300 PLANT AGIN ACE^. (PLANTAIN FAMILY.) 



exterior one and the bract more or less carinate: capsule ovoid, very obtuse, 

 circumscissile near the middle and near the level of the summit of the sepals. 

 — Introduced to the east, but also native from Lake Superior westward and 

 northward. "Common Plantain." 



2. P. eriopoda, Torr. Usually a mass of yelloioish ivool at the crown : 

 leaves oblanceolate to oval-obovate, fleshy-coriaceous, 3 to 7 -nerved, 3 to 5 inches 

 long, with a short or stout petiole : spike cylindrical, deuse or sometimes 

 sparsely-flowered : sepals roundish-obovate, scarious except the midrib : cap- 

 sule ovoid, slightly exceeding the calyx. — From Colorado to California and 

 northward to Wyoming and the Saskatchewan. 



•«- •(- Leaves 1 to 3-nerved, silktj-pubescent or lanate, from narrowly linear to 

 oblanceolate. 



3. P. Patagoniea, Jacq. Silky-lanate or glabrate : leaves acute or 

 callous-pointed, taperiug below into a petiole, entire or sparingly denticulate : 

 scape terete, 3 to 12 inches high including the dense spike : flowers heterogo- 

 nous, often cleistogamous : sepals very obtuse: corolla with broad cordate 

 or ovate lobes : filaments in the long-stamened individuals capillary and much 

 exserted : in the other forms included. — Dry plains, from the Mississippi 

 westward across the continent. Exceedingly variable, including many forms 

 that have been described as species. The following are the principal forms 

 which abound west of the Mississippi: 



Var. gnaphalioides, Gray, is the commoner form, canescently villoiis, 

 the wool often floecose and deciduous : leaves from oblong-linear or spatulate- 

 lanceolate to nearly filiform : spike very dense, 1 to 4 inches long, varying to 

 capitate and few-flowered, lanate : bracts oblong or linear-lanceolate, or the 

 lowest deltoid-ovate, hardly longer than the calyx. 



Var. spinulosa, Gray, is a canescent form with aristately prolonged and 

 rigid bracts. 



Var. nuda, Gray, has sparse and loose pubescence, green and soon glabrate 

 rigid leaves, and short bracts. 



Var. aristata. Gray, is loosely villous and glabrate : leaves green : bracts 

 attenuate-prolonged to twice or thrice the length of the flowers. 



* * Stamens 2 : flowers siibdicecious or dioecio-cleistogamous : corolla in the fertile 

 plant remaining closed or closing over the maturing capsule and forming a 

 kind of beak : leaves linear or filiform. 



4. P. pusilla, Nutt. Somewhat cinereous-puberulent : leaves about an 

 inch long and half a line wide : spike filiform or slender, at length sparse- 

 flowered, ^ to 3 inches long : capsule short-ovoid, about a line long, little 

 exceeding the bract and calyx. — From the Atlantic States west to Nebraska ; 

 also in the Great Basin and Oregon. 



scape ; its spike at first capitate, in age cylindrical, dense ; the bract and sepals broadly 

 ovate, brownish. — Generally in cultivated fields. "Ripple- or Rib-grass," "Englisk 

 Plantain." 



