PROLIFICATION OF THE INFLORESCENCE. 109 
head with other rosettes, 5th, paniculate, in which the 
inflorescence has become a much-branched pyramidal 
panicle, covered with little bracts, and with very rudi- 
mentary flowers.’ The first two groups 
belong rather to frondescence of the 
bracts ; but with regard to the whole 
of them it will easily be surmised that 
intermediate forms occur, linking one 
group to the other, and defying exact 
allocation in either. Thus, in the bor- 
ders of richly cultivated fields in the 
neighbourhood of London I have fre- 
quently gathered specimens of Plantago 
major witha branched spike provided with 
large leafy bracts, the branches of the 
spike being but little less in diameter 
than the ordinary single spike. These 
specimens would therefore seem to 
be intermediate between Schlechtendal’s 
bracteate and polystachyate divisions. 
Wigand* also describes an anomalous 
specimen of Plantago major similar to 
those just mentioned, but having small 
lateral spikes in place of large ones. 
The instance quoted from Professor d 
Braun would fall under the roseate sec- Fra. 54.—Plan- 
tion, as would also that of Kirschleger, 92, mayor, with 
panicled inflo- 
though we are expressly told that the rescence. 
tuft of leaves in this last case was 
not developed until after the ripening of the seed- 
vessel. One of the characters of the roseate group, 
according to Schlechtendal, is the absence of flowers, 
but most persons who haye had the opportunity of 




1“ Pannicula spicatim sparsa onusta imnumera fetura herbaceorum 
flosculorum racematim coherentium,” ‘ Lobel. Stirp. Hist.,’ p. 163. This 
is the “‘ Besome Plantain. or Plantain with spoky tufts,” of Ray, ‘Synopsis,’ 
p. 314. Gerard’s ‘ Herbal,’ Ed. Johnson, p. 420. Parkinson, ‘ Theat. 
Bot.,’ p. 494. Baxter, ‘Loudon, Mag. Nat. Hist.,’ vol. ix, p. 204, and 
vol. iii, p. 482, fig. 118. 
? * Flora,’ 1856, p. 706. 
