THE DICOTYLEDONS 603 
terminal inflorescence. Flowers hermaphrodite, usually irregu- 
lar; calyx five-cleft; corolla hypogynous, gamopetalous, more or 
less bilabiate, funnel-form and composed of five sepals; stamens 
usually four (Ruellia, etc.), occasionally reduced to two, as in 
genus Dianthera, didynamous or diandrous, epipetalous; pistil 
bicarpellate; ovary two-celled, superior, with numerous cam- 
pylotropal ovules; style terminal, filiform. Fruit a capsule 
containing numerous curved seeds. The family is of pharma- 
ceutic interest mainly because of Ruellia ciliosa, a pubescent 
perennial herb growing in the Eastern United States, whose 
rhizome and roots have frequently been admixed with or sub- 
stituted for Spigelia. 
PLANTAGINACE& OR PLANTAIN Fami_y.—Annual or perennial 
herbs of caulescent (Plantago Psyllium, P. arenaria, etc.) or more 
usually acaulescent habit (Plantago lanceolata), rarely sub-shrubs. 
Leaves all radical in most species, or in a rosette, alternate or 
opposite to whorled, simple, nerved, flat, entire or toothed. 
Flowers usually hermaphroditic, regular, tetramerous, and 
arranged on spikes; calyx of 4 sepals; corolla gamopetalous, 
hypogynous, tubular with a 4-lobed limb; stamens 4, epipetalous; 
carpels 2 or 1, the ovary 1 to 4 celled, ovules 1 to 8 in each cell, 
peltate on the middle of the septum in many ovuled cells or at 
the bottom in 1-ovuled cells; style filiform with 2 lines of stig- 
matic papilla. Fruit a pyxis in the Plantains, rarely a bony 
nucule. Seeds albuminous with a straight (Plantago) to curved 
(Bouguerta) embryo. The seed coat of many species abounds in 
mucilage, accounting for their laxative properties. 
OrriciAL Druc Part Usep _ BorAnicAL ORIGIN HABITAT 
sgt a Arts Mediterranean countries 
Plantaginis Semen Seed Plantago arenaria 
Plantago ovata Asia, S. Europe, N. Africa 
OrDER RUBIALES 
RUuBIACEZ oR MADDER Famity.—Herbs, as Cleavers (Galium) 
and Partridge Berry (Mitchella), etc., shrubs as the Ipecac 
(Cephaélis) and the Buttonbush (Cephalanthus), or trees (Cinchona 
species) with fibrous roots, sometimes, as in Cephaélis Ipecacuanha, 
annularly enlarged. Roots, stems and to a less extent leaves 
