412 PLANTAGiNACEJE. [Plautago. 



appiessed white pubescence. Spikes solitary, simple, slender, terminal and cylin- 

 drical or ovato-oblong, dioopingbefore flowering, then erect, and finally considerably 

 elongated in seed. Flowers very numerous, densely imbricated, expanding in 

 successive rings or bells from below upwards, sessile, each subtended by an ovate 

 concave bract, of a green colour edged with white, about as long as the flower. 

 Calyx as long as the tube of the corolla, deeply clelt into 4 broadly ovate, ribless, 

 concave, very obtuse or rounded, scariuse segments, with green strongly keeled 

 backs and somewhat fringed tips. Corolla pale green or yellowish, the tube 

 urceolate, faintly ribbed, very hispid below, the limb in 4 broadly ovale, scariose, 

 pointed segments, purplish in the centre. Stamens much exserted ; filaments gla- 

 brous ; anthers bright yellow, olilong-sagittate, apiculate, their points purplish. 

 Germen ovoid, glabrous, tapering into the style. Style long, tapering, quadran- 

 gular, rough chiefly in its superior part. Capsule much longer than the calyx, 

 covered with the dry persistent corolla, brownish yellow, glabrous, rather acutely 

 conical. Seeds 2, dark brown, plano-convex, oblong or elliptical, smooth, usually 

 bordered unilaterally or at one end with a narrow white membrane or caruncle ; 

 hilum oval, depressed. 



A much smaller and very narrow-leaved variety is mentioned by Withering as 

 having been found by him in this island. 



** Leaves pinnatifid. Root annual. 



5. P. Coronopus* L. Buclzs-horn Plantain. Star of the 

 Earth. " Leaves linear pinnatifid or toothed, scape rounded, 

 bracteas ovato-subulate, lateral sepals with a ciliated membrana- 

 ceous wing at the back, dissepiment of the capsule with 4 angles 

 (thus forming 4 cells), cells 1-seeded."— £r. Fl. p. 339. E. B. t. 

 892. 



In waste ground, and under walls about towns and villages, principally near 

 the sea; common, i?/. June, July. 0. 



E. Med. — Abundant on Boyal heath, and above Sandown bay, between San- 

 down and Shanklin, &c., 1844. Plentiful on the Dover at Ryde. 



W. Med. — Most abundant and of luxuriant growth everywhere on the (green?) 

 sand of the entire line of coast betwixt Blackgang and Compton bay, 1846. 



Capsule very small, brownish or yellowish, slightly hairy, ovoid, mucronato- 

 acuminate by the persistent base of the style, bursting by a central angular line 

 of dehiscence ; placenta 4-winged, forming 4 cells, but unconnected with the walls 

 of the capsule, which hence is truly unilocular. Seeds one in each cell, but one 

 or more often abortive, of an oblong or subelliptical shape, subcompressed, pale 

 purplish brown, with a gray furfuraeeous scaliness, and a narrow white wing or 

 border atone extremity chiefly, often nearly obsolete; hilum round, depressed, 

 central and lateral. 



A few specimens of P. Ct/nops, L., were found on the Dover at Ryde, by T. 

 Brown, Esq., in May, 1843, one of which he kindly presented me with. 



* The linear segments of the pinnatifid leaves are thought to resemble a crow's 

 foot as well as a deer's horns, hence the name of Coronopus. 



