Plantago. PLANTAGINACE^E. 611 



* Leaves 3 - 7 '-ribbed, not fleshy : root perennial. 



1. P. major, Linn. Glabrous or sometimes pubescent : leaves ovate or broadly 

 oblong, large, abruptly contracted into a channelled petiole, 5 - 7-ribbed : spike 

 long and slender : capsule 7-1 6-seeded. 



San Diego to Oregon ; apparently sparingly naturalized in California. This Wayside Plantain, 

 probably indigenous only to the Old World, is reported to spring up in North America " wherever 

 the white man has set his foot." 



2. P. lanceolata, Linn. Mostly hairy : leaves lanceolate or elongated-oblong, 

 3 - 5-ribbed : scape deeply grooved and angled, slender, at length much surpassing 

 the leaves (a foot or two long), bearing a head which commonly lengthens into a 

 dense thick spike : bracts and sepals scarious, two of the latter commonly united 

 into one : capsule 2-seeded : seeds hollowed on the inner face. 



Dry fields, near San Francisco. The Ribgrass, Ripplegrass, or English Plantain ; introduced 

 from Europe ; apparently not widely established. 



* * Leaves ribless or nearly so, fleshy and narrow. 



3. P. maritima, Linn. Perennial or biennial : the thick crown more or less 

 woolly among the bases of the leaves, which are linear, usually much fleshy-thick- 

 ened, entire or with a few scattered sharp teeth : scapes a span or less in height, 

 bearing a dense many-flowered oblong or cylindrical spike : sepals scarious-mem- 

 branaceous with a thickish green centre, which in the posterior ones is crested : 

 capsule often more or less 3 4-celled, a single seed in each cell. 



Along the sea-shore, on rocks, in sand, or in salt-marshes. Widely dispersed over the world, 

 and varying in form. 



2. Floivers of two kinds on different individuals, both with 4 stamens, one sort with 

 long exserted filaments, the other with short included filaments and small 

 anthers. 



4. P. Fatagonica, Jacq. Annual, silky- woolly, or sometimes merely pubes- 

 cent : leaves varying from narrowly linear-lanceolate to nearly filiform, entire or 

 sparingly denticulate, 1 - 3-nerved : scape slender, 2 to 6 inches high, bearing a 

 dense cylindrical or oblong spike, in depauperate specimens frequently reduced to a 

 head : flowers all perfect : sepals very obtuse, scarious except a thick central por- 

 tion : lobes of the corolla round-ovate and cordate, remaining expanded after an- 

 thesis : capsule 2-seeded : seeds large, deeply hollowed on the face or boat-shaped. 



- Gray, Man. ed. 5, 312, & in Pacif. E. Rep. iv. 117. 



Open grounds, common in the western part of the State, chiefly in a small form. Extends 

 southward almost to the extremity of the American continent, and on the eastern side, under sev- 

 eral forms, from Texas through the Valley of the Mississippi and the great plains to the Sas- 

 katchawan district. 



5. P. Virginica, Linn., var. maxima. Annual or biennial, pubescent or hir- 

 sute with many-jointed hairs, becoming woolly at the crown : leaves from oblanceo- 

 late to oblong and oval or obovate, 3 to 10 inches long, obtuse, sparingly denticulate, 

 3 - 7-ribbed, tapering into a narrowed base or wing-margined petiole : scape a span 

 to a foot or more long, bearing a dense spike : bracts not longer than the calyx : 

 lobes of the rather small corolla ovate and slightly cordate ; in the long-stamened 

 and sterile form remaining open or reflexed ; in the much commoner and fully 

 fruitful form with small or included stamens, closing permanently over the ovary 

 and capsule and somewhat indurating in the form of a slender-conical beak, crown- 

 ing the summit of the ovate obtuse 2 - 3-seeded capsule : seeds nearly flat on the 

 face. P. Kamtchatica, Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beechey, 156. P. Durvillei, var. Cali- 

 fornica, Fischer & Meyer, Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. 



Along the coast, San Francisco Bay to Monterey. The association of this robust plant with 

 the tiny P. Virginica of the Atlantic border will appear strange ; but a Texan form (P. purpuras- 

 cens, Nutt.) connects them. 



