198 COMMON WEEDS 



and October. This Plantain is known to children 

 under the name of " Cocks and Hens." The brown, 

 shining seeds resemble small date stones, and are a 

 common impurity in many kinds of clover and grass 

 seeds. In America this species is known as Buckhorn. 



2. Broad-leaved Plantain (P. major L.), also termed 

 Greater Plantain or Way-bread, has broadly-oblong 

 ribbed leaves on long channelled stalks, and a stout trun- 

 cate rootstock ; the flowers are in very long, slender 

 spikes, and when in fruit are often given to cage birds. 

 Flowering occurs between May and September. 



3. Hoary Plantain, Lamb's Tongue (P. media L.) has 

 downy, sub-sessile, broadly elliptical, ribbed leaves, with 

 short, flat stalks, the leaves lying very close to the 

 ground (in the two former species the leaves are rather 

 ascending) and destroying all vegetation beneath, 

 leaving a bare patch if the plant be removed. The 

 rootstock is tapering, and the flowers are packed in a 

 close cylindrical spike, shorter than in P. major, but on 

 a longer footstalk or stem. The flowers are fragrant, 

 and somewhat conspicuous owing to the lilac bracts. 

 They appear during June to October. 



These three Plantains are perennial, and all are com- 

 mon to grass land on practically all soils, although 

 P. media is perhaps more frequent on dry calcareous 

 soils. They are very troublesome in lawns (see p. 

 345). Where these weeds are very plentiful they may 

 be spudded out, or removed with the docking iron. 

 Pure seed, free from the seed of Plantains, should in- 

 variably be sown for leys and permanent pasture. It 

 should be remarked here that Rib-grass is frequently 

 included in grass mixtures, but why so it is difficult to 

 understand, unless solely because the roots open up the 

 soil to air, as it certainly replaces a large quantity of 

 better herbage. As regards arable land, see p. 108. 



