PL ANT AGIN ACE^. (PLANTAIN FAMILY.) 423 



exserted filaments, and fugacious 2-celled anthers. Ovary 2- (or in n. 5 falsely 

 3 - 4-) celled, with 1 - several ovules in each cell. Style and long hairy stigma 

 single, filiform. Capsule 2-celled, 2 - several-seeded, opening transversely, 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.) 



1. Stamens 4; flowers all perfect; corolla not closed over the fruit. 

 * Flowers proterogynous, the style first projecting from the unopened corolla , the 

 anthers long-exserted after the corolla has opened ; seeds not hollowed on the 

 face (except in P. lanceolata). 



- Corolla glabrous ; leaves strongly ribbed ; perennial. 

 *+ Ribs of the broad leaves rising from the midrib. 



1. P. COrdata, Lam. Tall, glabrous ; leaves heart-shaped or round-ovate 

 (3-8' long), long-petioled ; spike at length loosely flowered; bracts round- 

 ovate, fleshy; capsule 2 - 4-seeded. Along streams, N. Y. to Minn., and 



southward. 



++ *-. Ribs of the leaf free to the contracted base. 



2. P. maj or, L. (COMMON PLANTAIN.) Smooth or rather hairy, rarely 

 roughish; leaves ovate, oblong, oval, or slightly heart-shaped, often toothed, 

 abruptly narrowed into a channelled petiole ; spike dense, obtuse ; sepals round- 

 ovate or obovate; capsule ovoid, circumscissile near the middle, 8- IS-seeded ; 

 seeds angled, reticulated. Waysides and near dwellings everywhere. Doubt- 

 less introduced from Eu., but native from L. Superior and N. Minn., northward. 



3. P. Rugelii, Decaisne. Leaves as in the last, but paler and thinner; 

 spikes long and thin, attenuate at the apex; sepals oblong, acutely carinate ; 

 capsules cylindraceous-oblong, circumscissile much below the middle, 4 - ^-seeded ; 

 seeds oval-oblong, not reticulated. (P. Kamtschatica, Gray, Man., not Cham.) 

 Vt. to Minn., south to Ga. and Tex. 



4 P. eriopoda, Torr. Usually a mass of yellowish 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 ^-seeded. Moist and saline soil ; Red River valley, Minn., and 

 westward; also on the Lower St. Lawrence. 



P. LANCEOLATA, L. (RlBGRASS. RlPPLEGRASS. ENGLISH PLANTAIN.), 



Mostly hairy; scape grooved-angled, at length much longer than the lanceo- 

 late or lance-oblong leaves, slender (9'-2 high) ; spike dense, at first capitate, 

 in age cylindrical ; bract and sepals scarious, brownish ; seeds 2, hollowed on 

 the face. Very common. (Nat. from Eu.) 



- -t- Corolla-tube externally pubescent ; leaves linear or filiform, fleshy, indis- 

 tinctly ribbed; seeds 2-4; maritime, often woolly at base. 



5. P. decipiens, Barneoud. Annual, or sometimes biennial with a stout 

 rootstock, smooth, or the scape pubescent ; leaves flat or flattish and channelled, 

 erect, nearly as long as the scape (5- 12'), acuminate ; spike slender, rather 

 loose. (P. maritima, var. juncoides, Gray, Man.) Salt marshes, Atlantic 

 coast, from Labrador to N. J. The characters distinguishing biennial speci- 

 mens of this from the next are obscure. 



