Plantago. PLAXTAGIXACE.E. 391 



H 1— H— Corolla Rlabrou';, nearly rotate: ovules and seeds 2, solitary in each cell; the latter 



hollowed on the face : haves strongly 3-j-ribbed, not fleshy. 



P. LAXCEOLATA, L. (RippLE- Or RiBORASS, ENGLISH 1'laxtaix.) Eoot biennial or short- 

 lived perennial herbage villous or glabrate: leaves oblong-lanceolate, tapering into a 

 slender petiole, usually much shorter than the (foot or two long) slender deeply sulcate and 

 angled scape : spike at first capitate, in age cylindrical, dense : bract and sepals broadly 

 ovate, scarious, brownish; two of the latter usually united into one. — Commonly natural- 

 ized in fields, from Eu. (Varieties said in Hook. Fl. ii. H-'j, to be indigenous far north- 

 ward ; but some of these plants belong to P. eriopoda, otlicrs perhaps to P. macrocarpa.) 

 * * Flowere heterogenous, in the greater number of individuals cleistft^amous, but with normal 

 corolla: this with broad cordate or ovate widely expanding lobe> nearly equalling the tube: 

 ovules solitary in the two cells: seed cyniljitbrm, deeply excavated on the face: inflorescence 

 and commonly the narrow leaves silky-puLiL-scent or lanate. 



P. Patagonica, Jacq. Annual, silky-lanate or glabrate : leaves from narrowly linear to 

 oblanceolate, acute or callous-pointed, tapering below into a petiole, entire or sparingly 

 denticulate, l-.3-nerved : scape terete, 3-12 inches high including the dense cylindrical or 

 oblong spike : sepals very obtuse, seariously margined from a thickish and firm central 

 herbaceous portion ; the anterior oblong, posterior oval : lobes of the corolla usually a line 

 long, roundish : seeds oblong-oval. (Filaments in the long-stamened individuals capillary 

 and much exserted, and the anthers of usual ample size ; style less exserted ; apparently 

 not proterogynous. Stamens and style in the other and more fruitful form short, included, 

 or the effete anthers barely protruded from the throat ; these very small, in the cleisto- 

 gamous manner.) — Gray, Man. ed. 2, 269, Pacif. R. Rep. iv. 117, & Bot. Calif, i. GUI. P. 

 Patar/onica, Jacq. Ic. Rar. t. 306, & Coll. Suppl. 3-5 ; Bameoud, Monogr. 38 ; Decaisne in 

 DC. 1.0. 713; to which add most of the dozen species of the same subdivision in the 

 Prodromus, and their synonyms. — Prairies and dry plains, from Kentucky, 'Illinois and 

 Wisconsin north to Saskatchewan, south to Texas, and west to California and Brit. 

 CoUmibia. (Mex., S. Am.) 



""^ Var. gnaphalioides, Gray, may be taken as the commoner \. American type, can- 

 escently villous ; but the wool often iloccose and deciduous : leaves from oblong-linear or 

 spatulate-lanceolate to nearly filiform : spike very dense, 1 to 4 inches long, varying to 

 capitate and few-fiowered, lanate: bracts oblong or linear-lanceolate, or the lowest deltoid- 

 ovate, hardly surpassing the calyx. — P. Lagopus, Pursh, Fl. i. 99, not L. P. Punliii, 

 Roem. & Sell. Syst. iii. 120. P. gnaphalioides, Xutt. Gen. i. 100. P. Hookeriana, Fisch. & 

 Jleyer, Ind. Sem. Petrop. 1838, 39. — Runs through 



^_ Var. spinulosa. Gray, 1. c. (P. spimJosa, Decaisne, 1. c), a canescent form with 

 aristately prolonged and rigid bracts, and 



Var. nuda, Gray, 1. c. {P. Wrightiana, Decaisne, 1. c), with sparse and loose pubes- 

 cence, green and soon glabrate rigid leaves, and short bracts, to 



:»»■ Var. aristata, Gray, I. c. Loosely villous and glabrate : leaves green : bracts 

 attenuate-prolonged to twice or thrice the length of the flowers. — P. aristata,- Michx. Fl. 

 i. 95. P. gnaphalioides, var. aristata. Hook. Fl. 1. c. A slender and depauperate form is 

 P. sguairosa, Nutt. in Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. n. ser. v. 178, and P. NiMallii, Rapin ex Barneoud, 

 1. c, also P. Jiliformis, Decaisne, 1. c. — All the forms most abound west of the Mississippi, 

 from Nebraska to Texas. 



§ 2. Stamens 4 or 2 : flowers subdicecious or dioecio-cleistogamous ; the corolla 

 in the fertile or mainly fertile plant remaining closed or closing over the matur- 

 ing capsule and forming a kiud of beak, and anthers not exserted : seeds flat or 

 barely concave on the face. (American species.) 



* Leaves comparatively broad : stamens 4 : ovules and seed? 1 or 2 in each cell. 

 P. Virginica, L. Small winter-annual or fibrous-rooted biennial, soft-pubescent or more 

 villous with spreading articulated hairs : leaves spatulate or obovate-oblong, little if at all 

 petioled, entire or repand-denticulate, thin, an inch or so long, obscurely 3-5-nerved: 

 scapes 2 to 6 inches high, slender : spike mostly dense, and an inch or two long : bracts 

 equalling or shorter than the calyx : sepals ovate or oblong, more or less hairy on the 

 back : corolla-lobes subcordate-ovate : substerUe flowers widely open, with capillary fila- 

 ments, style long-exserted (the style commonly earlier), and large oval anthers : flowers 

 of the fully fertile spikes with corolla remaining closed, small anthers on short filaments. 



