PLANTAIN FAMILY. Plantaginacem. 



PLANTAIN FAMILY. Plantaginacece. 



Homely herbs — weeds — generally with coarse, strong- 

 ribbed leaves springing from the root, and insignificant 

 flowers in long narrow spikes, perfect, or polygamous — 

 that is, staminate and pistillate on the same plant or 

 different plants — and even cleistogamous — that is, fer- 

 tilizing in the bud. 



The familar weed of unkempt dooryards 

 Plantain ^^^ grass-plots, with ovate, dark green, 



Piantago slightly hairy or smooth leaves, the long 



major stems trough-sliaped, the ribs conspicuous, 



Dull white g^j^^ ^YiQ edge generally toothless, or rarely 



September coarse-toothed. The flowering spikes are 



cylindrical, blunt-tipped, and closely set 

 with the dull, greenish white, four-lobed, perfect florets 

 which mature the threadlike style before the corolla 

 \^ fully open, the former projecting. The four stamens 

 mature much later and thus insure cross-fertilization. 

 Seed-capsule ovoid and opening near the middle, the 

 seeds reticulated. Flowering stalks 6-18 inches high. 

 Common everywhere, indigenous northwestward but 

 naturalized from Europe on the Atlantic seaboard. 

 Piantago Similar to the preceding ; the leaves 



Eugelii thinner, the flowering spikes less dense 



June- and attenuated above, and the seed-cap- 



September sules cylindrical-oblong ; the latter open 



below the middle and quite within the four lobes of 

 the calyx. The seeds are not reticulated. Common 

 from Vt., south to Ga. and Tex., west to S. Dak. 



^ .. , ^. A similar more or less fine-hairv Euro- 



English PIan= ,. , , ' 



tain. Ribgrass P63,n species, naturalized and very com- 

 Phintago mon. The leaves are long lance-shaped, 



lanceolata nearly erect, generally three-ribbed, acute 



Dull white j^j^j toothless ; at the base of tlie leaves 

 April-October .... . , , , mi n 



the hairiness is dark rust-color. 1 he flower- 

 spike is dense and sliort, bearing similar dull white flow- 

 ers. But the conspicuously grooved stalk is 8-23 inches 

 high. Old fields and waste places throughout our 

 range. 



438 



