52H Morris : North American Plantaginaceae 



its lower half, with the general habit of being erect, usually 

 higher than wide, and with the oldest scapes becoming decumbent 

 with age. Root normally one, long, stout, woody, and large in 

 proportion to the plant ; secondaries few, filiform, and shorter than 

 the primary. Leaves basal, erect or slightly spreading, sometimes 

 with tips recurved, one half to three fourths as high as the plant, 

 herbaceous or slightly fleshy in larger forms, strongly cinereous- 

 pubescent for the lower half, few to numerous, gradually ex- 

 panded into the semi-clasping base (two to four times as long as 

 wide), linear, entire or remotely callous-denticulate, callous-tipped 

 even when long-acuminate, i -nerved, 3-10 cm. X 0.5-2 mm. 

 Peduncles axillary, erect, or the oldest bowed outward from the 

 crown, equaling or shorter than the leaves, rarely longer, terete, 

 not striated, or but slightly so below the spike, one to many, 3—8 

 cm. high. Spike erect, cylindrical, slender, with the flowers often 



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distant, l-io cm. long. Bracts closely subtending the flowers, 

 rather uniformly ascending, about equaling the calyx, herbaceous- 

 carnose, distantly spur-keeled to 0.5 mm. below basal attachment 

 and 0.5 mm. divergent from peduncle, triangular-ovate, scarious, 

 with margins one third as wide as the herbaceous center, entire, acute 

 or acutish, 2 mm. (from spur to apex) x 1.5 mm. Flowers sub- 

 perfect. Calyx glabrous, inequilateral, its divisions obovate, scari- 

 ous margins wider than the distinctly herbaceous midrib, apex 

 truncate-rounded, about the width of the bract, 1.75 mm. long. 

 Corolla very minute, rarely closing to form a beak, throat as long 

 as the lobes, the lobes triangular, entire, acute, 0.5 mm. x 0.25 

 mm. Stamens two, included. Pyxis glabrous, twice surpassing 

 the calyx, oblong-ovate, truncate-rounded, with the base of 

 style persistent as a distinct tubercle, circumscissile just below 

 the middle, 2.5-3 ^^- X 1.5 mm. Seeds four, finely rugose- 

 pitted, dark seal-brown, elliptical, 2 mm. x 0.5 mm. 



Type specimen is Bradbury's collection from " Upper Louis- 



Philadelphia. 



Academy 



Thirty-seven sheets or specimens from Assiniboia, North 



Dakota 



M 



and Utah, have been examined, in herbaria as follows : 5, Geolog- 

 ical and Natural History Survey of Canada; 6, Columbia University 

 and New York Botanical Garden ; 5, Gray Herbarium; i. Doctor 

 Edward Lee Greene ; 8, Missouri Botanical Garden ; 2, Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ; 5, United States National 

 Herbarium ; 5, University of Nebraska. 



