60 MYSTERIES OF THE FLOWERS 



ENGLISH PLANTAIN 



to rise higher and higher ; and under the 

 lens we distinguish four stages of the 

 flowers, one below the other. Beginning 

 at the top we find unopened 

 buds ; then buds with protruding 

 pistils; then little florets with 

 four brown petals, and four sta- 

 mens whose long, slender fila- 

 ments bear the anthers far out 

 bej^ond the withered pistil. Be- 

 low them, again, are the calices 

 left empty by the falling of the 

 flowers. A flower-head, with 

 blooms in successive stages and 

 a single floret with anthers, is shown in 

 the accompanj'ing sketch. 



Since this flower has no conspicuous 

 colour and no nectar, and the stamens 

 swing loosely at the ends of long fila- 

 ments, it is probably fertilised by the 

 wind, according to Asa Graj' — an un- 

 usual thing in an herb of this sort, not 

 a grass nor a sedge. 



Common Plantain — Plantago major 

 The common plantain show^n in the *^ 



COMMON 



sketch will be found to develop its plantain 



