PLANTAGINACEvE, 169 



are said to reduce the swelling, pain, and inflammation caused by tlie bite or sting of 

 insects ; but when we read the list of disorders for which this common herb was 

 considered a remedy, we can but wonder at the powerful imaginations of the old 

 physicians, as well as their patients. So great was its reputation for closing wounds, 

 that Pliny says of this or an allied species, on " high authority," that "if it be put 

 into a pot where many pieces of flesh are boiling, it will sodder them together." No 

 wonder then that Romeo said of the broken shin — 



" Tour plantain leaf is excellent for that." 



The Highlanders ascribe such virtue to the plant in heahng wounds that its Gaelic 

 name signifies " healing plant." 



Decoctions of plantain entered into almost every old compounded remedy, and it 

 was Ijoiled with docks, comfrey, and a variety of flowers. Pliny tells how an eminent 

 physician prided himself on having first discovered this wonderful herb. " Notwith- 

 standing," adds the Roman naturalist, " it be a trivial and common hearbe, trodden 

 under every man's foot." Cowley says of it — 



" Madness of dogs most certainly it cares, 

 As the great author PUuy us assures." 



It was once a popular belief that before a toad had a battle with a spider, she would 

 fortify herself with some of this plant, and that if wounded in the encounter, she 

 would again have recourse to it as a cure. 



The small mucilaginous seeds of the plantain are relished by most little birds, and 

 quantities of the ripe spike are gathered near London for the supply of the caged 

 birds of the metropolis. From their small size and the abundance with which they 

 are produced in every field, the seeds have been carried by our race to most countries 

 where we have made settlements — a fact which induced the natives of North America 

 to call the plant by a name signifying the " Englishman's foot," it appealing to spring 

 up wherever the soil was trodden by the bold intruders to whom they were forced 

 to yield their old hunting grounds. 



SPECIES n.— P LANTAGO MEDIA. Unn. 

 PtATB MCLXIII. 



Belch. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MCXXIX. Fig. 3, and MCXXXVII. 



Fig. 2. 

 BiUot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 7730. 



Leaves all radical, with rather short often indistinct winged petioles, 

 or subsessile ; lamina oval or elliptical-oval, attenuated at each end, 

 5- to 9-ribbed, repand or more or less dentate throughout. Scape not 

 furrowed, much exceeding the length of the leaves ; flowerless part of 

 the scape much longer than the leaves. Bracts oblong-ovate, rather 

 shorter than the calyx, ' boat-shaped, glabrous. Sepals glabrous, not 

 keeled. Corolla tube glabrous. Capsule imperfectly 2-celled. Seeds 

 1 in each cell, flat on the inner face. Plant hispid-pubescent. 



By roadsides, on banks in waste places and pastures. Very com- 

 mon in chalky districts, moi-e rare elsewhere, but generally distributed 



VOL. vii. z 



