THE PLANTAIN. 



383 



born/' bred by the way-side ; and it is ridiculous to 

 bring the German name in support of the error, as 

 although in some illegible old MS. the second initial 

 consonants in way -tread and way -bread, might 

 be easily confounded, such a mistake between the 

 German tritt, tread, and brod, bread, is by no 

 means so likely to have arisen. A similar meaning 

 is expressed in the Welsh names Llyriad erllyriad, 

 "creeping or overspreading, follower;" Llyriad sawdl 

 Christ, "follower of the heel of Christ/' and Henlly- 

 dan y fordd, " old broad of the road." So universal 

 is the dissemination of the plant wherever Northern 

 nations make their home, and so perseveringly does 

 it follow their path, that the American Indians have 

 poetically named it " footstep 

 of the white ;" and its preva- 

 lence is, I believe, no less re- 

 markable in the " settled dis- 

 tricts" of Australia and New 

 Zealand. "Richardson derives 

 the name of plantain, plan- 

 tag r o, from the resemblance of 

 the form of the leaf (of at 

 least one species, the P. m ajor) 

 to the sole of the human foot ; 

 but I rather incline to the 

 more general opinion, that this 

 also relates to the way-side 

 growth of the tribe, which 

 seems to love situations trod- 

 den by the foot of man, 

 humbly offering to the passer-by its leaves as a salve 



COMMON PLANTAIN. 

 Plantdgo major. 



