Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 727 



Perak : on limestone hills, Scortechini ! Ipoh Quarries, Ridley 

 9734 1 Marble Hill, Ipoh, Fox {Ridley 10686) !— Distrib. Burma. 



The Perak specimens have rather more numerously flowered cymes than those 

 from Burma, but are in other respects indistinguishable. 



Family XCII. PLANTAGINACE^. 



[By'D. Prain.] 



Annual or perennial scapigerous herbs. Leaves usually radical ; 

 scapes axillary. Floioers small, greenish, bracteate, often dimorphic, 

 spicate. Sepals 4, imbricate in bud, persistent. Corolla scarious, 

 hj'pog^Tious ; lobes 4, short, imbricate in bud. Stamens 4, inserted on 

 the corolla-tube or hypogynous ; filaments filiform, persistent ; anthers 

 large, pendulous, versatile. Ovary superior, 1- to 4-celled ; ovules in 

 each cell 1 to 8. Capsule 1- to 4-celled, membranous : dehiscence 

 circumscissile. Seeds 1 or more, usually attached by the centre ; testa 

 thin, mucilaginous ; albumen fleshy ; embryo cylindiic, transverse ; 

 radicle inferior. — Distrib. Species under 100 ; cosmopolitan. 



Plantago, Linn. 



Annual or perennial herbs with a dense rosette of radical leaves. 

 Flowers small, greenish, in dense spikes. Sepals 4, free, imbricate, per- 

 sisting. Corolla 4-lobed, scarious ; lobes short, imbricate. Stamens 

 4, adnate to corolla-tube ; filaments filiform ; anthers 2-celled, versatile. 

 Ovary superior, 2- to 4-celled ; ovules one or more in each cell. Fruit 

 a small membranous capsule ; dehiscence circumscissile. Seeds peltate, 

 albuminous, mucilaginous. — Distrib. Species under 100, mainly in 

 tencfperate regions. 



Plantago major, Linn. Sp. PI. 112 (1753). x\ perennial herb with 

 an erect stout rhizome. Leaves alternate, spirally disposed, aU radical, 

 sometimes sparsely pubescent, sometimes nearly glabrous on both 

 sides, ovate or ovate-oblong, obtuse or subacute ; base long-cuneate, 

 tapering to and decurrent on the petiole ; margin often irregularly and 

 somewhat abruptly toothed; 3- to 7-, usually 5-nerved; 1 to 5 in. long, 

 very variable in width ; petiole often longer than the leaf-blade, broad 

 and sheathing at the base. Floioers crowded or dispersed in slender 

 rather lax spikes 2 to 6 in. long ; bracts -05 to "08 in. long, broadly 

 ovate-oblong, obtuse, with scarious margins. Calyx -12 in. long, 

 glabrous ; sepals oblong, obtuse or subacute, bluntly keeled externally. 



