610 PLANTAGINACE.E. Lijipia. 



1. L. lycioides, Steudel. S]irul:.l)y, 4 to 10 feet high, minutely puberulent : 

 branches lung and slender ; branehlets sometimes spinescent : leaves lanceolate- 

 oblong, obtuse (a quarter to a full inch long), narrowed at base into a slight petiole, 

 1 -nerved, nearly veinless, roughish above, on flowering stems commonly entire: 

 flowers small, vanilla-scented, in slender naked spikes : calyx very hirsute i-cleft • 

 corolla barely 2 lines long, white or bluish, 4-lobed. ' 



_ No 548 in the Californian collection of Co%ater. More likely collected in the Mexican prov- 

 ince of feonora, where it was found by Dr. Palmer, whence it extends eastward to Texas. Also 

 a native oi Buenos Ayres, &c. 



2. L. nodiflora, Michx. Perennial 1 herb, creeping extensively, minutely cine- 

 reous-pubescent or nearly glabrous : leaves cuneate-spatulate or oblanceolate, sessile 

 or nearly so, obscurely veined or veinless, the tapering base entire, from the middle 

 to the apex sharply serrate : peduncles erect from the rooting joints, 1 to 4 inches 

 long much exceeding the leaves : flowers in a globular or at length cylindraceous 

 head, a quarter of an inch thick : bracts closely imbricated : calyx compressed 

 fore and aft, 2-cleft, 2-carinate, the lobes conduplicate, linear-lanceolate, lateral- 

 corolla purplish or white, bilabiate: fruit corky, not readily separating into the 2 

 nutlets. — Zcqmnia nodiflora. Lam. Li^jpia lanceolata, Torr. Bot. Wilkes Exp 

 403, not of Michx. ' 



Banks of the Lower Sacramento and San Joaquin to the Eio Colorado: east to Texas and 

 J^lorida; and widely dispersed over the warm regions of the world. Includes several nominal 



Spi?ClGS, 



Order LXXV. PLANTAGINACE^. 



Stemless herbs with flowers in spikes, the 4-cleft regular corollas dry and scarious, 

 consisting almost wholly of the genus, 



1. PLANTAGO, Linn. Tlantain. PaBCKAss. 

 Flowers perfect, or sometimes more or less dioecious, in a spike or head, each sub- 

 tended by a bract. Calyx of 4 persistent imbricated sepals, free from the ovary. 

 Corolla hypogynous, of scarious texture, veinless, withering-persistent, short salver- 

 form ; its limb 4-parted, imbricated in the bud. Stamens 2 to 4, inserted on the 

 corolla alternate with its lobes : filaments commonly long and flaccid in anthesis : 

 anthers versatile, 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Ovary 2-celled, or by a false parti- 

 tion in some 3-4-celled, with one or more amphitropous ovules in each cell : style 

 filiform, all the upper part pubescent or bearded and stigmatic. Fruit a membrana- 

 ceous or coriaceous capsule, circumscissile towards the base, the upper part falling 

 away as a lid, carrying with it the loose partition, which bears one or more peltate 

 seeds on each fiice. Seed-coat mucilaginous when wet. Embryo straight, about 

 the length of the fleshy albumen. — Mostly stemless herbs, with nerved or ribbed 

 radical leaves, and naked scapes of small mostly greenish flowers. 



A large genus, widely distributed over the world, mainly in the temperate zones, in Europe 

 accompanied by a monoecious genus, LUtorella, but otherwise having no obvious near relation- 

 snip, ihe JNorth American species are few. 



§ 1. Flowers all alike and perfect, rvitJi the 4 stamens and long style both much ex- 

 serted, hut at different periods, i. e. the latter while the stamens are still in the 

 unopened corolla, these protruded hy the elongation of the slender filaments a 

 day or two later, after the stigma has begun to wither: lobes of the corolla not 

 closed after fioioering. 



