MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 99 



slender stalks. Its foliage is fern-like and often tinged with 

 reddish-brown ; long leaves grow out from the base, and small 

 ones are interspersed with the numerous blossoms on the stems. 

 The Contorted Lousewort grows at very high altitudes, 

 being usually found at 7000 feet. 



COMMON PLANTAIN 



Plantago major. Plantain Family 



Rootstock short, thick, erect. Leaves: spreading, ovate, entire; spike 

 dense, obtuse at apex. Flowers: perfect, proterogynous ; sepals broadly 

 ovate, scarious on the margins. Fruit : pyxis seeded, circumsessile near 

 the middle. 



The Common Plantain is so familiar to travellers that it 

 calls for no special description. It has greenish flower-spikes 

 and reddish seeds. 



P. Rttgelii, or Pale Plantain, is somewhat similar to the 

 preceding species, but has a slightly broader leaf and a less 

 dense flower-spike. 



LAMB'S QUARTERS 



Chenopodiuvi album. Goosefoot Family 



Stems: slender, erect, commonly much branched. Leaves: rhombic- 

 ovate, the upper ones lanceolate, obtuse or acute. Flowers: bractless, 

 densely clustered in a compound panicled spike ; calyx segments strongly 

 keeled. Fruit : seed firmly attached to the pericarp. 



A weed that abounds near habitation, even in the mountain 

 regions. A commonplace plant, and yet one that is not 

 altogether without beauty, since its foliage is of an unusually 

 delicate tender green. The white flowers, which grow in 

 dense spikes, are inconspicuous. 



