158 MAINE STATE COLLEGE 



Western Plantain. 

 Piantago Patigonica, var. aristata, Gray. 



Specimens of the above plant were received the past season from 

 Mrs A. M Pikes, East Madison, Somerset county, and found 

 growing in an oat field. This plant belongs to the Order Planta- 

 ginaece and is a near relative of the English Plantain considered in 

 Experiment Station Report, 1890, p. 119. It was probably intro- 

 duced with the seed. A few specimens were found growing on the 

 college campus a year or two ago, introduced with grass seed, but 

 they were not allowed to drop their seed. This plant is widely 

 distributed in South and North America and in the West is a bad 

 weed It presents a number of varieties besides the one named 

 above. As it has become established on Martha's Vineyard and 

 about Boston it would no doubt find a congenial home in Southern 

 Maine, and this is written to call attention to it. 



It can never become so bad a weed as its relative, the English 

 Plantain, which has a strong foothold in some parts of Maine as it 

 is an annual and could be eradicated in a single season if prevented 

 from seeding. It may be known by the following description : 



About a foot high, having usually several slender, naked, flower- 

 ing stalks, which start from a cluster of leaves near the ground and 

 bear on their top a close spike of flowers. The leaves are narrow, 

 from three to five inches long, and bear a few nearly prominent 

 parallel ribs. The variety under consideration is clothed with silky 

 hairs and below each flower in the spike is a bract two or three 

 times the length of the flower. The seed are boat-shaped as in the 

 English Plantain. The seeds germinate the same season they ripen 

 and the young plants mature the next season. It seeds profusely 

 and a few plants would give it a good start. That the plant may 

 be readily detected we reproduce from the United States Agricul- 

 tural Report, 1888, plate XI, a cut of this weed, which is shown 

 on the opposite page. 



