WEEDS OF THE PLANTAIN FAMILY. 



137 



"healing blade," and it was probably the first "shin-plaster" 

 used by man. This property was known to Shakespeare, as in 

 Romeo and Juliet, Act I, se. 2, we find : 



"Rom. — Your plantain leaf is excellent for that. 

 Ben. — For what, I pray thee? 

 Rom. — For your broken shin." 



On account of its so persistently haunting the pathways of man 

 the Germans have a story that the plantain was formerly a maiden 

 who watched so patiently by the roadside for her absent lover that 

 the fairies took pity on her and changed her into this wayside 

 plant. 



Mingled with the common plantain in dooryards, especially in 

 northern Indiana, is the pale plantain (P. rugelii Dec.) distin- 

 guished by its brighter green and thinner leaves, less dense and 

 more pointed spikes and the separation of the lid of the capsule 

 much below the middle. The seeds are also much larger and fewer, 

 there being only 4-9 in each pod. 



102. Plantago lanceoiata L. Buckhorn. Narrow Plantain. Ribwort. 

 Rib-grass. English Plantain. (P. or B. I. 1.) 

 Rootstock short, erect, the leaves with tufts of brown hairs at their 

 bases; leaves oblong-lanceolate, erect or spreading, pointed, narrowed at 

 base, 3^5 ribbed, 2-32 inches long. Flower-stalks several, slender, grooved, 

 sometimes 2 feet or more tall ; spikes very dense, cylindric, blunt, 1-4 

 inches long. Capsule oblong, blunt, 2-seeded, the top separating at about 

 the middle. Seeds oval, deeply grooved lengthwise or boat-shaped on the 

 inner side, chesnut brown, 1/10 inch long, smooth and shining. (Fig. 99.) 



Very common along railways, in 

 waste places and especially in mead- 

 ows. April-Oct. In the last five 

 years this rib-grass or buckhorn, as 

 it is commonly called, has come to be 

 one of the worst pests known in the 

 clover and timothy fields of the 

 State, especially those with light 

 sandy or gravelly soil, or on clayey 

 uplands. Its seeds are widely dis- 

 tributed with those of clover, alfalfa 

 and other hays and in manure, and 

 its thick rootstocks give it an ad- 

 vantage over many weeds. It is es- 

 Fig. 99. (After ciark.) pecially annoyingto dealers in clover 



seed as. it is very difficult to thoroughly separate its seed. Remedies : 



