PLANTAGINACEAE (PLANTAIN FAMILY) 



393 



Range : New Brunswick to the Northwest Territory and Alaska, 



southward to Florida and Kansas. 

 Habitat: Grasslands. 



A much more pernicious weed than its broad-leaved relatives; 

 they seem to prefer yard and roadside, but this species overruns 

 meadows and pastures. Cattle feed on the plant without any 

 apparent dislike, though it is stringy 

 and somewhat bitter and detracts from 

 the quality of the dairy products. 

 (Fig. 273.) 



Rootstock short and thick, with many 

 branching rootlets. Leaves thickly 

 tufted, oblong-lance-shaped, thick, en- 

 tire, hairy on both sides with small tufts 

 of brownish hair at the base, three- to 

 seven-ribbed, tapering to margined peti- 

 oles. Scape very slender, strong and 

 wiry, five-grooved, hairy; the spike at 

 its summit is at first capitate and very 

 dense, but lengthens with the procession 

 of bloom, becoming cylindric and more 

 than an inch long ; calyx-lobes and sub- 

 tending bracts greenish brown, scarious. 

 Capsule longer than the calyx, slightly 

 narrowed upward, the pyxis opening at 

 about the middle and containing but 

 two seeds, grooved on the inner face. 

 produce about a thousand seeds ; these are a very common 

 impurity of grass and clover seeds. When wet, the seeds are 

 very mucilaginous, a quality which aids their distribution. 



FIG. 273. Narrow-leaved 

 tai ^ Planta <> knceo- 



An average plant will 



Means of control 



Sow clean seed. Small areas in lawn or yard may be treated with 

 carbolic acid after piercing each plant to the root with a skewer or 

 pointed stick ; or the weeds may be killed by deep cutting with hoe 

 or spud. But rankly infested meadows and pastures should be 

 plowed under, and a well-tilled hoed crop inserted in the rota- 

 tion before reseeding. 



