136 



TirK INDIANA WKRD BOOK. 



first and on one-half through blooming the stamens of the lower 

 part are shedding their pollen while the pistils of the upper por- 

 tion are being fertilized. Thus the pollen cannot fall from the sta- 

 mens to another flower on the same stalk and self-fertilization is 

 avoided. 



101. PI.ANTAGO .MAJOR L. Common Dooryard Plantain. Greater Plantain. 

 (P. I. 1.) 



Leaves spreading or half erect, 

 long-stalked, broadly ovate, smooth 

 or slightly hairy, dull pointed, 3-11 

 ribbed, rounded at base, 1-10 inches 

 long. Spikes several, dense, blunt at 

 top, 2-10 inches long. Capmile egg- 

 shaped, the top separating at about 

 the middle, 8-16 seeded. Seeds 

 angled, very irregular in shape, 

 greenish-brown to black, 1/1G inch 

 long, about * as wide. (Fig. 98.) 



Very common in dooryards, 

 along walks and roadsides and in 

 enriched cultivated fields. May- 

 Gel, This plantain delights in a 

 compact clayey soil, and with the 

 knot-grass combats most fiercely 

 for supremacy along the sides of 

 narrow footpaths in unkempt country dooryards and the cow-paths 

 of old pastures. It is one of the most common and best known of 

 the social weeds and by the Indians was known as the "white man's 

 foot." Longfellow refers to it by this name when in speaking of 

 the English settlers in his poem Hiawatha, he says: 



"Wheresoever they tread, beneath them 

 Springs a flower unknown among us, 

 Springs the white man's foot in blossom." 



Hardy, tough and difficult to eradicate, its thick rootstocks and 

 many seeds give it more tban an average chance in the struggle for 

 life. It is especially troublesome in manured land sown to clover, 

 as its seeds are very common among those of clover. Remedies : 

 continuous cultivation ; crowding out with clover or rye ; reseeding 

 bare spots in meadows and pastures; hand pulling or cutting below 

 the crown with sharp knife, hoe or spud in yards. 



The leaves of the dooryard plantain were formerly much used 

 as a convenient and popular dressing for wounds, blisters and other 

 sores. Two of the old English names for it are "wound-weed" and 



swer; 6, fruit, a pyxis. (After 

 Watson.) 



