PLANT AGIN ACE AE (PLANTAIN FAMILY) 



395 



range in recent years is due almost entirely to transportation in 

 baled hay and to the impurity of commercial seeds, especially those 

 of the red and alsike clovers. 



Leaves densely tufted, linear, long and grass-like, dark green, 

 softly hairy, three-nerved, with short, margined petioles, growing 

 from a somewhat thickened root which bores straight downward 

 into the soil for several inches. Scapes 

 erect, eight to fifteen inches high, exceed- 

 ing the leaves ; spikes densely flowered, 

 cylindric, two to six inches in length ; the 

 bracts, which subtend the flowers, are a 

 half-inch to an inch long, ascending, softly 

 hairy. Capsules oblong-ovoid, each con- 

 taining two seeds, which are nearly black 

 but appear gray from a coat of dried 

 mucilage, boat-shaped and hollowed on 

 the flattened inner face; they have also 

 a transverse ring around the outer surface 

 at the point of opening of the pyxis, the 

 seeds falling away with the cover, which 

 is winged with the persistent papery co- 

 rolla, enabling the seeds to be carried 

 a short distance by the wind, so that in 

 the second season after its introduction 



the plant is usually found covering the 



, . , , . ii- FIG. 274. Large- 



ground in dense colonies, choking out bracted P i antain (Pi an tago 



nearly all other growth. Also the long aristata). x J. 

 vitality of the seeds makes the weed a 



very persistent one when the ground has been once befouled. 

 (Fig. 274.) 



Means of control 



The plant is so grass-like that it is not noticeable until the 

 flower-spikes appear and these should immediately be cut in order 

 to prevent the ripening of any seed. If the infestation is new and 

 the area not too great, hand-pulling and burning is the best remedy. 

 But land badly seeded will require a series of cultivated crops in 

 order to cleanse it. 



