre­ ferred space. You get your money's worth for your advertising dollar. A full page advertisement in the Alumni Weekly costs less than a half­ cent per reader. You do not have to pay for excess circulation. The Minnesota Alumni Weekly 118 Administration Building University of Minnesota The Minnesota Alum ni Weekly The Official Publication of Minnesota Alumni VOLUME 36 -;- MINNEAPOLIS. MINNESOTA. FEBRUARY 27. 1937 NUMBER 22 Minnesota Plant Past and Present HERE are approximately 300,000 In this article are presented tituted the once great tinilier wealth T pecies of plant known in the excerpts from the lecture "The of Minnesota. If timber production world today. Con_iderably more than Plants of Minnesota and Their i ever going to figure again as one half of thi number are flowering Significance" given by Dr. C. O. of the important resource of the plant . Within the border of Minne­ RosendahL Chairman of the state, these are the species that have sota occurring native o.r wholly nat­ Botany Department. as one in to be depended upon. They are the uralized, there are approximately the annual series of lectures one that can cope succes fully with 7,000 specie. These are distributed sponsored by the Minnesota the trying conditions impo ed by the among the major groups a follo\ : Chapter of Sigma Xi, honorary climate and soil. eed plant. 2.000; higher conifers, scientific fraternity. As ociated with the northern trees 13; fern and fern allies, 70; liver­ is a rich boreal flo.ra of herbaceou wort and roo e, 500: lichens, 380; It i certain that most 01 them hovered _pecie , embracing many of the mo t allYae, including diatom, L100; fun· close to the ice front durin u the vari­ attractive of our wild flowers. Among gi. 2,500; bacteria, 300; and ~ lime ous stages of glacial advance and con- them are numbered the Twin flower, mold", 150. Total 7,013. equently they have not had far to water arum, undrew, Clintonia. the true Mocca in, Ramshead, Lady's These figure are fairl) accurate tra,'el to get back into their present abodes. lipper, Calyp 0, and Caral root. for the first four gro.up. A con­ There are aLo typical hrubs includ· cern the la tie,. the algae, fungi, conspicious and "ery inlportant ing Kalmia Labrador Tea, Bog Ro e­ bacteria and ~lime mold, they are part of o.ur flora con ist of what llluch les r liable. The rea on for are known a boreal species. They mary, and small cranberry, two kind thi ' i clear. large per cent of con titute about 28 per cent of the of blueberry, nowberry, Honey- them are micro copic form, difficult gronp under discussion. They are uckle, wild currants, and many more. to find and ea ily overlooked. Iso, chiefly confined to the region of the ome of the.o;;e are the chier" native some of the gro.up have been much coniferou fore t but a few of them fruitbearing ~pecies of the north and les inten_ively worked from the ha"e either !rayed o.r got stranded they haye always been an important y tematic tandpoint than the fir t ouL ide the e,-ergreen belt. The scat· ource of food to man and animals alike. four group. Lered tamarack wamp immediately The area originally occupied by the Of the approximalely 2000 eed north of the Twin Cities are essentially outl) ing island of boreal plant. hardwood fore ts in Minnesota is plant and fern growing pontaneous populated principaU by _pecies o.f in Minne ota today. a little over one About two·thirds of the two _pecie are American boreal; the re tare the Alleghenian flora. Thi is the I er cent are arctic or subarctic spe­ brightest element in the state, num· cie, spe i that con tilute an im­ of Eura ian origin, having migrated into America from Europe and A_ia bering hundred of specie and con­ pOltant el ment of the flora of Green­ stituting fully 36 per cent of all our land, Labrador Arcti America, and during the Tertiary when there were aclual land connection bet,. een the flowering plants and ferns. One can the outpo t of flowering plant at get an idea of the general a peel of high altitude in the mountain. A old and th new world. ot all the plant ,ithin the coniferou re!rion thi flora from the region Lake l\fin· chara t ri~ tic example of the e may netonka. but to appreciate it rich­ be cit d Fragrant hield Fern the in finn ota are boreal. There i a prinkling of ea tern, Alleghenian. ne it is nece .ar}' to travel down the Moonwort, Mountain Cranberr). lis is ippi valley and prowl around Primro e, Bulterwort Crowberry, and and astral elements, and again it is difficult to ay if the e repre ent reo in the side alley' oJ the Cannon, Cinqu foil. on id rable number of the Zumbro the White Water, and the cent infiltr tion or if the r are relics. gras es and edge ar included Root riyers. The most characteristic among them. In Minne ola, they are Northern Trees tree of the Alleghenian flora in chi fly nfin d to the immediate Typical bor al spe ies among our outhea t Minnesota are honey locust, north shor of Lake uperior, but northern tree are pruce, tamarack, black walnut, sh ell bark, hickory, ome 0 UI on the higher ridg in bal am, while cedar Ja k and or· black oak, wamp white oak, red Cook and Lake counties. 3l1d a fe, in wa pine, balsam, poplar a pen, , hite mulberry. black maple and Ken­ the cool c dar and t3lllara k bo.g to· birch, and Mountain a h. The_ spe- tuck coffee tree. ward the ana dian border. Many of ie tog ther with the while pine The e are accompanied by aery lh mare ir uillpolnr in di tribution. , hich i e sentiaH ub·boreal, con. large number of h rbaceous forms 380 THE MINNESOTA ALUMNI WEEKLY amo.ng which the more typi al are: Floods and Dust Follow The kunk cabbage, green dragon, Denundation Mayapple, nerten ia, woodland phlox, ~pring beauty, blood root. OME of the be t p at deposit in I\I.inn . hepatica, yellow adder tongue, and S sota are formed almo't exclusi, Iy from phagnllm mOb and they are of quirrel orn. In the transition from real economic importance. Th peal bog, the outheastern corner of the tate al 0 supply us with the mo t reliable in. at Otter Tail county about half of formation we have in regard to the ve~ela . the Alleghenian pecie are progr . tion that ha xisted and th nature of the climate _ince the last retreat of the ice. sively liminated, and as regard The practically jndestrllctibl~ pollen that some of the principal tree and hrubs i. dt'po, ited with other material provide we know pretty well where the la,t a ready mean, for identifYing the plants outpo t of the pe ie are located. that grew in and around th bogs and a key to the relative dominance of th va· For in tan e, the Honey locu t top rious type. at the Iowa·Minne ota line; the Additional e'(ampl s of the practical flowering do.g' ood at the moulh of value of one or another of the native the Root river (has become extinct) ; plants, or group of them could be enumer. ated. But the full <ignificance of our the witch hazel 17 mile below Win· vegetation mu. t be considered from the area. ona j the hellbark hickory a mile standpoint of the vegetation a a whole, north of Wabasha j th ummer grape a a !i"ing, dynamic ~tructllre, able to Recent Arrivals near Weaver; black oak al Wa oula. cope with the element because comp'l,ed of numerous diverse, yet integrated part . Fully 10 p r cent of the higher Thi conception of it is too lillIe appre· Big Woods iated or ignored completely. plant that one ncounter in Minne· The dust storms of the , outhwe t, the ota are of omparath ely r nt ar­ While the lleghenian flora i mo t flood of the ea t and soil erosion 'ery' ri,aL, ha,ing filter d in during the varied in the outhea lern part of where are mainly, if not wholly, due to La t 100 ear.