RIBAVORT PLANTAIN.— P/r/;;/'^-7o 



lanceolala. 



Class Tetrandria. (h'der Monogynia. Nat. Orel. Planta- 

 GiNE^.— Plantain Tribe. 



Although this has been employed in agri- 

 culture as a pasture plant, and was once very 

 generally believed to be a favourite food of 

 cattle, yet the opinion of modern scientific 

 agricultiu'ists is so much against it, that it is 

 now seldom sown. Tt is, how^evcr, frequent on 

 our meadows and pastures, flowering during 

 June and July, and where it abounds naturally 

 is a certain indication of a dry soil. When it 

 grows among grass, its leaves rise to a con- 

 siderable height, but on barren soils they are 

 shorter, broader, more spread over the ground, 

 and sometimes assume a silvery hue. Baron 

 Haller attributed the richness of the milk in 

 the Ali)ine dairies to the frequency of the Rib- 

 wort and the Lady's Mantle on the pasture 

 lands ; but Linnaeus ascertained that cows 

 refuse it, and later observations have confirmed 

 the fact. Another species of plantain which is 

 common on our sea-coasts, {FUmtofjo marltima^ 

 has also an old repute as a plant nuich relished 

 by cattle, and the Welsh call it the Sheep's- 

 favourite-morsel, and the Suet-producing. 



