Plantano. I'LANTAGINACE.K ^l\ 



* Leaves 3 - 1 -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 7-16-seedcd. 



San Diego to Oregon ; apparently s])aringly 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-r)-ribbo(l : 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 sjiike : 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 RibOTass, Ripplegrass, or English Plantain ; introduced 

 from Europe ; apparently not widely establislied. 



* * Leaves rihless or nearly so, fleshy and narrov). 



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

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

 ened, entire or with a few scattered sharp teeth : scapes a span or le.ss 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-cellcd, 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. Flowers of two kinds on different individuals, both with 4 stamens, one sort with 

 lonf/ exserted fllaments, the other with short included filaments and small 

 anthers, 



4. P. Patagonica, 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 inclies high, bearing a 

 dense cylindrical or oblong spike, in depauperate specimens fre(]uently reduced to a 

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

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

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

 — Gray, Man. ed. 5, 312, & in Pacif. R. Kep. 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 ea.stern side, under sev- 

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

 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- 

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

 3 - 7-ribl)ed, tapering into a narrowed base or wing-margined jietiole : scape n 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 rcflexed ; in the nnich 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. — 7^ Kamtchatica, Hook. Sc Am. Hot. IJeec.hey, lf)6. /'. Durvilici, var. Cali- 

 fornica, Fischer k Meyer, Ind. Som. Ilort. Petrop. 



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

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

 cfns, Nutt.) connects them. 



