104 



P. aviculare, with which it is generally compared, but from 

 which it differs entirely in habit, in the few-nerved 

 stipules, and rhombic smooth nut. I have spent some days 

 in analyzing the flowers and fruit of the vast number of 

 specimens of it at my disposal, in the vain attempt to 

 discover constant even varietal characters amongst them. 

 The utmost I can effect is to select eleven forms, the 

 extremes of which differ so much from one another, that 

 I have described them as varieties, though there is not one 

 of these that does not seem to pass insensibly into two 

 or more others, and I regard my work as provisional 

 only .... I must leave the further elucidation of this 

 aggregate species to local botanists working on fresh 

 specimens .... Waarna dan de beschrijvingen van de 

 verschillende variëteiten volgen, die wij hier gevoeglijk 

 weg kunnen laten. Mocht de soort vaker aangevoerd 

 worden, dan zouden wij later misschien in die richting 

 voort moeten werken. 



2. Uitvoeriger beschrijving van Plantago Purshii R. 

 et S. in Britton en Brown. 111. Fl. North. Stat. and 

 Can. Ill 209 fig. 3386 (1898) luidt: 



Annual, woolly or silky all over, pale green; scapes 

 slender, 2' — 15' tall, longer than the leaves. Leaves ascen- 

 ding, linear, acute or acuminate at the apex, narrowed 

 into margined petioles, 1^ — 3 nerved, IVs"^ — ^" "wide, entire 

 or very rarely with a few small teeth; spikes very dense, 

 cylindric, obtuse, 1' — 5' long, about 3" in diameter, exceed- 

 ingly woolly; bracts rigid, equalling or slightly exceeding 

 the flowers; flowers perfect but heterogonous, many of 

 them cleistogamous; sepals oblong, obtuse, scarious-mar- 

 gined; corolla-lobes broadly ovate, spreading; stamens 4; 

 pyxis oblong, obtuse, IV4" long, little exceeding the calyx, 

 2-seeded, circumscissile at about the middle; seeds convex 

 on the back, deeply concave on the face. May — Aug. 



