72 FAMILIAR WILL FLOWERS. 



When the plantain grows amongst the tall grasses of 

 the meadow its leaves are longer, more erect, and less 

 harsh, than when we find it by the roadside, or on any 

 dry and barren soil. The leaves are often slightly hairy, 

 and have at times a silvery appearance from this cause, but 

 this is more especially apparent in the roadside specimens. 

 The flower-stalks are longer than the leaves, furrowed and 

 angular, and thrown boldly up. The flower-head varies 

 a good deal in size and form, sometimes being much 

 smaller and more globular than those represented in our 

 illustration. The sepals are brown and paper-like in 

 texture, and give the head the somewhat peculiar rusty 

 look ; the corolla is very small and inconspicuous, tubed, 

 and having four spreading lobes. The stamens, four in 

 number, are the most noticeable feature, their slender white 

 filaments and pale yellow anthers forming in the aggregate 

 a conspicuous ring around the flower-head. 



