PLANT AGIflACElE. 261 



1-4-celled capsule, dehiscing circumscissilely, membranous, 1-or-more- 

 seeded. Seeds usually peltate ; testa thin, mucilaginous, albumen 

 fleshy ; embryo cylindric, transverse, radicle inferior. - Species over 

 200, chiefly in temperate and subtropical regions. The above descrip- 

 tion does not include the two anomalous monotypic genera Littorella, 

 and 'Bougueria. 



PLANTAGO. Linn.; PI. Brit. Ind. iv, 705. Characters of the Family. 



Flowering- spikes slender, 2-6 in. long ; cells of 

 capsule 4-8 seeded 1. P. major. 



Flowering spikes ovoid, |-1 in. long ; cells of 

 capsule 1-2 seeded . 2. P. amplexicaulis. 



1. P. major., Linn. Sp. PI. 112; F. B. I. iv, 705; Watt E. D. ; Collett Fl. 

 Siml. 407; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 477. P. asiatica, Linn.; Wall, in Roxb. 



Fl. Ind. ed. Carey and Wall, i, 423. 



A perennial herb, glabrous or nearly so. Rootstock stout, erect, truncate. 

 Leaves petioled, all radical, alternate, 2-5 in. long, oblong or oblong-ovate, 

 obtuse or subacute. entire or sinuate-toothed, 3-7 ribbed, base tapering 

 and decurrent into the long sheathing petiole. Flowers usually crowded 

 in long slender cylindric spikes, 3-6 in. long or more ; bracts equalling 

 or shorter than the calyx, concave, ovate-oblong, obtuse, margins 

 Bcarious. Calyx | in. long, glabrous ; sepals oblong, obtuse or subacute, 

 obtusely keeled on the back, margins broadly scarious. Corolla % in. 

 long, glabrous ; lobes lanceolate, acute, reflexed. Anthers purple. 

 Capsule 2-celled, ^ in. long, ovate, glabrous, splitting transversely 

 near the base, cells 4-8 seeded. Seeds minute, angled, dull-black, rugu- 

 lose. 



Dehra Dun and Siwalik range. Flowers in July. DISTBIB. Temperate 

 and alpine Himalaya from Kashmir to Bhutan and up to 12,000 ft. in 

 Baltistaii; Konkan, Deccan, Nilgiris and Ceylon; also in Assam, the 

 Khasia Hills, Burma and the Malay Peninsula, extending to Afghanistan 

 and westwards to the Atlantic. In many of the above-mentioned locali- 

 ties the plant has probably been introduced. The leaves are applied to 

 bruises in the Punjab, and the seeds are used medicinally as a substitute 

 for ispaghul (P. ovata). 



2. P, amplexicaulis, Cav. Ic. ii, 22 ; F. B. I. iv, 706; Watt E. D., Cook* 

 Fl . Bomb, ii, 477. P. Bauphula, Edgew. in Hook. Journ. Bot. ii, 285. 



Annual or perennial, sparsely hairy or glabrate, stemless or with a short 

 often branching stem. Leaves radical, alternate, 3-6 in. long, narrowly 

 lanceolate, acuminate, entire or sparingly toothed, tapering to the 

 sheathing base. Scapes many, axillary, usually exceeding the" leaves, 

 terete, glabrous. Spikes ovoid, -! in. long ; bracts in. long, cucullate, 

 broadly ovate-oblong, obtuse, glabrous, membranous except the green 

 midrib. Calyx as long as or slightly exceeding the bracts ; sepals ovate- 



