226 PLANTAIN. 



leaves, woolly at their base ; and the Buck's-horn Plantain (P. 

 Coronopus) an annual, with linear pinna tifid leaves, and the cap- 

 sule with four cells, each containing a single seed. There are 

 several varieties of P. major, such as the Rose Plantain, in 

 which the flowers appear expanded into leaves like a rose, and 

 the besom Plantain, in which they are imbricated, in a pyrami- 

 dal form. 



According to the Swedish experiments the foliage of the 

 Greater Plantain is refused by kine and horses, but eaten 

 by goats, sheep, and swine. The seed is well known as the 

 favourite food of many small birds. 



Qualities. — This plant is inodorous; the leaves have an 

 herbaceous, bitterish, slightly acrimonious, and sub-astringent 

 taste ; the root, especially when dried, has more of a sweetish 

 taste and tinges the saliva of a reddish colour. The aqueous 

 infusion of the fresh leaves is transparent, becoming dark and 

 opaque, and precipitating slowly on the addition of sulphate 

 of iron. The unexpanded flower-spike has a more austere 

 styptic taste than the leaves. The seeds, although somewhat 

 acrid, contain a large quantity of mucilage. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — Themison is reputed to 

 have first introduced the Plantain into use. Dioscorides * is 

 very lavish of praise with regard to its manifold virtues ; he 

 commends it in inflammations, pustules, bleedings, bites of rabid 

 animals, tumours, ulcers, also for ophthalmia, hysteric fits, dysen- 

 teries, &c, externally applied, and internally for fluxes, haemor- 

 rhages, dysentery, asthma, phthisis, ulcers in the kidneys and 

 bladder ; and as a remedy for intermittent fevers. Galen f fol- 

 lows him with nearly the same category, to which he adds, ob- 

 structions of the liver and kidneys. Boyle % pronounces it a 

 very excellent remedy for vomiting and spitting of blood. 

 Celsus § recommended the juice, and Pliny the decoction of the 

 plant, for phthisical persons. Schulz || states, that the juice mixed 

 with honey has proved beneficial in phthisis. Lentilius ^f and 



* Mat. Med. lib. ii. c 153. 



t De Simpl. lib. vi. 



J De Util. Phil. Nat. part ii. p. 150. 



§ De Med. lib. iii. c. 22. 



|| Mat. Med. p. 412. 



^[ Eteodromus, p. 3565. 



