Morris : North American Plantaginaceae 527 



Plantago pusilla Nuttall, Gen. N. Am. PI. i : loo. 1818 



P, 



« 4 



Sp. PI. 1 14. 1753. 



26. 18 1 5. Not Linnaeus, 



P. 



214. 1818: Fl. N. Am, 



//. q8. /. /. 1823. 



P. linearifoUa Muhlenberg (?), Cat ed. 2, 15. 1818, ^lomcn 



nudum. — Torrey, Fl. U. S. 1.85. 1824, cit. excL^ 

 pusilla Decdilsne, pro parU/m DC. Prod. 13^: 696. 



1852. 



P. 



Not Pursh, FK Am. Sept. 2 : 729. 



1814. 

 An ir 



inconspicuous, very low acaulescent annual, of sandy or 

 dry situations, occasionally intruding upon woodlands, mostly gla- 

 brous or with slight pubescence about the crown. Roots one or 

 two, normally short, small in proportion to the plant, weak, the 

 secondaries numerous, filiform-fibrous, and usually longer than 

 the primaries. Leaves basal, erect or somewhat spreading, one 

 fourth to one half as high as the plant or even shorter in de- 

 pauperate individuals, herbaceous or slightly fleshy, 4 or 5 to. 

 numerous, abruptly expanded into the semi-clasping base (a little 

 longer than broad), filiform to linear, sometimes narrowed below, 

 entire or rarely remotely callous-denticulate, apex callous, blunted 

 or sometimes acutish, i -nerved or in wider forms obscurely 

 3-nerved, the outer nerves being about equidistant from midrib 

 and margin, 1-5 cm. x O.5-2 mm. Peduncles axillary, erect to 

 spreading-ascending, four times as long as, to a little shorter than, 

 the leaves, terete, becoming striate when dry especially near the 

 base of the spike, i to many (160 counted on one individual from 

 Long Island), 3-10 cm. high. Spikes erect, cylindrical, slender, 

 wath flowers at first imbricate, at length even much scattered. 

 Bracts closely subtending the flowers, at first erect, later spread- 

 ing by the expanding fruit, equaling the calyx, surpassing it in etio- 

 lated forms, herbaceous, carnulose, tending to subsaccate dorsally, 

 triangular-ovate, scarious, with margins one half as wide as the 

 herbaceous center, entire, rounded-obtuse or blunt, 1.5-2 mm. 

 X 1. 25-1. 5 mm. Flowers subperfect. Calyx glabrous, inequi- 

 lateral, its divisions obovate, with scarious margins wider than the 



* Torrey, lof. cit,, gives '* Muhl. Cat. p. 15 ?." Torrey later, and many others, 

 give ** MuhL Cat. p. 15 ? ex Tort. Fl. U. St. 185." This citation, by its form, nat- 

 urally refers to Muhl. Cat. ed. I, Lancaster, 1813. The Plantaginaceae are listed on 

 page 16; and P. Unearifoiia is not included in the list. Torrey did specify the 

 second edition of Muhlenberg's Catalogue in his bibliography at the beginning of his 

 Flora, but it must have been constantly overlooked. Accordingly, Torrey' s citation, and 

 those following it, must be considered incomplete and misleading. 



