PKOLIFICATION OF THE INFLOllESCENCE. 



109 



head with other rosettes. 5th, paniculate, in which the 

 inflorescence has become a much -branched pyramidal 

 panicle, covered with little bracts, and with very rudi- 

 mentary flowers.^ The first two groups 

 belong rather to frondescence of the 

 bracts ; but with regard to the whole 

 of them it will easily be surmised that 

 intermediate forms occur, linking ono 

 group to the other, and defying exact 

 allocation in either. Thus, in the bor- 

 ders of richly cultivated fields in the 

 neighbourhood of London I have fre- 

 quently gathered specimens of Plantago 

 inajor with a branched spikeprovided with 

 large leafy bracts, the branches of the 

 spike being but little less in diameter 

 than the ordinary single spike. These 

 specimens would therefore seem to 

 be intermediate between Schlechtendal's 

 bracteate and polystachyate divisions. 

 Wigand" also describes an anomalous 

 specimen of Plantago major similar to 

 those just mentioned, but having small 

 lateral spikes in place of large ones. 

 The instance quoted from Professor 

 Braun would fall under the roseate sec- 

 tion, as would also that of Kirschleger, 

 though we are expressly told that the 

 tuft of leaves in this last case was 

 not developed until after the ripening of the seed- 

 vessel. One of the characters of the roseate group, 

 according to Schlechtendal, is the absence of flowers, 

 but most persons who have had the opportunity of 



FiG.54. P/flH- 

 tago major, with 

 .panicled inflo- 

 rescence. 



' " Pannicula spicatini sparsa onusta innumera foetiira herbaceorum 

 flosculorum racematim cohserentium," ' Lobel. Stirp. Hist.,' p. 163. This 

 is the " Besome Plantain, or Plantain with spoky tufts,"of Ray, 'Synopsis.' 

 p, 314. Gerard's ' Herbal,' Ed. Johnson, p. 420. Parkinson, ' Theat. 

 Bot.,' p 494. Baxter, 'London, Mag. Nat. Hist.,' vol. ix. p. 204, and 

 vol. iii, p. 482. fig. 118. 



' Flora,' 18.56. p. 706. 



