IN THE MEADOWS AND PASTURES. 166 



The Plantain tribe is common in meadows and 

 p asture lands, as well as by the waysides. Indeed, the 

 Large Plantain (Plantago major) bears the name of 

 " way-bread," and is found everywhere near the haunts 

 of man. Its egg-shaped leaves, through which the veins 

 run from stem to point, are raised above the ground, 

 and from the centre there springs the long thick spike 

 of small green flowers, succeeded by the brown seeds 

 so loved by singing birds. In Shakespeare's time the 

 plantain-leaf was used as a plaster for broken shins, 

 and its cooling application seems to be instinctively 

 known to schoolboys. There ia scarcely an old herbal 

 but is eloquent on the cures which can be performed 

 by the aid of the decoctions, washes, and applications 

 of this common herb. So frequently does it spring up 

 in the track of the colonist that the Indians call it the 

 " Englishman's foot." Quite as common is the Bibbed 

 Plantain (Plantago lanceolata), or Eib Grass. It has 

 narrower and longer leaves, strongly ribbed from end 

 to end, and is sometimes too common in meadows. 

 Its tall dark oval-shaped heads nod amongst the 

 meadow grass, and in June they are covered with white 

 anthers. It is very common too common on the 

 field of Bosworth, but it does not seem to aifect the 



