236 PLANTAGINACE.ffi. 



level of the sepals: seeds 8 — 18, brownish, minutely reticulated. — Mostly 

 in shaded or moist places; not very common; supposed to have been 

 introduced from Europe. 



2. P. Asiatica, L. Eather more slender, the leaves more rounded; 

 spikes slender, little surpassing the leaves, the flowers of the lower part 

 scattered: capsule globose-ovoid, circumscissile not a little below the level 

 of the sepals. — Less common, and less confined to the neighborhood of 

 buildings, or to cultivated lands; presumably native. 



3. P. XjAnceolata, L. Perennial: leaves oblong-lanceolate, villous or 

 glabrate, tapering into a short petiole, very strongly ribbed: scapes 

 slender, deeply sulcate and angled: spike short, dense: bracts and sepals 

 broadly ovate, scarious, brownish. — Very common in moist meadow 

 lands and waysides; native of Europe. 



4. P. maritima, L. Very stout maritime perennial, with many 

 linear obtuse very fleshy leaves: spikes cylindric, long and dense: bracts 

 mostly roundish, shorter than the calyx: sepals oval, carinate: corolla 

 with pubescent tube: capsule 2 — 4-seeded. — Plentiful on rocks and cliffs 

 of the seaboard; also in sandy salt marshes. 



5. P. Bigelovii, Gray. Stoutish, fleshy and glabrate like the last, 

 but annual and small, the leaves and scapes erect, the latter only 2 — 4 

 in. high, the leaves shorter, linear, entire: spike in fruit 1 in. long or 

 more: stamens 2 only: capsule ovoid-oblong, well exserted from the 

 calyx, 4-seeded. — Borders of saline or brackish marshes; quite common 

 about the Bay, and on the lower San Joaquin. April, May. 



6. P. Californica, Greene. Annual, 3 — 6 in. high, the rosulate leaves 

 commonly depressed, and scapes more or less decumbent at base: leaves 

 linear, entire or with few remote salient teeth, glabrous or very sparingly 

 hirsutulous: scapes twice the length of the leaves: spikes linear, 2 — 3 

 in. long, rather dense: bracts broadly ovate and with broad scarious 

 margins below the middle, shorter than the sepals: stamens 2: seeds 

 8 — 12, irregularly pitted, blackish. — Plains of Alameda and Contra Costa 

 counties and southward, in alkaline soils. March — May. 



7. P. Patagonica, Jacq., var. Californica. Annual, slender, 3—10 

 in. high, more or less villous but not lanate, the leaves and scapes slender, 

 strictly erect from the very base: leaves narrowly oblanceolate linear, 

 nearly equalling the scapes, these gradually dilated up to the base of 

 the short cylindric spike : bracts less than half the length of the obtuse 

 scarious-margined sepals: lobes of the corolla roundish, reflexed: seeds 

 oblong-oval. — Abundant on grassy plains and hillsides. March — May. 



* * Corolla in age closed and forming a beak over the fruit. 



8. P. hirtella, HBK. Perennial, somewhat fleshy: leaves oblong- 

 ovate or -spatulate, 6 — 10 in. long, glabrate, sparsely denticulate, 5—7- 



