268 PLANTAGINACE^E. (PLANTAIN FAMILY.) 



fruit globular. (B. lanuginosa & tomcntosa, A. DC.) Woods, Illinois, oppo- 

 site St. Louis, and southward, a variety with the leaves less woolly and rusty 

 beneath (B. oblongifolia, Nutt.), passing towards No. 1. July. 



ORDER 68. PLANTAGINACE^. (PLANTAIN FAMILY.) 



Chiefly stemless herbs, with regular 4-merous spiked flowers , the stamens 

 inserted on the tube of the dry and membranaceous veinless monopetalous 

 corolla, alternate with its lobes ; chiefly represented by the genus 



1. PJLANTACtO, L. PLANTAIN. HIBGRASS. 



Calyx of 4 imbricated persistent sepals, with dry membranaceous margins. 

 Corolla salver-form, withering on the pod, the border 4-parted. Stamens 4, or 

 rarely 2, in all or some flowers with long and weak exserted filaments, and fuga- 

 cious 2-celled anthers. Ovary 2- (or falsely 3-4-) celled, with 1- several ovules 

 in each cell. Pod 2-cclled, 2 - several-seeded, opening all round by a transverse 

 line, so that the top falls off like a lid, and the loose partition (which bears the 

 peltate seeds) falls away. Embryo straight, in fleshy albumen. Leaves ribbed. 

 Flowers whitish, small, in a bracted spike or head, raised on a naked scape. 

 (The Latin name of the Plantain.) 



$ 1. Flowers all perfect and alike: corolla glabrous, the lobes reflexed or spreading : 

 stamens 4, with long capillary filaments : pod ^.-celled, 2-18-seeded: seeds not hol- 

 lowed out on the inner face : perennials, with several-ribbed (broad) leaves. 



1. P. MAJOR, L. (COMMON PLANTAIN.) Smooth or hairy; leaves ovate, 

 oval, or slightly heart-shaped, often toothed, abruptly narrowed into a chan- 

 nelled petiole; spike cylindrical ; pod 7 - 1 Q-seeded. Moist grounds, especially 

 near dwellings. June -Sept. Very much varying in size. (Nat. from Eu.) 



2. P. <'Ol'$S ;it;i, Lam. Very glabrous ; leaves heart-shaped or round-ovate 

 (3' -8' long), long-petioled, the ribs rising from the midrib; spike at length loose- 

 ly flowered ; bracts round-ovate, fleshy ; pod 2 4-seeded. Along rivulets, New 

 York to Wisconsin (rare), and southward. April- June. 



$ 2. Flowers all perfect and alike : corolla pubescent beloiv : stamens 4, with long 

 filaments : pods 2-celled and 2-seeded, or incompletely 3-4-celled and 3 -4-seeded: 

 seeds not hollowed on the face : perennials, ivith linear thick and fleshy leaves. 



3. P. maritiimi, L. (SEASIDE PLANTAIN.) Leaves flat or flattish 

 channelled, entire or rarely few-toothed, glabrous ; spikes cylindrical or oblong ; 

 bracts ovate, convex, about the length of the broadly ovate or oval scarious se- 

 pals, which have a thick keel, that of the posterior sepals crested. Var. JUN- 

 COIDES is usually more slender, the flowers often sparser, and the keel crestless. 

 Salt marshes on the coast from New Jersey northward; the var. only north- 

 ward. (Eu.) 



$ 3. Flowers nil perfect and alike ; thu 2 anterior scarious sepals generally united into 

 one: corolla, slaim-ns, <$r. as >.n the first, group: seeds (and ucules) 2, hollowed on 

 the face: lea res Jlat, lanceolate, 3 - 5-n'WW. 



