248 PLANTAGINACEAE. Vor. III. 
8. Plantago Purshii R. & S. Pursh’s Plantain. Fig. 3905. 
; ae Plantago Purshii R. & S. Syst. 3: 120. 1818. 
Plantago gnaphalioides Nutt. Gen. 1: 100. 1818. 
Plantago patagonica var. gnaphalioides A. Gray, Man. 
Ed. 2, 269. 1856. 
Annual, woolly or silky all over, pale green; 
scapes slender, 2-15’ tall, longer than the leaves. 
Leaves ascending, linear, acute or acuminate at 
the apex, narrowed into margined petioles, 1-3- 
nerved, 14-4” wide, entire, or very rarely with 
a few small teeth; spikes very dense, cylindric, 
obtuse, 1-5’ long, about 3” in diameter, exceed- 
ingly woolly; bracts rigid, equalling or slightly 
exceeding the flowers; flowers perfect but heter- 
ogonous, many of them cleistogamous; sepals 
oblong, obtuse, scarious-margined; corolla-lobes 
broadly ovate, spreading; stamens 4; pyxis ob- 
long, obtuse, 17” long, little exceeding the calyx, 
2-seeded, circumscissile at about the middle; seeds 
convex on the back, deeply concave on the face. 
On dry plains and prairies, Indiana to western On- 
tario, British Columbia, Texas and northern Mexico. 
Locally adventive eastward. May-Aug. Salt-and- 
pepper-plant. 
g. Plantago aristata Michx. Large-bracted 
Plantain. Fig. 3906. 
Plantago aristata Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 95. 1803. 
Plantago patagonica var. aristata A. Gray, Man. Ed. 2, 
269. 1856. 
Annual, dark green, villous, or glabrate; scapes 
stout, erect, 6-18’ tall, exceeding the leaves. Leaves 
linear, acuminate at the apex, entire, narrowed intc 
slender petioles, sometimes prominently 3-ribbed 
13’-4” wide; spikes very dense, cylindric, 1-6’ long. 
pubescent but not woolly; bracts puberulent, linear, 
elongated, ascending, the lower often Io times as 
long as the flowers; flowers very similar to those 
of the preceding species; pyxis 2-seeded; the seeds 
concave on the face. 
On dry plains and prairies, Illinois to South Dakota, 
Louisiana and Texas, west to British Columbia and New 
Mexico. Also widely adventive as a weed in the East- 
ern States from Maine to Georgia, its eastern natural 
limits now difficult to determine. May-Oct. 
Plantago spinulésa Dene., differing in its pale green 
color and mostly shorter involucral bracts, enters the 
western part of our area in Nebraska. 
10. Plantago virginica L. Dwarf or White Dwarf Plantain. Fig. 3907. 
Plantago virginica L. Sp. Pl. 113. 1753. 
Annual or biennial, pubescent or villous; scapes 
erect, slender, 17-18’ high, much longer than the 
leaves. Leaves spatulate or obovate, obtuse. or 
acutish, thin, entire, or repand-denticulate, nar- 
rowed into margined petioles, or almost sessile, 
varying greatly in size, 3-5-nerved, ascending or 
spreading; spikes very dense, or the lower flowers - 
scattered, linear-cylindric, obtuse, 3-4” thick, usu- 
ally 1’-4’ long, but in dwarf forms reduced to 2-6 
flowers; flowers imperfectly dioecious; corolla- 
lobes of the fertile plants erect and connivent on 
the top of the pyxis, those of the sterile widely 
spreading ; stamens 4; pyxis oblong, about as long 
as the calyx, appearing beaked by the connivent 
corolla-lobes, 2-4-seeded, the seeds yellow to brown. 
In dry soil, Rhode Island to Florida, Illinois, Mich- 
igan, Missouri, Arizona and northern Mexico. Ber- 
muda. March-July. 
Plantago rhodospérma Dene., of the Southwest, 
with larger flowers and larger reddish seeds, is re- 
corded as adventive in Missouri. 
