610 PLANTAGINACE^E. Lippia. 



1. L. lycioides, Steudel. Shrubby, 4 to 10 feet high, minutely puberulent : 

 branches long arid slender ; branchlets sometimes spinescent : leaves lanceolate- 

 oblong, obtuse (a quarter to a full inch long), narrowed at base into a slight petiole, 

 1-nerved, nearly veinless, roughish above, on flowering stems commonly entire : 

 flowers small, vanilla-scented, in slender naked spikes : calyx very hirsute, 4-cleft : 

 corolla barely 2 lines long, white or bluish, 4-lobed. 



No. 548 in the California!! collection of Coulter. More likely collected in the Mexican prov- 

 ince of Sonora, where it was found by Dr. Palmer, whence it extends eastward to Texas. Also 

 a native of Buenos Ayres, &c. 



2. L. nodiflora, Michx. Perennial 1 herb, creeping extensively, minutely cine- 

 reous-pubescent or nearly glabrous : leaves cuneate-spatulate or oblanceolate, sessile 

 or nearly so, obscurely veined or veinless, the tapering base entire, from the middle 

 to the apex sharply serrate : peduncles erect from the rooting joints, 1 to 4 inches 

 long, much exceeding the leaves : flowers in a globular or at length cylindraceous 

 head, a quarter of an inch thick : bracts closely imbricated : calyx compressed 

 fore and aft, 2-cleft, 2-carinate, the lobes conduplicate, linear-lanceolate, lateral : 

 corolla purplish or white, bilabiate : fruit corky, not readily separating into the 2 

 nutlets. Zapania nodiflora, Lam. Lippia lanceolata, Torr. Bot. Wilkes Exp., 

 403, not of Michx. 



Banks of the Lower Sacramento and San Joaquin to the Rio Colorado: east to Texas and 

 Florida ; and widely dispersed over the warm regions of the world. Includes several nominal 

 species. 



ORDER LXXV. PLANTAGINACE^l. 



Stemless herbs with flowers in spikes, the 4-cleft regular corollas dry and scarious, 

 consisting almost wholly of the genus, 



1. PLANTAGO, Linn. PLANTAIN. RIBGRASS. 



Flowers perfect, or sometimes more or less dioecious, in a spike or head, each sub- 

 tended by a bract. Calyx of 4 persistent imbricated sepals, free from the ovary. 

 Corolla hypogynous, of scarious texture, veinless, withering-persistent, short salver- 

 form ; its limb 4-parted, imbricated in the bud. Stamens 2 to 4, inserted on the 

 corolla alternate with its lobes : filaments commonly long and flaccid in anthesis : 

 anthers versatile, 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Ovary 2-celled, or by a false parti- 

 tion in some 3 4-celled, with one or more amphitropous ovules in each cell : style 

 filiform, all the upper part pubescent or bearded and stigmatic. Fruit a membrana- 

 ceous or coriaceous capsule, circumscissile towards the base, the upper part falling 

 away as a lid, carrying with it the loose partition, which bears one or more peltate 

 seeds on each face. Seed-coat mucilaginous when wet. Embryo straight, about 

 the length of the fleshy albumen. Mostly stemless herbs, with nerved or ribbed 

 radical leaves, and naked scapes of small mostly greenish flowers. 



A large genus, widely distributed over the world, mainly in the temperate zones, in Europe 

 accompanied by a monrecious genus, Littorella, but otherwise having no obvious near relation- 

 ship. The North American species are few. 



1. Flowers all alike and perfect, with the 4 stamens and long style both much ex- 

 serted, but at different periods, i. e. the latter while the stamens are still in the 

 unopened corolla, these protruded by the elongation of the slender filaments a 

 day or two later, after the stigma has begun to wither : lobes of the corolla not 

 closed after floivering. 



