136 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



overlapping in bud. The corolla is membranous, 

 chaffy, with four spreading lobes, hypogynous, salver- 

 shaped, the tube cylindrical. The four stamens are 

 epipetalous, inserted on the tube, but in Shore- 

 weed hypogynous, alternating with the petals, the 

 filaments slender, bent inwards in bud, pendulous 

 in flower, and persistent. The anthers are large 

 and versatile, lightly attached, and soon fall. The 

 pollen is abundant and powdery. The ovary is two- 

 to four-celled, with many ovules in each cell. The 

 style is simple and long, slender, with two lines 

 of stigmatic hairs. The fruit is a capsule, opening 

 transversely, or indehiscent, one- (or more) seeded. 

 It may be a nut, with the calyx persistent, as in 

 Shoreweed. 



The flowers are adapted to pollination by the 

 wind. The capsules are adapted to the dispersal of 

 the seeds by the wind. 



The flowers are regarded as reduced from the 

 type found in the Figwort group in Veronica. They 

 are also related to Labiatse. 



From the genus Littorella the genus Plantago differs 

 in that the latter has hermaphrodite flowers in 

 terminal heads or spikes, whereas in the former the 

 flowers are unisexual, and the plant is monoecious, 

 the flowers solitary or two together, the males being 

 stalked, the females sessile among the leaves. 



