Plantago. PLANTAGINACE^. 389 



and veinless, mostly marcescent-persistent. Consists of one European and one 

 Andine- American genus, each of a single or at most two species and monoecious 

 or dioecious, and of the large and widely dispersed genus, 



1. PLANTAGO, Tourn. Plantain, Ribwort. (The Latin name.) — 

 Flowers perfect or polygamo-dioecious, each subtended by a bract. Calyx of 

 4 imbricated sepals, j^ersistent. Corolla salverform with a short tube, or nearly 

 rotate ; limb 4-parted ; lobes imbricated in the bud, two lateral exterior. Stamens 

 4, or sometimes 2, on the tube of the corolla : filaments commonly capillary : 

 anthers 2-celled, versatile. Ovary 2-celled (or rarely falsely 3-4-celled), with one 

 or more ovules in each cell. Style or stigma mostly hairy. Capsule (pyxidium) 

 circumscissile toward the base, and with a loose partition falling away with the 

 lid ; the seeds attached to its face. Seed-coat developing copious mucilage when 

 wetted. Scape from the axils of the radical or subradical leaves, mostly bearing 

 a single simple spike or head of greenish or whitish small flowers, in summer. 



§ 1. Stamens 4: flowers all perfect: corolla remaining expanded, never closed 

 over the fruit. 



* Flowers dichofjamous, proterogynous ; the style projecting from the apex of the unopened 

 corolla; the anthers long-exserted on capillary filaments after the corolla has expanded. 



•i— Corolla glabrous (as also the whole inflorescence, except in P. macrocarpa) : seeds not hollqwed 

 (or barel_v concave) on the inner face : leaves 3-8-nerved or ribbed, plane: root perennial. 



■H- Ribs or nerves of the broad leaves mainly confluent with the thick and dilated lower portion of 

 the midrib: ovules only 2 in each cell : seeds b}' abortion sometimes solitary. 



P. COrdata, Lam. Glabrous and very smooth: leaves cordate or ovate (3 to 8 inches 

 long), sometimes rcpaiid-dentate, long-j^etiolcd, 7-9-ribbed: scape fistulous, stout, a foot or 

 two high, including the narrow spike : bracts rotund-ovate, convex, fleshy, with slightly 

 scarious margins, very obtuse, as are the ovate and obovate sepals and the corolla-lob6s : 

 capsules broadly ovoid, very obtuse, about twice the length of the calyx : seeds 4 to 2, 

 large, oblong, flat on the face. — 111. i. 338; Jacq. Eclog. t. 72. P. Kentuckensis, Michx. Fl. 

 i. 94. — Along streams (Canada? Pursh), New York to Wisconsin, Alabama, and Louis- 

 iana, common only westward. 



++ ++ Ribs or nerves of the leaf free quite to the contracted base. 



=^ Leaves ovate or oval, or in small forms oblong, rarely subcordate; several-ribbed; base' abruptly 

 contracted into a distinct petiole, not fleshy, varying h"om glabrous to pubescent, and from entire 

 to sparinglv repand-dentate : ovules and seeds at least 2 in each cell : scapes with the- spike a span 

 to 2 feet high. 



P. major, L. (Common Plaxtaix.) Spike commonly dense, obtuse at apex: sepals 

 rotund-ovate or obovate, scarious-margined ; the exterior and the bract more or less cari- 

 nate : ovules 8 to 18 : seeds as many or by abortion fewer, small, angled by nuitual press- 

 ure, usuall}"^ light brown, minutely reticulated : capsule ovoid, very obtuse, circumscissile 

 near the middle and near the level of the summit of the sepals. — Waysides and near 

 dwellings throughout the countr3^ doubtless introduced from Europe, but also native from 

 Lake Superior far northward. Runs into some monstrosities and several varieties, an 

 extreme in saline soil being var. minima, Decaisne in DC. Prodr. xiii. (395 (P. minima, DC), 

 with scapes 2 to 5 inches high, and leaves proportionally small. (Cosmop.) 



Var. Asiatica, Decaisne. Capsule usually more broadly ovoid, circumscissile 

 near the base and much within the calyx. — P. Asiatica, L. Spec. i. 113; Franchet & 

 Savatier, Enum. PI. Jap. 384. (Includes perhaps P. Kanitschatica, Cham, and Link, or 

 plants cultivated as such, with 4, 5, or seeds). — A very large indigenous form, coast of 

 California near San Francisco (capsule globose-ovoid) to the borders of British Columbia; 

 Saskatchewan to the Arctic Sea. Perhaps a distinct species. (N. Asia, Himalaya.) 



P. Rugelii, Decaisne. Leaves paler, commonly thinner: spikes long and thin, atten- 

 uate at the apex : sepals oblong, all as well as the similar bract acutely carinate : cap- 

 sules erect in the spike, cylindraceous-oblong (somewhat over 2 lines long, one-sixteenth 



