A Handful of Weeds 359 



plantain, to put beneath their heads that night, 

 when they would surely dream of their future hus- 

 bands." Some matter-of-fact person long ago dis- 

 covered that the "coal" is only a blackened root, 

 which may be found whenever it is looked for. 



From long-cherished faith in its potency it has 

 come about perhaps that in the north of England 

 the flower-spikes of the closely allied ripple-grass 

 (Plantago lanceolata) were used as love- charms. 

 But no magic which the plantain may have wrought 

 as an inspirer of dreams or fetterer of maiden fancy 

 is more wonderful than the story of its past as told 

 by modern science. 



" Our fields are full," says Grant Allen, " of de- 

 generate flowers," and this is one of them. When 

 we look closely at its green spikes we see that 

 they are made up of numerous little four-rayed 

 blossoms, whose pale and faded petals are tucked 

 away out of sight, flat against the calyx. Yet their 

 shape and arrangement distinctly recall the beau- 

 tiful blue veronica, and it has been surmised that 

 the two are very distant cousins. But the plantain 

 flowers gave up devoting themselves to insects and 

 became adapted for fertilization by the wind in- 

 stead. Then the petals were no longer needed as 

 a lure, and Nature withdrew their bright blue pig- 



