236 PLANTAGINACE.E. 



level of the sepals: seeds 8 18, brownish, minutely reticulated. Mostly 

 in shaded or moist places; not very common; supposed to have been 

 introduced from Europe. 



2. P. Asiatic:!. L. Bather more slender, the leaves more rounded; 

 spikes slender, little surpassing the leaves, the flowers of the lower part 

 scattered: capsule globose-ovoid, circumscissile not a little below the level 

 of the sepak. Less common, and less confined to the neighborhood of 

 buildings, or to cultivated lands,* presumably native. 



3. P. LANCEOLATA, L. Perennial: leaves oblong-lanceolate, villous or 

 glabrate, tapering into a short petiole, very strongly ribbed: scapes 

 slender, deeply sulcate and angled: spike short, dense: bracts and sepals 

 broadly ovate, scarious, brownish. Very common in moist meadow 

 lands and waysides; native of Europe. 



4. P. maritima, L. Very stout maritime perennial, with many 

 linear obtuse very fleshy leaves: spikes cylindric, long and dense: bracts 

 mostly roundish, shorter than the calyx: sepals oval, carinate: corolla 

 with pubescent tube: capsule 2 4-seeded. Plentiful on rocks and cliffs 

 of the seaboard; also in sandy salt marshes. 



5. P. Bigelovii, Gray. Stoutish, fleshy and glabrate like the last, 

 but annual and small, the leaves and scapes erect, the latter only 24 

 in. high, the leaves shorter, linear, entire: spike in fruit 1 in. long or 

 more: stamens 2 only: capsule ovoid-oblong, well exserted from the 

 calyx, 4-seeded. Borders of saline or brackish marshes; quite common 

 about the Bay, and on the lower San Joaquin. April, May. 



6. P. Californica, Greene. Annual, 3 6 in. high, the rosulate leaves 

 commonly depressed, and scapes more or less decumbent at base: leaves 

 linear, entire or with few remote salient teeth, glabrous or very sparingly 

 hirsutulous: scapes twice the length of the leaves: spikes linear, 23 

 in. long, rather dense: bracts broadly ovate and with broad scarious 

 margins below the middle, shorter than the sepals: stamens 2: seeds 

 8 12, irregularly pitted, blackish. Plains of Alameda and Contra Costa 

 counties and southward, in alkaline soils. March May. 



7. P. Patagonica, Jacq., var. Californica. Annual, slender, 3 10 

 in. high, more or less villous but not lanate, the leaves and scapes slender, 

 strictly erect from the very base: leaves narrowly oblanceolate linear, 

 nearly equalling the scapes, these gradually dilated up to the base of 

 the short cylindric spike: bracts less than half the length of the obtuse 

 scarious-margined sepals : lobes of the corolla roundish, reflexed : seeds 

 oblong-oval. Abundant on grassy plains and hillsides. March May. 



* * Corolla in age closed and forming a beak over the fruit. 



8. P. hirtella, HBK. Perennial, somewhat fleshy: leaves oblong- 

 ovate or -spatulate, 6 10 in. long, glabrate, sparsely denticulate, 57- 



