PLANTAIN FAMILY. Plantaginaceae. 



PLANTAIN FAMILY. Plantaginacecp.. 



Homely herbs — weeds — generally with coarse, strong- 

 ribbed leaves springing from the root, and insignificant 

 flowers in long narrow spikes, perfect, or polygamous — 

 that is, staminate and pistillate on the same plant or 

 different plants — and even cleistogamous — that is, fer- 

 tilizing in the bud. 



The familar weed of unkempt dooryards 

 Plantain anc * grass-plots, with ovate, dark green, 



Plantago slightly hairy or smooth leaves, the long 



fhajor stems trough-shaped, the ribs conspicuous, 



Dull white an( j the e dge generally toothless, or rarely 

 September coarse- toothed. The flowering spikes are 

 cylindrical, blunt-tipped, and closely set 

 with the dull, greenish white, four-lobed, perfect florets 

 which mature the threadlike style before the corolla 

 is fully open, the former projecting. The four stamens 

 mature much later and thus insure cross-fertilization. 

 Seed-capsule ovoid and opening near the middle, the 

 seeds reticulated. Flowering stalks 6-18 inches high. 

 Common everywhere, indigenous northwestward but 

 naturalized from Europe on the Atlantic seaboard. 

 Plantago Similar to the preceding ; the leaves 



Rugelii thinner, the flowering spikes less dense 



June- and attenuated above, and the seed-cap- 



September sules cylindrical-oblong ; the latter open 

 below the middle and quite within the four lobes of 

 the calyx. The seeds are not reticulated. Common 

 from Vt., south to Ga. and Tex., west to S. Dak. 



^ ., .. ™ A similar more or less fine-hairy Euro- 



English Plan. J 



tain. Ribgrass P ean species, naturalized and very com- 

 Plantago mon. The leaves are long lance-shaped, 



lanceolata nearly erect, generally three-ribbed, acute 



D" n w ™te and toot hiess ; at the base of the leaves 

 the hairiness is dark rust-color. The flower- 

 spike is dense and short, bearing similar dull white flow- 

 ers. But the conspicuously grooved stalk is 8-22 inches 

 high. Old fields and waste places throughout our 

 range. 



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