402 



PLANTAGIi^E.'E 



Order are common in Great Britain as wayside, meadow, and 

 maritime plants, and some of them are almost world-wide in their 

 distribution. The seeds abound in a tasteless mucilage, which 

 has been used as a substitute for Linseed in medicine, and to 

 stiffen muslin. 



1. PL.'iNTAGO. — Terrestrial plants with perfect flowers in spikes. 



2. LiTTORELLA. — W^atersidc plants w'wh stamens 2,nd carpels in 



different flowers ; staminate 

 flowers solitary, stalked ; 

 carpellate flowers sessile. 



r. Plant.vco (I'lantain). 

 ' — Terrestrial herbs with 

 perfect flojcers in spikes ; 

 c'alyx 4-cleft, the segments 

 *efie,\ed; corolla tubular, 

 .with 4 spreading lobes ; 

 stamens 4, very long ; ovary 

 2 — 4-chambered ; capsule 

 'splitting all round. (Name, 

 the Classical Latin name.) 



I. P. major ((Ireater 

 .Plantain, Way-bread. ) — 

 iLecwes radical, ascending, 

 broadly oblong, on long, 

 tehannelled stalks, 3 — 7- 

 ribbed ; flou'crs in a very 

 long, tapering s|)ike, on a 

 i^hort, cylindrical stalk; 

 anthers purple ; capsule 2- 

 chamlaered, 8 — i6-seeded. 

 T- Borders of fields and 

 waysides ; abundant. Well 

 iknown for its spikes of 

 fruit, the seeds in which 

 Fl. ALiy— September. 



FLANT.\GO LANCE0L.4TA (ii*/ 



food 



of catrc-birds 



arc a favourite 

 Perennial. 



2. P. media (Ildury I'laiilain, Lamiys-tongue). — Leaves down)', 

 broadly elliptical, on short, Hat stalks, lying so close to the ground 

 as to destroy nil vegetation beneath, ami even to lea\e the impres- 

 sion of their 5 — (j ribs on the ground ; flo':cers in a close, cylin- 

 drical spike, shorter than that of P. nidjor, but on a longer, 

 cylindrical, downy jx'duncle, Iragrant, .hid conspieuous from their 

 lilac bracts, and filaments, and cream-coloured anthers ; capsule 2- 



