268 PLANTAGINACE^. (PLANTAIN FAMILY.) 



fruit globular. (B. lanuginosa & tomentosa, A. DC.) — Woods, Illinois, oppo» 

 Bite St. Louis, and southward, — a variety with the leaves less woolly and rusty 

 beneath (B. oblongifolia, Nutt.), passing towards No. 1. July. 



Oedeb 68. PLANTAGINACE^. (Plantain Family.) 



Chiefly stemless herbs, with regular i-^merous spiked flowers, the stamens 

 inserted on the tube of the dry and membranaceous veinless monopetalous 

 corolla, alternate with its lobes ; — chiefly represented by the genus 



1. PI.ANTAGO, L. Plantain. Ribgbass. 



Calyx of 4 imbricated persistent sepals, with dry membranaceous margins. 

 Corolla salver-form, withering on the pod, the border 4-parted. Stamens 4, or 

 rarely 2, in all or some flowers with long and weak exserted filaments, and fuga- 

 cious 2-cclled aiitliers. Ovary 2- (or falsely 3-4-) celled, with 1- several ovules 

 in each cell. Pod 2-colled, 2 - several-seeded, opening all round by a transverse 

 line, so that the top falls off lilce a lid, and the loose p.artition (which bears the 

 peltate seeds) falls away. Embryo straight, in fleshy albumen. — Leaves ribbed. 

 Flowers whitish, small, in a bracted spike or head, raised on a naked scape. 

 (Tlie Latin name of the Plantain.) 



^ 1. Flowers all perfect and alike ; corolla glabrous, Ike lobes reflexed or spreading : 

 stamens 4, with long capillary filaments : jjod 2-cdled, 2-l8-seeded: seeds not hol- 

 lowed out on the inner face : perennials, with several-ribbed [broad] leaves. 



1. P. MijOK, L. (Common Plantain.) Smooth or hairj'j leaves ovate, 

 oval, or slightly heart-shaped, often toothed, abruptly naiTowed into a chan- 

 nelled petiole; spike cylindiical ; pod T -Id-seeded. — Moist grounds, especially 

 near dwellings. June -Sept. Very much vaiying in size. {Nat. from Eu.) 



2. P. COI'data, Lam. Very glabrous; leaves heart-shaped err round-ovate 

 (3' -8' long), long-petioled, the ribs i-ising from the midrib; spike at length loose- 

 ly flowered ; bracts round-ovate, fleshy ; pod 2 - i-seeded. — Along rivulets, New 

 York to Wisconsin (rare), and southward. April - June. 



^ 2. Flowers all perfect and alike : corolla pubescent below : stamens 4, mth long 

 filaments : pods 2-celled and 2-seeded, or incompletely 3 - ^-celled and 3 - i-seeded : 

 seeds not Iwllowed on the face : pei-ennials, with linear thick and fleshy leaves. 



3. P. maritima, L. (Seaside Plantain.) Leaves very fleshy or 

 terete, entire, or rarely few-toothed, glabrous ; spikes cylindrical or oblong ; 

 bracts ovate, convex, about the length of the broadly ovate or oval scarious se- 

 pals, which have a thick keel, that of the posterior sepals crested. — Var. jhn- 

 coiDES is usually more slender, the flowers often sparser, and the keel crestless. 

 — Salt marshes on the coast from New Jersey northward ; the var. only north- 

 ward. (Eu.) 



§ 3. Flowers all perfect and alike ; th'. 2 anterior scarious sepals generally united into 

 one: corolla, stamens, ^c. as in the first group: seeds {atid omdes) 2, hollowed on 

 tlie face : leaves fiat, lanceolate, 3 - i-ribbed. 



