48 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



thick, while from it issue numerous white fibres that strike 

 deeply into the earth, and from their stronghold render 

 the plant very difficult to eradicate. The leaves vary 

 very much, both in size and mode of growth ; when the plan- 

 tain is found amongst the luxuriant herbage of the hedge- 

 row the foliage is large, on long foot-stalks, and struggling 

 upwards, like all its surroundings, to the necessary air and 

 light ; but on lawns and road-sides the leaves are consider- 

 ably smaller, massed in a solid rosette, and pressed closely 

 to the earth. The plant seeds freely, and is a great dis- 

 figurement to a lawn. If left alone, plantains rapidlv 

 multiply, and quite spoil the look of the turf, besides pre- 

 sently throwing up their multitudinous scythe-blunting 

 flower-stems ; and if eradicated, the place where their dense 

 rosette of leaves had destroyed the grass is for some time 

 an unsightly feature in the midst of the verdant expanse. 



Like the ribwort, an allied species we elsewhere figure 

 in our present volume, the broad-leaved plantain has its 

 leaves very conspicuously veined. 



