PLATE 38. 



COMMON PLANTAIN, Planiago major, L. 



Other English names: Broad-leaf Plantain, Greater Plantain, Door- 

 yard Plantain, Bird-seed Plantain. 



Introduced and native. Perennial. Kootstock short and thick, erect, 

 bearing many thick spreading roots and a large tuft of dark green oval, 

 long-petioled, coarsely toothed, spreading or ascending leaves and several 

 long dense spikes 3 to 12 inches long of inconspicuous flowers with purple 

 anthers. Seed capsules oval, dividing about the middle. Seeds [Plate 54, 

 fig. 25 natural size and enlarged 8 times] greenish brown, very variable in 

 size and shape, according to the number in the capsule, which varies on differ- 

 ent plants from 8 to 16, rounded on the outer face, angular on the inner 

 or scar side ; scar pale and conspicuous ; the surface of the seed is finely netted 

 with broken waved lines of dark brown, which radiate from the scar, average 

 length one-twentieth of an inch. 



Time of Flowering : May, throughout the summer ; seed ripe in July. 

 Propagation : By seeds. 



Occurrence : In various forms, some of which may be distinct species 

 as indicated by the difference in habit and the degree of pubescence. Through- 

 out the Dominion. Generally growing in rich moist soil. 



Injury : Troublesome in meadows from reducing the grade of the seed 

 and causing much extra expense in cleaning the seeds of grasses and clovers. 

 On lawns the flat rosettes of leaves crowd out the grass and give an untidy 

 appearance. 



Remedy : Meadows to be left for seed should be thoroughly cleaned 

 with hoed crops or by other special means and seeded down with well cleaned 

 seed. In removing Plantains from lawns, a sharp knife should be run 

 round deeply close to the crown, and the plant removed. This method dis- 

 figures the lawn far less than by digging out all the roots. 



THE PALE PLANTAIN, Plantago Rugellii, Dec. Occurring with the Com- 

 mon Plantain, may often be found a rather larger plant with more erect 

 smooth leaves of a paler or yellowish green, with the leaf-stalks purple at 

 the base. The spikes are longer, and the flowers less crowded. The cap- 

 sules more pointed, 4 to 9-seeded, opening below the middle. Seeds [Plate 

 54, fig. 26 natural size and enlarged 8 times] of the same angular shape 

 as those of the Common Plantain, but about twice as large, and nearly 

 black, with the surface merely roughened, not lined and netted. The seeds 

 are a very common impurity in those of Timothy and Alsike. 



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