Morris : Revision of Species of Plantago 107 



Bracts with brown midribs ; petals with longitudinal brown streaks. 



Plant spreading, stout. 1 1. P. insular is. 



Plant erect, slender. 12, P. bmnnea. 



Bracts with green midribs ; petals white or tawny, darker at the base only. 



Plant short- stemmed ; spikes villous ; seeds brown. 



13. P.fistigiata. 

 Plant acaulescent ; spikes pubescent ; seeds yellow. 



1 4. P. scariosa. 

 Plant pubescent or glabrate ; bracts one half as long as the sepals or shorter. 



Leaves linear, 3-ribbed ; scapes dilated or stout ; spikes several-flowered. 



»5- P. erect 1* 

 Leaves linear-subulate, not ribbed; scapes filiform ; spikes 2-4 (-5) -flowered. 



16. P. tetrantha. 

 2. Flowers sub-dioecious or cleistogamous ; the corolla in the fertile flowers re- 

 maining closed or closing over the pyxis, thereby forming a beak ; stamens two or four, 

 anthers not exserted ; seeds flat or slightly hollowed on the face. 



1. Plantago aristata Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. I : 95. 1803 



xph 



3. 1838. 



P. Patagonica, var. aristata Gray, in part, Man. ed. 2. 269. 

 1856. 



A dark green annual, with a thick root, with a short erect stem, 

 varyingly glabrous to villous : leaves alternate, ascending to erect, 

 several to numerous, narrowly to broadly linear, acute or acuminate 

 at the apex, callous-tipped, entire, narrowed to the margined 

 petiole having a semi-clasping base, 80-200 mm. by 1-5 mm., 

 3-5-nerved, glabrous to villous ; peduncles axillary, erect, stout, 

 terete, solitary to numerous, surpassing the leaves, 70-200 mm. 

 ™gh, glabrous to pubescent : spikes in glabrate forms, when young, 

 triangular by the long lower to the short upper bracts, in villous 

 forms, when young, top-shaped by the short appressed lower to the 

 long spreading upper bracts, erect, short to long cylindrical, 30-120 

 mm. by 5 mm. exclusive of the bracts, pubescent : bracts aristate 

 to foliaceous, ten or less times as long as the floivers, linear-subulate 

 to linear, acute, 3.5 mm. by 1-2 mm., glabrous to pubescent: 

 flowers perfect, numerous : calyx glabrous to villous, its divisions 

 herbaceous, green, spatulate-obloug, rounded, 2-5 mm. long : 

 corolla lobes spreading, reflexed, the two laterals deflexed, nearly 

 equalling the tube, ronnd-ovate, obtuse, sub-auriculate at the base, 

 2 mm. by 2 mm., -white: stamens four, barely exserted from the 

 tube : pyxis one third surpassing the calyx, broadly oblong, obtuse, 

 3-5 mm. by 1.5 mm., circumscissile at the middle : seeds two, 

 brown, oblong, finely pitted. 



A very variable species, of which one hundred and seventy sheets 

 or specimens have been examined from Maine, New Hampshire, 



