North American Plantaginaceae. 



By E. L. Morris 



(With Plate 12) 



One correspondent has written me asking on what grounds, in 

 the preceding paper, I published the various species as annual and 

 whether I found the determinative characters in the stems or in 

 the leaves. He then said he had a perennial PI ant ago of the 

 group under question, a specimen of which he would send me. 

 Without doubt, the full study of the histology of specimens 

 would assist to no small degree in the classification of the species 

 of any genus or family. It is a matter for regret that there has 

 been published no such study in Plantago (American species) for 

 it would throw additional light on the old and recent species. The 

 specimen sent me was a very proliferous form of P. aristata. Whether 

 it was a true perennial or a persistent individual freak I was unable 

 to decide. To a written request for a statement from him of how 

 many seasons this plant or its surrounding plants had been ob- 

 served to persist, I have recently received the following answer : 

 "The plantain I sent you has flourished this year, and I have seen 

 many specimens larger than the one I sent you. The small [ones] 

 with one or two inflorescences are, no doubt, seedlings that bloom 

 already in the first season. I measured one individual covering 

 1 y 2 square feet, all from one root, evidently four years old ! " My 

 own observations in the field of P. aristata and Purshii force me to 

 the belief that they are true annuals. Unfortunately I have not 

 seen my correspondent's plants. Their wide range and great fre- 



observers, some 



of 



whom assure me that they have seen no indications of these spe- 

 cies being other than annuals, after devoting attention to this ques- 

 tion the past two seasons in the South where the perennial dura- 

 tion would be most marked for these dry-ground species. The 



*The equivalent of North American Plantaginaceae, I, was published as "A Re- 

 vision of the Species of Plantago commonly referred to Plantago Patagonica Jacquin. 

 Bull. Torr. Club, 27 : 105-119. 1900. 



112 



