Plantago. PLANTAGINACEiE. 611 



* Leaves 3 - 1 -ribbed, not fleshy : root j^erennial. 



1. P. major, Linn, Glabrous or sometimes pubescent : leaves ovate or broadly 

 oblong, large, abruptly contracted into a channelled petiole, 5 - 7-ribbed : spike 

 long and slender : capsule 7-1 6-seeded. 



San Die<^o to Oregon ; apparently sparingly naturalized in Califomia. This Wayside Plantain, 

 probably iSdigenous only to the Old World, is reported to spruigup in North America «« wherever 

 the white man has set his foot." 



2. P. lanceolata, Linn. jNIostly hairy : leaves lanceolate or elongated-oblong, 

 3 - 5-ribbed : scape deeply grooved and angled, slender, at length much surpassing 

 the leaves (a foot or two long), bearing a head which commonly lengthens into a 

 dense thick spike : bracts and sepals scarious, two of the latter commonly united 

 into one : capsule 2-seeded : seeds hollowed on the iimer face. 



Dry fields, near San Francisco. The Ribgi-ass, Ripplegrass, or English Plantain ; introduced 

 from Europe ; apparently not widely established. 



* * Leaves riUess or nearly so, fleshy and narroiv. 



3. P. maritima, Linn. Perennial or biennial : the thick crown more or less 

 woolly among the bases of the leaves, which are linear, usually much tleshy-thick- 

 ened, entire or with a few scattered sharp teeth : scapes a span or less m height, 

 bearing a dense many-flowered oblong or cylindrical spike : sepals scarious-mem- 

 branaceous with a thickish green centre, which in the posterior ones is crested : 

 capsule often more or less 3-4-celled, a single seed in each cell. 



Along the sea-shore, on rocks, in sand, or in salt-marshes. Widely dispersed over the world, 

 and varying in form. 

 § 2. Flowers of two hinds on different individuals, both with 4 stamens, one sort with 



long exserted filaments, the other ivith short included filaments and small 



anthers. 



4 P Patagonica, Jacq. Annual, silky-woolly, or sometimes merely pubes- 

 cent • leaves varying from narrowly linear-lanceolate to nearly filiform, entire or 

 sparino-ly denticulate, 1 - 3-nerved : scape slender, 2 to 6 inches high, bearing a 

 dense cylindrical or oblong spike, in depauperate specimens frequently reduced to a 

 head • flowers all perfect : sepals very obtuse, scarious except a thick central por- 

 tion • lobes of the corolla round-ovate and cordate, remaining expanded after an- 

 thesis • capsule 2-seeded : seeds large, deeply hollowed on the face or boat-shaped. 

 — Gray, Man. ed. 5, 312, & in Pacif. R. Rep. iv, 117, 



Open crrounds, common in the western part of the State, chiefly in a small form. Extends 

 sonthwanl almost to the extremity of the American continent, and on the eastern side under sev- 

 eral forms, from Texas through the Valley of the Mississippi and the great plains to the Sas- 

 katchawan district. 



5 P Virginica, Linn., var. maxima. Annual or biennial, pubescent or hir- 

 sute with many-jointed hairs, becoming woolly at the crown : leaves from oblanceo- 

 late to oblong and oval or obovate, 3 to 10 inches long, obtuse, sparingly denticulate, 

 3 -7-ribbed, tapering into a narrowed base or wing-margined petiole: scape a span 

 to a foot or more long, bearing a dense spike : bracts not longer than the calyx : 

 lobes of the rather small corolla ovate and slightly cordate ; m the long-stamened 

 and sterile form remaining open or reflexed ; in the much commoner and fully 

 fruitful form with small or included stamens, closing permanently over the ovary 

 and capsule and somewhat indurating in the form of a slender-conical beak cvov^nx- 

 ing the summit of the ovate obtuse 2-3-seeded capsule: seeds nearly flat on the 

 face. — P. Kamtchatica, Hook. & Arn. Eot. Beechey, 156. P. DurviUei, var. tali- 

 fornica, Fischer & Meyer, Ind. Sera. Hort. Petrop. 



Alon- the coast San Francisco Bay to Afonterey. The association of this robust plant with 

 the t?ny R^£. of the Atlauti.- border wiU appear strange ; but a Texan lorm ^P. i^urpuncs- 

 cens, Nutt.) connects them. 



