PLATE 39. 



RIBGRASS, Plantago lanceolata, L. 



Other English names : Buckhorn, English Plantain, Ribwort. 



(Noxious : Dom.) 



Introduced. Perennial or biennial. Eootstock short and erect. Leaves 

 numerous, 2 to 12 inches long, narrowly lanceolate and distinctly 3 lo ■>- 

 ribbed, hairy and with tufts of brownish hairs at the base. In th? first year 

 the leaves lie close to the ground, forming a close rosette; on old plants ihey 

 are erect. Flower stalks stiif, slender and grooved, 1 to 2 feet, much taller 

 than the leaves. Flower heads at first ovoid and rather showy by reason 

 of their numerous yellow anthers, elongating with age and forming dense 

 cylindrical black spikes of seed, from 1 to 4 inches long. Capsules oblong, 

 very obtuse, 2-seeded, opening about the middle. Seeds [Plate 54, fig. 28 

 — natural size and enlarged 8 times] chestnut brown, minutely granular- 

 roughened, but highly polished, boat-shaped, with rounded ends, the outer 

 face rounded with the edges folded inward around a deep longitudinal 

 groove, in the centre of which lies the dark coloured scar which sometimes 

 has a pale ring of dried mucilage around it. 



J'ime of Flowering : Throughout the summer ; seed ripe by July. 

 I'ropagation : By seeds. 



Occurrence : From Atlantic to Pacific, but much commoner in some 

 places than in others. Widely distributed with the seeds of clovers and 

 grasses. 



Injury : The chief injury by Eibgrass is due to the presence of the seeds 

 among those of grasses and clovers grown for sale. The plant itself is 

 palatable to stock and provides fodder of fair quality, although inferior to 

 the true grasses. 



Remedy : The ploughing down of infested meadows, and re-sowing with 

 clean seed. The plants can be removed from lawns in the same way as the 

 Common Plantain. 



The Hoaet Plantain, Plantago media, L. A plant which is much less 

 frequently seen than Eibgrass but which has the same wide range, from the 

 seed having been distributed with those of grasses, is the Hoary Plantain. 

 This has the ovate leaves thickly covered with white hairs, short-stalked 

 and always lying close to the ground in a dense rosette. It is deep-rooted 

 and more difficult to eradicate from lawns by spudding than the other 

 species here mentioned. The flower stalks are slender and about a foot 

 high. Flower heads showy by reason of their purple filaments and white 

 anthers, at first oval, gradually elongating to cylindrical spikes 1 to 3 inches 

 long, flowers pleasantly fragrant. Capsules oblong, 2 to .1-seeded, seed of the 

 boat-shaped clas.i, of about the same size as that of liibgrass, but thinner 

 and flatter, often somewhat twisted, with the edges not so roundly turned 

 in around the groove which bears the scar. Many seeds [Plate 54, fig. 27 

 — natural size and enlarged 8 times] show an indistinct shallow groove or 



76 



