See ee ee ee 
7 
oa 
Yi patel a odie He tea dae 
iD. Vel Ss 1-O.N Ii: 
1. Thick {piked Sea-Plantain. 
Plantago maritima. fpicis crafis. 
The root is long and flender, and is furnifhed 
with a few fibres. 
The leaves are narrow, hairy, and fhort, in 
comparifon of many of the formier kinds: they 
are {mall near the bafe, broadeft toward the end, 
and fharp-pointed. 
The ftalks are numerous, round, flender, and 
hairy : they are four or five inches high, and have 
leaves on them. 
"The flowers are placed at the tops of the ftalks 
in a thick fpike. 
The feed-velfel is large and oval, and the feeds 
are very {mall. 
It is common on the fea-coafts of Spain, and 
flowers in May. 
C. Bauhine calls it Holofteum birfutum albicans 
majus. Others, Plantago Hifpanica {pica oblonga. 
It is fometimes found very fmall for want of 
nourifhment, and in that ftate has been defcribed 
as a diftinét fpecies; but it is merely an acci- 
dental variety. 
2. Short-ftalked Plantain. 
Plantago feapo brevi. 
The root is long, flender, and undivided. 
The leaves are numerous, of a greyifh green, 
narrow, and of a grafly fhape: they are broadeft 
at the bafe, and {maller all the way to the point. 
The ftalks are numerous; and very fhort : they 
are not of the length of the leaves, and are of 
the fame greyith colour, and covered with a thick 
downy hairinefs. 
The flowers are fmall and whitifh: they are 
placed in thick, fhort fpikes at the tops of thefe 
ftalks, and feldom ftand upright, ufually droop- 
ing one way or other. 
The feed-vefiel is large and oval, and the feeds 
are very fmall, 
It is common in the Greek iflands, and flowers 
in June. 
C. Bauhine calls it Holofteum, five Leontop 
Creticum. Clufius, Leontopodium Creticum 
ys 
3. Narroweft-leaved Plantain, 
Plantago foliis anguftiffimis. 
The root is very thick, and divided. 
The leaves are extremely numerous, and nar- 
FOREIGN 
SPECIES 
rower thah any Other of the plantain kind : they 
are long, and lie every way {pread about, and 
frequently are curled, fo that they refemble 
worms, or little ferpents ; whence the plant has 
been named fnake-gra/s. 
The ftalks are round, weak, and flender : they 
have no leaves on them. 
The flowers ftand at thé tops in long, flender 
fpikés, and they are {mall and inconfiderable. 
The feed-veffel is oval and fmall, the feeds are 
minute and numerous. 
It is a native of Italy; and flowers in Auguft. 
C. Bauhine calls it Holofteum ftrittiffimo folio 
majus. Others, Plantago ftrittiffimo folio, and 
Serpentaria major. 
All the fpecies of plantain poftefs the fame vir- 
tues, and they aré very confiderable. None of 
them is better than the common broad-leaved 
kind; therefore with us it would be idle to bring - 
any other into ufe, 
This is aftringent, cooling, and healing. - 
A water is diftilled from it; but this is of fmal] 
valué, for thefe are not virtues that rife in diftil- 
lation. 
A decoétion of the entire plant is excellent in 
diforders of the ureters. 
The root, dryed and powdered, is to be given 
half a dram for a dofe, and is very ferviceable 
againft loofeneffes with fharp and bloody ftools, 
The juice is good againft fpitting of blood, and 
againft the overflowings of the menfes. 
The leaves, bruifed, and ufed outwardly, cleanfe 
and heal old ulcers. 
Thefe are all the plants with four petals to 
the flower, and a fingle regular capfule, of which 
there are any fpecies native of Britain. “It muft 
not appear an omiffion, that three plants, afcribed 
in Mr. Ray’s Synopfis to this clafs, are omitted. 
The firft, pentapterophyllon, has no feed-veffel, 
but the flower is followed by four naked feeds ; 
the fecond, balfamine, has five petals to the flower; 
and the third, Aypopitys, has ten. By what over- 
fight in Mr. Ray thefe came to be added to the 
prefent clafs, I fhall not enquire : it is plain they 
feverally belong to three others; and they will 
be treated of accordingly in their places in the 
fucceeding part of this work, 
SERIES 
x 
