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plantain has several relatives which are common weeds, for 

 example, Rugel's plantain and common plantain {P. Ru^elli and 

 P. major) but these are far too chary with their pollen to ever 

 be seriously considered as causes of hayfever no matter how 

 common the plants themselves may be. Like the trees, Knglish 

 plantain claims but few victims but those it does are likely to 

 suffer severely. 



Most of the grasses mentioned above, all the worst ones, are 

 grasses of agriculture, and plantain is a weed of agriculture, and 

 so it has always been and always will be that man wherever he 

 invades new territory takes his hayfever with him. In warm 

 countries it is Bermuda grass, the worst hayfever grass through- 

 out the south, and in dry places it is Johnson grass, a particu- 

 larly bad hayfever plant throughout much of our middle west. 



In the northeastern states after the flowering of timothy 

 and red top there is relatively little pollen in the air and as the 

 season advances hayfever patients may even enjoy comparative 

 freedom from symptoms until the middle of August when comes 

 the late-summer hayfever period. This begins in the Torrey 

 club area almost exactly on the fifteenth of August, the cause, 

 the tall and short ragweeds. The first flowers of tall ragweed 

 open on about the first of August and the first of the short a 

 week later, but not until the fifteenth do their combined efforts 

 produce sufficient concentration of pollen to cause serious in- 

 convenience to hayfever sufferers. The pollen is very light and 

 of an extremely buoyant character so that as the plants con- 

 tinue to grow the air becomes more and more heavily charged 

 with pollen. It has been estimated that over New York City 

 the air carries several tons of pollen at the height of the season 

 which occurs during the last week in August and the first in 

 September. From this peak the pollen load of the air gradually 

 declines as the ragweed plants go to seed but during September, 

 before the ragweed pollen in the air has tapered off enough to 

 bring much relief to the hayfever sufferer, the cockleburs begin 

 to make their presence felt, for, on account of their close rela- 

 tionship to the ragweeds, their pollen is essentially the same in 

 its toxicity to hayfever patients. At this time also the golden- 

 rods offer their contribution. It is not much and does not usually 

 count at all, except on gusty days, for its pollen does not have 

 the buoyant character of that of ragweed, but it does have a 



