PLANTAGINACEAE (PLANTAIN FAMILY) 



745 



2. P. major L. (Common P.) Smooth or rather hairy, sometimes roughish ; 

 leaves thick and leathery^ 0.5-3 dm. long, the blade from hruad-elliptic to cordate- 

 ovate, undulate or more or less toothed, the broad petiole channeled ; scapes 



1.6-9 dm. high, commonly curved-ascending ; spike dense, obtuse, 

 becoming 1-4 dm. long ; sepals round-ovate or obovate ; capsule 

 ovoid, circumscissile near the middle, 8-18-seeded ; seeds angled, 

 reticulated. — Waysides and near dwellings, exceedingly common. 

 Fig. 902. — Sometimes with leafy-bracted scapes or with panicu- 

 late-branched inflorescences. (Cosmopolitan.) Var. intermedia 

 (Gilibert) Dene. Leaves lance-ovate to narrowly elliptic, coarsely 

 sinuate-dentate, sometimes densely pubescent, closely rosulate. 

 (P. halophila Bicknell.) — Salt marshes and coastal rocks. Me. 

 to N. J. (Eurasia.) 



Var. asiatica (L.) Dene. Leaves upright, the thin smooth 



blades tapering to slender petioles; scapes erect. — River-banks, etc., e. Que. 



to B. C, s. to n. N. E., L. Superior, N. Dak., Col., etc. (Asia.) 



3. P. Rugelii Dene. Leaves as in no. 2, but paler and thinner, the rather 

 slender petioles crimson at base ; spikes long and thin, attenuate at 

 sepals oblong, acutely carinate ; capsules cylindraceous, circum- 

 scissile much beloio the middle, 4-d-secded ; seeds oval, not reticu- 

 lated. — N. B. to Out. and Minn., s. to Ga. and Tex. Fig. 903. 



4. P. sparsiflbra Michx. Leaves ohlong-lanceolate, often very 

 long (3-4 dm.), villous to glabrous ; scape elongate, terminated by 

 a long loosely flowered spike ; sepals oval, rigid ; capsules ellipsoid, 

 about twice as long as the calyx, circumscissile toward the base, 

 2-seeded. — Pine barrens and damp sands, S. C. to Fla. ; reported 

 from s. 111. 



5. P. eri6poda Torr. Usually with a mass of yellowish wool 

 at the base; leaves thickish, oblanceolate to obovate, with short 

 stout petioles ; spike dense or loose ; sepals and bract more or less 

 scarious but not carinate; capsule ovoid, never over ^-seeded. — 

 Salt marshes, e. Que. to N. S.; saline soil, Red River valley, Minn., 

 and the Arctic region. 



6. P. declpiens Barneoud. (Seaside P.) Leaves linear to nearly filiform, 

 1-10 mm. broad, entire or remotely serrate, fleshy, indistinctly ribbed; scapes 

 slightly pubescent below, densely so at tip, 2-30 cm. high, from erect to strongly 

 arcuate ; spikes slender-cylitidric, 0.5-12 cm. long, dense or loose ; scales and 

 sepals from drab to purplish-brown ; corolla-tube often pubescent ; seeds 2-4. 

 (P. maritima Man. ed. 6, not L.) — Salt marshes and maritime rocks, Greenl. 

 and Lab. to N. J. — Very variable in size and habit, the most dwarf extreme 

 sometimes separated as P. borcalis Langc. 



7. P. LANCEOLATA, L. (RiB Gkass, Ripple Grass, English p.) Mostly 

 hairy ; scape grooved-angled, at length much longer than the lanceolate or 

 lance-oblong leaves, slender, 2-7 dm. high ; spike dense, at first capitate, in age 

 cylindrical ; bracts and sepals scarious, brownish ; seeds 2, hollowed on the 

 face. — Very common in grass land. (Nat. from Eu.) 



8. P. MEDIA L. (Hoary P.) Resembling the preceding, but with shorter 

 ovate or broad-oblong finely canescent leaves; the cylindric spike 2.5-8 cm. 

 long; seeds slightly concave or flat on the face; flowers fragrant.— Sparingly 

 in tields, etc., Me. to Ont. and N. Y. (Adv. from Eu.) 



* * Flowers of 2 sorts (as respects length of anthers and filaments) on different 

 plants, mostly cleistogamous ; corolla-lobes broad, rounded, persistently 

 spreading ; seeds 2, boat-shaped; inflorescence and narrow leaves silky- 

 pubescent or woolly ; annual. 



9. P. Purshii R. & S. White with silky icool; leaves 1-3-nerved, varying from 

 oblong-linear to filiform; spike slender-cylindric, very dense, 0.5-15 cm. long, 

 woolly ; bracts not exceeding the calyx ; sepals very obtuse, scarious, with a thick 

 center. (P. patagonica Jacq., var. gnaphalioides Gray.) — Prairies and dry plains, 

 Minn, to Ind., Ky., Tex., and westw. to the Pacific ; adventive eastw. to N. E. 



