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PLANTAGO PLANTAGINACE® 561 
Orper LXXITIT PLANTAGINACE Lindl. Nat. Syst 267. 
Annual or perennial herbs with mostly radical leaves and 
small flowers in bracted spikes or heads, or rarely solitary, on 
scapes or scape-like peduncles. Calyx inferior, 4-parted, per- 
sistent, the segments imbricated. Corolla scarious or mem- 
branaceous, mostly marcescent, 4-lobed. Stamens 4 or 2, 
filaments filiform: anthers versatile 2-celled, the cells dehiscent 
longitudinally. Ovary 1-2-celled or falsely 3-4-celled, with 1 
to several peltate-amphitropous ovules in each cell. Style 
filiform, simple, mostly longitudinally stigmatic. Fruit a pyxis, 
circumscissile at or below the middle, or an indehiscent nutlet. 
Cotyledons but little broader than the radicle. 
1 PLANTAGO Tourn. L. Sp. 112. 
Acaulescent or short-caulescent herbs with mostly radical par- 
allel-veined leaves and small white or greenish flowers in terminal 
spikes or heads. Calyx-segments equal, or 2 of them larger. 
Cerolla salverform, the tube cylindric, or constricted at the throat, 
the limb spreading in flower, spreading, erect or reflexe in fruit, 
4-lobed or 4-parted. Stamens 4 or 2. Ovary 2-celled, or falsely 
3—-4-celled. Fruit a membranaceous capsule. Seed-coat develop- 
ing copious mucilage when wetted. 
P. major L. Sp. 112. (Common Piaatain). Glabrous or more or less 
pubescent: rootstock perennial, short and thick, erect: leaves spreading 
or ascending, the blade mostly ovate, obtuse or acutish, entire or coarsely 
dentate, narrowed, rounded or cordate at base, 1-10 inches iong. on petioles 
often as long as the blade: scapes longer than the leaves: spikes linear- 
cylindric, usually very dense and blunt at the summit, 2-10 inches long: 
flowers perfect, proterogynous; sepals broadly ovate, scarious on the mar- 
gins, about half as long as the ovoid 5-16-seeded capsule. which is circum- 
scissile near the middle: corolla-lobes spreading on the summit of the 
capsule: anthers long-exserted on capillary filaments. Common in gardens 
and waysides. 
P. Asiatica L. Sp. 113. Leaves ovate or oval, several-ribbed, the base 
abruptly contracted into a distinct petiole, not fleshy: rootstock short and 
thick, perennial: scapes longer than the leaves: spikes 2-20 inches long, 
dense, Jinear-cylindrical: stamens 4, long-exserted: capsule: globose-ovoid, 
ci:cumscissile near the base and much within the calyx. Near the coast 
California to Alaska. 
P. eriopoda Torr. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. ii, 237. Perennial: base of the 
leaves and scapes densely invested with long rusty brown wool: leaves 
broadly lanceolate, 4-6 inches long, 1-2 inches broad, attenuate at each 
end, acute, entire, smooth, distinctly 5-nerved, long-petioled: scapes 6-12 
inches high, terete, very glabrous: spikes cylindrical, 3-6 inches long, of 
rather remote perfect flowers: bracts broadly ovate, obtusish: style and 
stamens long-exserted: capsule 2-celled, 4-5-seeded; seeds not hollowed. 
Eastern Washington to California and Colorado. 
P.. macrocarpa Cham. & Schl. Linn. i, 106. Leaves lanceolate, acute 
5-7-nerved, 5-15 inches long, 4-18 lines wide gradually tapering below 
into long margined petioles, often some of the outer. ones linear and with 
a dilated base much broader than the blade: rootstock thick, perennial: 
scapes equalling or surpassing the leaves, densely woolly above: spikes 
