148 Atavism. 
17. PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA RAMOSA. 
Plantago lanccolata is one of of those plants which 
are remarkably rich in anomalies. PENZIG mentions a 
considerable number of them such as leafy stalks, ears 
the tops of which bear tufts of foliage leaves, 1 forked 
spikes with two or more tips, torsions etc. These and 
many other malformations such as split leaves, pitchers 
consisting of one or more leaves, occur commonly in this 
o - 
neighborhood and also in my cultures. It is worth men- 
tioning that all or nearly all of these abnormalities can 
occur in the same race, and sometimes indeed in a single 
stout individual. Evidently every plant must contain a 
number of latent or semi-latent characters which lie out- 
side its proper range of form ; these characters consti- 
tute, as I have already said, the outer range of the forms 
of the species (p. 27). 
A form also frequently mentioned 2 in the literature 
of the subject is one with branched ears (Plantago lan- 
ccolata rainosa). 3 In this variety sessile secondary spikes 
are produced in the axils of the bracts at the base of 
the main ear. They are often small, but sometimes 
nearly attain the size of the central ear. Their number 
is highly variable. Under good conditions of cultivation 
each head may have from 2-7 lateral ears, but on single 
ears the number may rise to 20 and more (Figs. 26, 27). 
I have been carrying out experiments on the inheri- 
tance of this ramosa-character since 1887. It proved to 
I 1 have often picked these tufts and made cuttings of them ; 
they take most quickly and grow to strong rosettes of radical leaves, 
the ears arising from which may repeat the phenomenon of the 
tufting to a certain extent (Plantago lanceolata coronata). 
~ PENZIG, Teratologie, II, p. 252. 
"Kruidkundig Jaarboek, Gent, 1897, pp. 76 and 91. 
