2 Plantago Major. 



other on the increased spike or flower stalk, and in this 

 condition it is commonly given as food to small cage birds, 

 as the canary, &c. The flowers are very small, but easily 

 distinguished by means of a common lens. The calyx consists 

 of four sepals. The corolla is one with four divisions, and 

 of a scaly texture, four long stamens and a single style. 

 The germ or ovary is, in the early stage, two-celled, and 

 contains a few ovules. The capsule, or ripened fruit, is 

 usually one-celled, and two or three seeds or more may ripen, 

 and the capsule top splits off like a lid. 



Now the specimen in question, I observed, had run to 

 seed, but several of the spikes, in place of fruiting as usual, 

 had metamorphosed the carpel as follows : it had become 

 longer than usual, and in most instances enlarged at its 

 upper extremity, and also unequally so, and when fully 

 developed, the styles having fallen off, it dehisced or split in 

 two at the top. On opening the capsules, each was found 

 to contain a small cluster of leaves in place of the ovules. 

 On some I counted as many as ten or twelve leaves. Now, 

 in some botanical works, and I can quote Lindley's Vegetable 

 Kingdom, it is stated that the ovary is composed of a single 

 carpel, and seldom four-celled. (Page 642). From an exa- 

 mination of the carpel in this specimen, it will be seen that 

 the ovary is really composed of two carpellary leaves ; first, 

 because the carpel is in some instances more developed on one 

 side, i.e., posteriorly, and next, that a sutural line may be 

 seen separating the anterior from the posterior portions; and 

 again, that the fully grown capsule in this state dehisces at 

 the top into two. J have taken one of such carpellary 

 portions, and having decolorized it, I find that the carpel 

 presents all the character of a leaf, it has a central vein with 

 lateral anastomosing ones. 



The other point of interest in this specimen is, that the 

 ovular buds, in place of remaining as such had in some 

 instances, become further developed into florets, each being 

 a miniature of the parent flower — four sepals, four stamens. 



