BKOAD-LEAVED 

 PLANTAIN. 



PUnitago major. Nat. Ord., Flantag'macice. 



IKE its near relative the lamb's 

 tongue, narrow-leaved plantain, 

 or ribwort, the broad-leaved 

 plantain claims a place in 

 our series, for there are few 

 plants that from their abun- 

 dance and universal distri- 

 bution can show a better 

 right to the title of Familiar 

 Wild Flowers. It may be 

 found anywhere by road-sides 

 and in meadow land. It is, 

 perhaps, in these latter days 

 better known than respected, 

 though there was a time when 

 its more or less real virtues 

 gave it a high place in rustic 

 esteem. All the species of 

 plantain are mucilaginous and astringent in nature ; and in 

 more primitive days, when the herbs required for the 

 healing art had to be in large measure derived from the 

 neighbouring hedgerow or meadow, it was, no doubt, a dis- 

 tinct acquisition to the store of the rural practitioner. In 

 the Highlands of Scotland it is still, we believe, called the 



