PLANTAGINACE^E. (PLANTAIN FAMILY.) 423 



exserted filaments, and fugacious 2-celled anthers. Ovary 2- (or in n. 5 falsely 

 3 _4_) celled, with 1 -several ovules in each cell. Style and long hairy stigma 

 single, filiform. Capsule 2-celled, 2 - several-seeded, opening transversely, 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.) 



1. Stamens 4; flowers all perfect ; corolla not closed over the fruit. 



* Flowers proterogynous, the style first projecting from the unopened corolla, the 

 anthers long-exserted after the corolla has opened ; seeds not /toliotved on the 

 face (except in P. lanceolata). 



-t- Corolla glabrous ; leaves strongly ribbed; perennial. 

 ** Ribs of the broad leaves rising from the midrib. 



1. P. COl'data, Lam. Tall, glabrous; leaves heart-shaped or round-ovate 

 (3-8' long), long-petioled ; spike at length loosely flowered; bracts round- 

 ovate, fleshy; capsule 2-4-seeded. Along streams, X. Y. to Minn., and 



southward. 



M. -M- Ribs of the leaf free to the contracted base. 



2. P. major, L. (COMMON PLANTAIN.) Smooth or rather hairy, rarely 

 roughish; leaves ovate, ollonij, ovul, or slightly heart-shaped, often toothed, 

 abruptly narrowed into a channelled petiole ; spike dense, obtuse ; sepals round- 

 ovate orobovate; capsule ovoid, circumscissile near the middle, S- IB-seeded; 

 seeds am/led, reticulated. Waysides and near dwellings everywhere. Doubt- 

 less introduced from Eu., but native from L. Superior and N. Minn., northward. 



3. P. Rugelii, Decaisne. Leaves as in the last, but paler and thinner; 

 s/i/kes lonf] and thin, attenuate at the apex; sepals oblong, acutelv carinate ; 

 citjtsnles ctjlindmceous-oblong, circumscissile much below the middle, 4-9-seeded; 

 seeds oval-oblong, not reticulated. (P. Kamtschatica, Gray, Man., not Cham.) 

 Vt. to Minn., south to Ga. and Tex. 



4 P. eriopoda, Torr. Usually a mass of yellowish wool at the base ; 

 leaves tltickish, oblauceolate to ohovate, with short stout petioles ; spike dense or 

 loose ; sepals and bract more or less scarious but not carinate ; capsule oroid, 

 never over ^-seeded. Moist and saline soil; Red River valley, Minn., and 

 westward ; also on the Lower St. Lawrence. 



P. LANCEOLA.TA, L. (RlBGRASS. RlPPLEGRASS. ENGLISH PLANTAIN.) 



Mostly hairy ; scape grooved-angled, at length much longer than the Inncro- 

 la/e or lance-oblong leaves, slender (9' -2 high) ; spike dense, at first capitate, 

 in age cylindrical ; bract and sepals scarious, brownish ; seeds 2, holloiced on 

 the face. Very common. (Xat. from Eu.) 



*- <- Corolla-tube externally pubescent; leaves linear or filiform, fleshy, indis- 

 tinctly ribbed ; seeds 2 - 4 ; maritime, often woolly at base. 



5. P. decipiens, Barneoucl. Annual, or sometimes biennial with a stout 

 rootstock, smooth, or the scape pubescent; leaves flat or flattish and channelled, 

 erect, nearly as long as the scape (5-12'), acuminate; spike slender, rather 

 loose. (P. maritima, var. juncoides, Gray, Man.) Salt marshes, Atlantic 

 coast, from Labrador to X. J. The characters distinguishing biennial speci- 

 mens of this from the next are obscure. 



