Plantago. PLANTAGINACE^E. 391 



P. decipiens, Barneoud. Root annual (perhaps sometimes biennial) : leaves from fili- 

 form to rather broadly linear and plane, atteuuatc-acute : spike slender, with flowers either 

 sparse or dense (with the scape from 3 to 15 inches high) : lower bracts commonly ovate- 

 subulate and equalling or exceeding the calyx : sepals ovate-orbicular : corolla-lobes very 

 acute. — Monogr. 16, poorly characterized on a specimen from Labrador, but marked as 

 an annual. P. juncoidcs, Decaisne, 1. c. in part. P. maritima, of U. S. authors generally. 

 P. paucijiora, Pursli, 1. c. iu part. P. maintima, yar. jitncoides, Gray, Man. ed. 5, 311. — Salt 

 marshes, Atlantic coast from Labrador and Kew Brunswick to New Jersey ; flowering late. 



-(— -1— -I— Corolla glabrous, nearly rotate: ovules and seeds 2, solitary in each cell; the latter 

 hollowed ou the face: leaves strongly 3-5-ribbed, not fleshy. 



P. laxceolAta, L. (Ripple- or Ribgrass, English Plantain.) Root biennial or short- 

 lived perennial : herbage villous or glabrate : leaves oblong-lanceolate, tapering into a 

 slender petiole, usually much shorter than the (foot or two long) slender deeply sulcata and 

 angled scape : spike at first capitate, iu age cylindrical, dense : bract and sepals broadly 

 ovate, scarious, brownish ; two of the latter usually united into one. — Commonly natural- 

 ized in fields, from Eu. (Varieties said in Hook. El. ii. 123, to be indigenous far north- 

 ward ; but some or all of these plants belong to P. eriopoda.) 



* * Flowers heterogonous, in the greater number of individuals cleistogamous, but with normal 

 corolla: this with broad cordate or ovate widely expanding lobes nearly equalling the tube: 

 ovules solitary in the two cells: seed cymbiform, deeplj' excavated on the face: inflorescence 

 and commonly the narrow leaves silky-pubescent or lanate. 



P. Patagonica, Jacq. Annual, silky-lanate or glabrate : leaves from narrowly linear to 

 oblanceolate, acute or callous-pointed, tapering below into a petiole, entire or sparingly 

 denticulate, 1-3-nerved : scape terete, 3-12 inches high including the dense cylindrical or 

 oblong spike : sepals very obtuse, scariously margined from a thickish and firm central 

 herbaceous ])ortion ; the anterior oblong, posterior oval : lobes of the corolla usually a line 

 long, roundish : seeds oblong-oval. (Filaments iu the longstamened individuals ca]nllary 

 and much exserted, and the anthers of usual ample size ; style less exserted ; apparently 

 not proterogynous. Stamens and style in the other and more fruitful form short, included, 

 or the effete anthers barely protruded from the throat ; these very small, in the cleisto- 

 gamous manner.) —Gray, Man. ed. 2, 2G9, Pacif. R. Rep. iv. 117, & Bot. Calif, i. 6G1. P. 

 Patagonica, Jacq. Ic. Rar. t. 306, & Coll. Suppl. 35 ; Barneoud, Monogr. 38 ; Decaisne in 

 DC. 1. c. 713 ; to which add most of the dozen species of this subdivision in the Prodromus, 

 and their synonyms. — Prairies and dry plains, from Kentucky, Illinois, and Saskatchewan, 

 south to Texas, and west to California and Brit. Columbia. (Mex., S. Am.) 



Var. gnaphalioides, Gray, may be taken as the commoner N. American type, 

 canescently villous ; but the wool often floccose and deciduous : leaves from oblong-linear 

 or spatulate-lanceolate to nearly filiform : spike very dense, 1 to 4 inches long, varying to 

 capitate and few-flowered, lanate : bracts oblong or line.ar-lanceolate. or the lowest deltoid- 

 ovate, hardly surpassing the calyx. — P. Laqopu.<<, Pursh, El. i. 99, not L. P. Purshii, 

 Rcem. & Sch. Syst. iii. 120. P. (jnaphalioides, Nutt. Gen. i. 100. P. Ilookeriana, Yisch. & 

 Meyer, lud. 8em. Petrop. 1838, 39. — Runs through 



Var. spinulosa, Gray, 1. c. {P. spinubsa, Decaisne, 1. c), a canescent form with 

 aristately prolonged and rigid bracts, and 



Var. niida, Gray, 1. c. (P. Wri/jhtiana, Decaisne, 1. c), with sparse and loose pubes- 

 cence, green and soon glabrate rigid leaves, and short bracts, to 



Var. aristata, Gray, 1. c. Loosely villous and glabrate : leaves green : bracts 

 attenuate-prolonged to twice or thrice the length of the flowers. — P. nrislata, Michx. El. 

 i. 95. P. gnaphalioides, var. aristata. Hook. El. 1. c. A .slender and depauperate form is 

 P. squarrosa, Nutt. in Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. n. ser. v. 178, and P. Nnttallii, Rapin ex 

 Barneoud, 1. c, also P, Jiliformis, Decaisne, 1. c. — All the forms most abound west of the 

 Mississippi. 



§ 2. Stamens 4 or 2 : flowers subdioccious or polygamo-cleistogamous ; the 

 corolla in the fertile or mainly fertile plant remaining closed or early closing 

 over the maturing capsule and forming a kind of beak, and anthers not exserted : 

 seeds flat or barely concave on the face. (American species.) 



