apex; leaves thin, elliptic to broadly obovate, 5-22 cm. long, 1.5-8 cm. wide, 

 narrowed below to a winged petiole less than one half the length of the leaf 

 blades, the 5 to 7 veins of the blade continuing into the petiole, margin entire 

 or somewhat denticulate, pilose at least on the upper surface; spikes polygamous, 

 5-35 cm. long, 5-12 mm. wide, densely flowered except at the base; bracts ovate 

 to lance-ovate, a little shorter than the calyx, 2-2.5 mm. long, keeled, pubescent, 

 the margins scarious and ciliate; calyx lobes obtuse, scarious-margined; corolla 

 lobes of perfect or staminate flowers spreading, about 2 mm. long, narrowly 

 obovate; corolla lobes of pistillate flowers erect in anthesis; stamens 4 with anthers 

 white; capsule oblong, 3-3.5 mm. long; .seeds green-brown, minutely tuberculate, 

 usually 3, with one side flattened, about 2 mm. long. Incl. var. mollior Pilger. 



Moist or wet ground along ditches and wet fields, in boggy and springy places 

 along streams in Ariz. (Cochise and Pima cos.), along the Pac. Coast from 

 Wash, to Calif, e. to Ariz., N. M. and cen. Mex, 



7. Plantago virginica L. Pale-seeded plantain. 



Annual with a slender taproot, glabrate or usually villous with septate hairs; 

 leaves spreading or ascending, oblanceolate to obovate, obtuse to subacute, entire 

 to coarsely but remotely repand-dentate, hirsutulous, to 2 dm. long and 4 cm. 

 wide, usually much smaller; scape to 3 dm long, usually noticeably exceeding the 

 leaves, short-hirsute; spikes dense or interrupted, to 2 dm. long and 8 mm. thick; 

 bracts lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, about 2 mm. long, mostly shorter than the 

 calyx, hirsutulous, essentially without a scarious margin; calyx lobes oblong- 

 obovate, 2-2.5 mm. long, rounded at apex, the brownish keel hirsutulous, the 

 whitish scarious margin broad and' glabrous; pistillate corolla lobes sharply acute, 

 erect and connivent after anthesis; capsules ovoid, about as long as the calyx lobes; 

 seeds 2, dull pale-brown to nearly black, to 2 mm. long, less than half as wide, 

 with no differentiated margin, cymbiform, the hilum nearly as long as the seed. 

 Incl. var. viridescetis Fern. 



In thin soil over rocks, along roadsides, in open thickets and flat woods, in 

 wet soil and gravel on edge of lakes and ponds, in salt marshes and dunes along 

 the coast and dry open slopes, rarely on caliche outcrops in e. third of Tex., 

 Okla. (Murray Co.) and Ariz. (Coconino, Cochise and Pima cos.), Mar.-June; 

 from Mass. and N.Y., w. to Wise, la. and Kan., s. to Fla. and Tex.; introd. 

 farther w. 



8. Plantago rhodosperma Dene. Red-seeded plantain. 



Annual with slender taproot; leaves oblanceolate, long-cuneate at base, obtuse 

 to acute at apex, to 35 cm. long and 5 cm. wide, usually much smaller, grayish- 

 green, pubescent, entire to coarsely pectinate- or salient-dentaie; scapes one to 

 several, hirsute, shorter than to much-exceeding the leaves; spikes to 2 dm. long 

 and 1 cm. thick; bracts and floral segments similar to P. virginica but the acute 

 to acuminate keels of calyx lobes extended beyond the scarious margin; seeds 2, 

 bright-red to reddish-black, 2-3 mm. long, more than half as wide, nearly flat 

 on both sides, with a thin pale margin, the central hilum less than a third as long 

 as the seed. 



Usually in rocky soils in brushlands and on slopes, occasionally in sandy soils 

 and on gravel bars of washes and streams, in Tex. almost entirely w. of the Black- 

 land Prairies, Okla. {Waterfall) and Ariz. (Yavapai, Gila, Maricopa, Pinal, 

 Cochise and Pima cos.), Mar.-May; from Mo. and Tenn., w. to Kan., Tex. and 

 Ariz.; adv. farther w. 



9. Plantago hybrida Bart. 



Annual with numerous lateral fibrous roots as well as a taproot; leaves linear 

 to linear-subulate, narrowly obtuse to acute at the rigid callous tip, entire, to 15 



1537 



