PLANTAIN TRIBE 85 



The leaves are yet used in villages for slight wounds, and it is remarkable 

 that they are applied thus on the Himalaya Mountains. Sir Joseph Hooker, 

 referring to the number of sick persons who came to him to be cured of 

 rheumatism, goitres, and other complaints, as well as from cuts and poisonings, 

 mentions that one old Avoman whom he attended dressed her Avounds with 

 Plantain-leaves, which, he adds, is a very old Scotch remedy, the ribs being 

 drawn out, and the leaf applied fresh. "It is," says Sir Joseph, "rather a 

 strong application." A negro once received a reward from an assembly of 

 South Carolina for a remedy for the bite of the rattle-snake, the chief in- 

 gredient of which is said by Mr. Woodville to be the Plantain. The leaves 

 bruised and placed over the part stung by a bee soon relieve the pain. The 

 French call this herb Plantaine ; the Italians, Piantaggine ; the Spaniards, 

 IJanffn : and the Russians Uschik. 



2. Hoary Plantain (P. nic'dia). — Leaves egg-shaped, downy, sessile, or 

 tapering into broad or short foot-stalks ; flower-stalk rounded ; spike 

 cylindrical ; sepals not keeled ; capsule 2-celled ; cells 1 -seeded ; perennial. 

 This species is common on the meadows and pastures of chalky districts of 

 England. Its leaves spread all around the root, lying close to the earth ; 

 ancl the Rev. C. A. Johns remarks that they destroy all the vegetation 

 beneath, and leave the impress of the ribs on the ground. It bears a pretty 

 and fragrant spike of flowers from June to October, having long dark purple 

 filaments, and light purple anthers. The spike looks quite silvery from the 

 white, shining, somewhat chafty corollas, and is regularly A'isited by humble- 

 bees for the sake of the plentiful pollen. The leaves make a good astringent 

 lotion. There are two forms of this plant : in one the flower-stalk is long, 

 the corolla-lobes pointed, and the stamen-filaments white ; in the other, the 

 scape is shorter, the corolla-lobes rounded, and the stamen-filaments red. 



3. Ribwort Plantain (P. lanceoldta). — Leaves lanceolate, tapering into 

 a broad stalk ; spike egg-shaped or cylindrical ; bracts egg-shaped, acute, 

 blackish-tipped, two of the sepals keeled ; tube of the corolla smooth ; 

 stamens white ; cells 1-seeded ; perennial. The Ribwort is often very 

 abundant on upland soils, and is generally a common plant of the meadow. 

 It may be at once distinguished from the preceding species by the erect habit 

 of the leaves and the woolly crown to the rootstock. The flowers are in 

 dark brown, hard spikes, and are called by country children Cocks and Hens., 

 They appear in June and July, and in a very luxuriant variety they are very 

 long and truly cylindrical, while in some specimens they become quite 

 globular in form. Sometimes the bracts are so large as to be converted into 

 leaves ; and sometimes a second spike on a short stalk grows from among the 

 bracts in a horizontal direction. The leaves are long and strongly ribbed. 

 An old Welsh name for the plant is " Suet producing," and it has also been 

 called the "sheep's favourite morsel." It bore besides, in early days, the 

 name of Hound's-tongue, and modern farmers term it Rib-grass, including it 

 among those plants which they distinguish as artificial grasses. It has long 

 been used occasionally for herbage, and Arthur Young, as well as other 

 writers on pasture plants, regarded it with approval. Much uncertainty had, 

 however, prevailed respecting its usefulness, initil the experiments of Pro- 

 fessor Buckman on this and other plants tested it. The Professor says that 



