Plantago. PLAXTAGINACE.E. §\\ 



* Leaves 3 — 7-ribbed, not fleshy : root perennial. 



1. P. major, Linn. Glabrous or sometimes pubescent: leaves ovate or broadly 

 oblong, large, abruptly contracted into a channelled petiole, 5 — 7-ribbed : spike 

 long and slender: capsule 7 — 1 6-seeded 



San Diego to Oregon ; apparently sparingly naturalized in California. This Wayside Plantain, 

 probably indigenous only to the Uld World, is reported to spring up in North America "wherever 

 the white man has set his foot." 



2. P. lanceolata, Linn. Mostly hairy : leaves lanceolate or elongated-oblong, 

 3 — 5-ribbed : scape deeply grooved and angled, slender, at length much surpassing 



the leaves (a foot or two long), bearing a head which commonly lengthens into a 

 dense thick spike: bracts and sepals scarious, two of the latter commonly united 

 into one : capsule 2-seeded : seeds hollowed on the inner face. 



Dry fields, near San Francisco. The Ribgrass, Eipplegrass, or English Plantain ; introduced 

 from Europe ; apparently not widely established. 



* * Leaves ribless or nearly so, fleshy and narrow. 



3. P. maritima, Linn. Perennial or biennial : the thick crown more or less 

 woolly among the liases of the leaves, which are linear, usually much fleshy-thick- 

 ened, entire or with a few scattered sharp teeth: scapes a span or less in height, 

 bearing a dense many-flowered oblong or cylindrical spike : sepals scarious-mem- 

 branaeeous with a thickish green centre, which in the posterior "lies is crested : 

 capsule often more or less 3— 4-celled, a single seed in each cell. 



Along the sea-shore, on rocks, in sand, or in salt-marshes. Widely dispersed over the world, 

 and varying in form. 



§ 2. Flowers of two kinds on. different individuals, both with 4 stamens, one sort with 

 long exserled filaments, the other with short included filaments and small 

 anthers. 



4. P. Patagonica, Jacq. Annual, silky-woolly, or sometimes merely pubes- 

 cent : leaves varying from narrowly linear-lanceolate to nearly filiform, entire or 

 sparingly denticulate, 1 — 3-nerved: scape slender, 2 to 6 inches high, bearing a 

 dense cylindrical or oblong spike, in depauperate specimens frequently reduced to a 

 head: flowers all perfect: sepals very obtuse, scarious except a thick central por- 

 tion : lobes of the corolla round-ovate and cordate, remaining expanded alter an- 

 tic. is: capsule 2-seeded : seeds large, deeply hollowed on the face or boat-shaped. 

 — Gray, Man. ed. 5, 312, & in Pacif. E. Pep. iv. 117. 



Open grounds, common in the western part of the Stair, chiefly in a small form. Extends 

 southward almost to the extremity of the American continent, and on the eastern side, under sev- 

 eral forms, from Texas through the Valley of the Mississippi and the great plains to the Sas- 

 katchewan district 



5. P. Virginica, Linn., var. maxima. Annual or biennial, pubescent or hir- 

 sute with man) jointed hairs, becoming woolly at the crown : leave from ohjancco- 

 late to oblong and oval or obovate, 3 to 10 inches long, obtuse, sparingly denticulate, 

 3 - 7-ribbed, tapering into a narrowed base or wing-margined petiole: scape a span 



to a foot or more long, hearing a dense spike: bracts not longer than the calyx: 



lobes of the rather small corolla ovate and slightly cordate; in the long-stamened 

 and sterile form remaining open ot reflexed ; in the much commoner and fully 

 fruitful form with small or included stamens, closing permanently over the ovary 

 and capsule and somewhat indurating in the form of a slender-conical beak, crown- 

 ing the sit lit of tl vate obtuse 2 — 3-8 led capsule: - Is nearly Mat on the 



I'ace, /'. Kamtclialica-, Hook. & Am. Bot. B hey, 156. /'. DurviUei, var. Call- 



fmiiica, I' chot & Meyer, [nd. Sein. Hort. Petrop. 



Vlong the coast, Sau Francisco Bay t" Wontorey. The I plant with 



tho tim /' ' of the Atlantic border will app ;hutaTexanl (P.purpuras- 



Nutt.) counoi i • thorn. 



