PLANTAGINACEAE (PLANTAIN FAMILY) 



745 



902. P. major. 

 Fruit x 31/3. 





2. P. major L. (COMMON P.) Smooth or rather hairy, sometimes roughish ; 

 leaves thick and leathery, 0.5-3 dm. long, the blade from broad-elliptic to cordate- 

 ovate, undulate or more or less toothed, the broad petiole channeled ; scapes 



1.5-9 dm. high, commonly curved-ascending ; spike dense, obtuse, 

 becoming 1-4 dm. long ; sepals round-ovate or obovate ; capsule 

 ovoid, circumscissile near the middle, 8-18-seeded ; seeds angled, 

 reticulated. Waysides and near dwellings, exceedingly common. 

 FIG. 902. Sometimes with leafy -bracted scapes or with panicu- 

 late-branched inflorescences. (Cosmopolitan.) Var. INTERMEDIA 

 (Gilibert) Dene. Leaves lance-ovate to narrowly elliptic, coarsely 

 sinuate-dentate, sometimes densely pubescent, closely rosulate. 

 (P. halophila Bicknell.) Salt marshes and coastal rocks, Me. 

 to N. J. (Eurasia.) 



Var. asiatica (L.) Dene. Leaves upright, the thin smooth 



blades tapering to slender petioles; scapes erect. River-banks, etc., e. Que. 



to B. C., s. to n. N. E., L. Superior, N. Dak., Col., etc. (Asia.) 



3. P. Rugelii Dene. Leaves as in no. 2, but paler and thinner, the rather 

 slender petioles crimson at base ; spikes long and thin, attenuate at the apex; 

 sepals oblong, acutely carinate ; capsules cyUndraceous, circum- 

 scissile much below the middle, 4-$-seeded ; seeds oval, not reticu- 

 lated. N. B. to Out. and Minn., s. to Ga. and Tex. FIG. 903. 



4. P. sparsiflbra Michx. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, often very 

 long (3-4 dm.), villous to glabrous ; scape elongate, terminated by 

 a long loosely flowered spike ; sepals oval, rigid ; capsules ellipsoid, 

 about twice as long as the calyx, circumscissile toward the base, 

 ^-seeded. Pine barrens and damp sands, S. C. to Fla. ; reported 

 from s. 111. 



5. P. eri6poda Torr. Usually with a mass of yelloicish wool 

 at the base; leaves thickish, oblanceolate to obovate, with short 

 stout petioles ; spike dense or loose ; sepals and bract more or less 

 scarious but not carinate ; capsule ovoid, never over 4-seeded. 



Salt marshes, e. Que. to N. S. ; saline soil, Red River valley, Minn., ton. Cal. 

 and the Arctic region. 



6. P. decipiens Barneoud. (SEASIDE P.) Leaves linear to nearly filiform, ' 

 1-10 mm. broad, entire or remotely serrate, fleshy, indistinctly ribbed; scapes 

 slightly pubescent below, densely so at tip, 2-30 cm. high, from erect to strongly 

 arcuate ; spikes slender-cylindric, 0.5-12 cm. long, dense or loose ; scales and 

 sepals from drab to purplish-brown ; corolla-tube often pubescent ; seeds 2-4. 

 (P. maritima Man. ed. 6, not L.) Salt marshes and maritime rocks, Greenl. 

 and Lab. to N. J. Very variable in size and habit, the most dwarf extreme 

 sometimes separated as P. borealis Lange. 



7. P. LANCEOLA.TA, L. (RlB GRASS, RlPPLE GRASS, ENGLISH P.) Mostly 



hairy ; scape grooved-angled, at length much longer than the lanceolate or 

 lance-oblong leaves, slender, 2-7 dm. high ; spike dense, at first capitate, in age 

 cylindrical ; bracts and sepals scarious, brownish ; seeds 2, hollowed on the 

 face. Very common in grass land. (Nat. from Eu.) 



8. P. MEDIA L. ( HOARY P.) Resembling the preceding, but with shorter 

 ovate or broad-oblong finely canescent leaves; the cylindric spike 2.5-8 cm. 

 long ; seeds slightly concave or flat on the face ; flowers fragrant. Sparingly 

 in fields, etc., Me. to Ont. and N. Y. (Adv. from Eu.) 



* * Flowers of 2 sorts (as respects length of anthers and filaments} on different 

 plants, mostly cleistogamous ; corolla-lobes broad, rounded, persistentlij 

 spreading; seeds 2, boat-shaped; inflorescence and narrow leaves silky- 

 pubescent or woolly ; annual. 



. P. Piirshii R. & S. White with silky wool; leaves 1-3-nerved, varying from 

 oblong-linear to filiform; spike slender-cylindric, very dense, 0.5-15 cm. long, 

 woolly ; bracts not exceeding the calyx ; sepals very obtuse, scarious, with a thick 

 center. (P. patagonica Jacq. , var. gnaphalioides Gray.) Prairies and dry plains, 

 Minn, to Ind., Ky., Tex., and westw. to the Pacific ; adventive eastw. to N. E. 



P. Kugelii. 

 Fruit x 3%. 



