110 SUMMER FLOWERS. 



from among which the flowering stems, simple and leafless, grow 

 up to the height of from three or four to six or eight inches, 

 and terminate in a round head of numerous flowers, these 

 flowers being intermixed with scarious or dry membrane-like 

 scales, of which the outer series form themselves into a kind 

 of involucre, and the two outermost of all are lengthened be- 

 low their insertion, so as to form a sheath around the upper 

 part of the stalk. The flowers are pink, sometimes varying 

 to white or deep rose-pink. They have a tubular funnel- 

 shaped calyx, of a dryish scarious texture, with a petal-like 

 border crowned by five short slender teeth, and a five-lobed 

 corolla, of which the lobes are scarcely united in the lower 

 parts, so that the plants are barely monopetalous ; there are 

 besides, fivte stamens, and a one-celled ovary surmounted by 

 five simple styles, which are hairy in the lower part. 



In dry limestone pastures will be seen, numerous in many 

 localities, rosulate tufts of broad-ovate leaves, spreading close 

 to the ground, and producing from among them upright spikes 

 of insignificant flowers. These are the Plantains, represen- 

 tatives of the Plantaginaceous family, another group of regular- 

 flowered perigynous Monopetals. The Hoary Plantain* has 

 the leaves ovate sessile, their surface hoary from the pre- 

 sence of numerous whitish downy hairs, and marked with five 

 or seven longitudinal ribs ; they spread in a compact tuft close 

 to the ground. The flowers are in cylindrical spikes, one to 

 two inches long, closely packed, the spikes terminating simple 

 leafless scapes or flower-stalks, which issue from among the 

 rosette of root-leaves, and rise six or eight inches high. These 

 flowers consist of a calyx of four sepals, a small whitish sca- 

 rious corolla with a short tube and four spreading lobes, four 

 much-protruded stamens with purplish anthers, a long simple 



* Plantago media Plate 18 D. 



