336 PLANTAGINACE^. 



forming a compound, more or less one-sided spike : bracts 

 elliptic acute : pedicels 1/5 inch, slender. Calyx and 

 inflorescence purple, but covered densely with greenish 

 gland-tipped yellow hairs ; upper tooth larger than the 

 others, lower acute. Corolla pale purple : tube short : 

 lower lip spreading forwards and upwards ; mid-lobe 

 partially covering the ovate lateral, below these another 

 pair of triangular lobes. Stamens erect and curving 

 forwards, white or pinkish : anthers light brown de- 

 hiscing by a vertical slit. Nutlets roundish with a large 

 lateral scar. t. 224. ^corolla, etc.; & calyx showing 

 nutlets and hairs inside the tube [E.T.B.] ; c. nutlet [F.]. 



In rocky places. Nilgiris : on Dodabetta and near Ootaca- 

 mund, flowering from March to June. Fpon 2024. Not 

 apparently elsewhere. 



PLANTAGINACE/E. 



A family of practically only one genus, of about 200 

 species; the two other genera having but one species 

 each. 



PLANTAGO. F.B.1. 113 I. 



Annual or perennial herbs and shrubs with usually 

 radical leaves, and spikes of small flowers on long 

 leafless stalks (scapes), peculiar in having a scarious 

 monopetalous corolla with four small lobes, and a thin- 

 walled egg-shaped capsule which opens by a circular 

 transverse slit. Sepals four, imbricate. Stamens four 

 with long filaments and round anthers, attached to the 

 middle of the corolla tube. Ovary superior two-celled, 

 with one or more ovules. Seeds angular subglobose 

 or compressed, plane or concave on the hilum side. 

 Embryo straight, radicle pointing downwards. 



Species 200, all over the world, chiefly in temperate 

 climates ; but not absent from hot dry countries nor from the 

 tops of mountains. In England 5 species, Plantain, Ribwort, 

 Waybread ; Ger. Wegerich, Wegetritt, 



