148 Atavism. 



§ 17. PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA RAMOSA. 



Plaiitago lanccoJata is one of of those plants which 

 are remarkably rich in anomalies. Penzig mentions a 

 considerable number of them such as leafy stalks, ears 

 the tops of which bear tufts of foliage leaves/ forked 

 spikes with two or more tips, torsions etc. These and 

 many other malformations such as split leaves, pitchers 

 consisting of one or more leaves, occur commonly in this 

 neighborhood and also in mv cultures. It is worth men- 

 tioning that all or nearly all of these abnormalities can 

 occur in the same race, and sometimes indeed in a single 

 stout individual. Evidently every plant must contain a 

 number of latent or semi-latent characters which lie out- 

 side its proper range of form ; these characters consti- 

 tute, as I have already said, the outer range of the forms 

 of the species (p. 27). 



A form also frequently mentioned- in the literature 

 of the subject is one wnth branched ears {Plantago lan- 

 ccolata rainosa).^ In this variety sessile secondary spikes 

 are produced in the axils of the bracts at the base of 

 the main ear. They are often small, but sometimes 

 nearly attain the size of the central ear. Their number 

 is highly variable. Under good conditions of cultivation 

 each head may have from 2-7 lateral ears, but on single 

 ears the number may rise to 20 and more (Figs. 26, 27). 



I have been carrying out experiments on the inheri- 

 tance of this ra;/?o^a-character since 1887. It proved to 



^I have often picked these tufts and made cuttings of them; 

 they take most quickly and grow to strong rosettes of radical leaves, 

 the ears arising from which may repeat the phenomenon of the 

 tufting to a certain extent {Plantago la)iceolata coronata). 



' Penzig, Teratologic, II, p. 252. 



^ Kruidkundig Jaarhoek, Gent, 1897, pp. yG and 91. 



