SOME GROUPED FLOWERS 59 



that subtend each flower. Why are they so placed? 

 Observe the seed-cases. When the seeds are quite 

 ripe, the top of the case falls off like a lid, and the 

 seeds are free to migrate. How do they get around? 

 Have you noticed birds eating them? 



The Plantain may be very insignificant in appear- 

 ance, but at heart it is really a great adventurer. 

 Many of our most famous humans are like that. 

 Neither Napoleon nor Grant was impressive in 

 stature. The Plantain was born in Europe; but dis- 

 liking the crowded conditions there, it fastened a 

 seed in the wool of a sheep and received free pas- 

 sage to Mexico. After multiplying in that country, 

 it wearied for new fields to conquer. It clung, per- 

 haps to a hair of the very horse that entered Cali- 

 fornia with Padre Junipero Serra. At any rate, it 

 was an early pioneer. In our State, it has roamed 

 from South to North, and from the Sea to the 

 Sierra. It adapts itself to any condition or climate. 

 If the farmer expel it from his rich fields, it thrives 

 in the poor soil at the edges ; and its rosette of green 

 furnishes fair pasturage before the grass gets fully 

 started. 



The genus was named Plantago by the ancient 

 Romans, and an account of its virtues appears in 

 the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder, who 

 lived in Italy in the first century of the Christian 

 era. In many countries, it is deemed to have medi- 

 cinal value. Its leaves, made into a poultice, are 



