PLANTAGINACEiE. 171 



ascending. Scapes more or less curved towarls the base. Spikes 

 oblong or roundish. Bracts and sepals marked with fuscous or black 

 blotches. 



Var. 0, major. 



Rootstock 1- or few-headed. Leaves with long distinct petioles, 

 erect. Scapes erect, scarcely curved at the base. Spikes cylindrical 

 or oblong-cylindrical. Bracts and sepals marked with fuscous or black 

 blotches. 



Var. 7, Timhali. 



Plate MCLXV. 



Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MCXXXVII. Fig. 4. 

 P. Timbali, Jord. Pug. PL Nov. p. 138. 



Rootstock many-lieaded, cespitose. Leaves distinctly stalked, erect 

 or ascending. Scapes erect, straight, or very slightly curved at the 

 base. Spikes cylindrical or oblong-cylindrical. Bracts with the 

 scarious portion silvery white, with subulate points, and as well as the 

 sepals without fuscous blotches. 



Li meadows, pastures, waste places, by roadsides, &c. Veiy com- 

 mon, and generally distributed. Var. in grass fields and meadows. 

 Var. y in fields of clover, sainfoin, and lucerne, but apparently not 

 indigenous. 



England, Scotland, L-eland. Biennial or Peremiial. Spring to 



Autumn. 



A very variable plant, sometimes, as in var. a, with the leaves, 

 including the petioles, only about 1 inch long, in var. sometimes 

 more than 1 foot ; the scapes varying from 2 inclies to 2 feet in height; 

 the spikes sometimes globular, and scarcely \ incli m diameter, some- 

 times cylindrical and 2 or 3 inches long, and between these extremes 

 every intermediate form is to be found. The leaves are sometimes so 

 broad and hairy that the plant resembles P. media, but the scapes are 

 farrowed, the bracts longer and not hooded at the apex, and the 

 2 inner calyx segments are keeled and abruptly rounded ofi^ at the 

 ajjical angle of the back, with a short point where the ciu-ved line meets 

 the straight margins. The anthers in all the forms are yellowish- 

 wliite, on very long filaments. 



Var. Timbali has much the aspect of a subspecies, but Mr. Hewett 

 ^Vatson has raised from the seed of tins form a plant much resembling 

 the ordmary state, with black marks on tlie bracts: and the elongated 

 poiTit of the bracts does not appear to be a constant character. 



Common Rib-grass. 



Frcncli, Plantain lanceoU. German, lanzettlicher Wegerich. 

 Tlii.s plant, which abuuuds in every meadow, was brought into notice some years 



z3 



