PLANTAGINACE.^— PLANTAIN FAMILY 



RIB-GRASS. RIBBED PLANTAIN 



Plantdgo lanceoldta 



Perennial. Naturalized from Europe. In fields and on 

 roadsides, a very common weed. April-June, 



Scape. — Naked, grooved, angled, slender, one to two 

 feet high. 



Leaves. — Lanceolate or lance-oblong, forming a loose 

 rosette upon the ground, ribbed, hairy. 



Flowers. — Minute, whitish, noticeable because pro- 

 jecting style and stamens are more conspicuous than the 

 corolla; in a spike which lengthens as the flowers open. 



Calyx. — Four imbricated, persistent sepals, scarious and 

 brownish. 



Corolla. — Rotate; border four-parted; withering on the 

 pod. 



Stamens. — Four; anthers long-exserted after the corolla 

 has opened. 



Style. — Ovary two-celled; style and long hairy stigma 

 projecting from the unopened corolla. 



Fruit. — Capsule, two-celled; when ripe the top falls 

 off like a lid. 



This is sometimes called Ribwort, and it has also a 

 common name — Kemp, a Danish word meaning soldier, 

 which use of the word seems to have come from a sport 

 of children in knocking the heads of these stalks with 

 others of the same size held in the hand, turn and turn 



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