268 TLANTAGINACE^. (PLANTAIN FAMILY.) 



fruit globular. (B. lanuginosa & tomentosa, A. DC.) — Woods, Illinois, oppo- 

 site St. Louis, and southward, — a variety with the leaves less woolly and rusty 

 beneath (B. oblongifolia, Nutt.), passing towards No. 1. July. 



Order 68. PLANTAGINACE^. (Plantain Family.) 



Chiefly stemless herbs, with regular A-merous spiked flowers, the stamens 

 inserted on the tube of the dry and membranaceous veinless monopetalous 

 corolla, alternate with its lobes ; — chiefly represented by the genus 



1. PLANTAGO, L. Plantain. Kibgkass. 



Calyx of 4 imbricated persistent sepals, with dry membranaceous margins. 

 Corolla salver-form, withering on the pod, the border 4-parted. Stamens 4, or 

 rarely 2, in all or some flowers with long and weak exserted filaments, and fuga- 

 cious 2-celled anthers. Ovary 2- (or falsely 3-4-) celled, with 1- several ovules 

 in each cell. Pod 2-cclled, 2 - several-seeded, opening all round by a transverse 

 line, so that the top falls off like a lid, and the loose partition (which bears the 

 peltate seeds) falls away. Embryo straight, in fleshy albumen. — Leaves ribbed. 

 Flowers whitish, small, in a bracted spike or head, raised on a naked scape. 

 (The Latin name of the Plantain.) 



$ 1. Floiuers all perfect and alike: corolla glabrous, the lobes reflexed or spreading i 

 stamens 4, with long capillary filaments : pod 2-celled, 2-18-seeded: seeds not hol- 

 lowed out on the inner face : perennials, with several-ribbed (broad) leaves. 



1. P. major, L. (Common Plantain.) Smooth or hairy; leaves ovate, 

 oval, or slightly heart-shaped, often toothed, abruptly narrowed into a chan- 

 nelled petiole; spike cylindrical ; pod 7 - U-seeded. — Moist grounds, especially 

 near dwellings. June- Sept. Very much varying in size. (Nat. from Eu.) 



2. P. cordata, Lam. Very glabrous ; leaves heart-shaped or round-ovate 

 (3'- 8' long), long-petioled, the libs rising from the midrib; spike at length loose- 

 ly flowered; bracts round-ovate, fleshy ; pod 2 - 4-seeded. — Along rivulets, New 

 York to Wisconsin (rare), and southward. April- June. 



§ 2. Flowers all perfect and alike : corolla pubescent below : stamens 4, with long 

 filaments: pods 2-celled and 2-seeded, or incompletely 3 - 4-celled and 3 - 4-seeied : 

 seeds not hollowed on the face: perennials, with linear thick and fieshy leaves. 



3. P. snai'itima, L. (Seaside Plantain.) Leaves flat or flatfish 

 channelled, entire or rarely few-toothed, glabrous ; spikes cylindrical or oblong; 

 bracts ovate, convex, about the length of the broadly ovale or oval scaiious se- 

 pals, which have a thick keel, that of the posterior sepals crested. — Var. jun- 

 coides is usually more slender, the flowers often sparser, and the keel crestless. 

 — Salt marshes on the coast from New Jersey northward ; the var. only north- 

 ward. Our plant is an annual. (Eu). 



§ 3. Floivers all perfect and alike ; the 2 anterior various sepals generally united into 

 one: corolla, stamens, frc. as in the first group: seeds (and ovules) 2, hollowed on 

 Vie face : leaves fiat, lanceolate, 3 - 5-ribbed. 



