Hantago. PLANTAGINACEjE. 389 



and veinless, mostly marcescent-persistent. Consists chiefly of the two following 

 genera ; the principal genus of many species and widely dispersed over the 

 world, but most largely European and Asiatic; the other of a single species 

 widely dissevered in habitation. 



1. PLANT AGO, Tourn. Plantain, Ribwort. (The Latin name.) — 

 Flowers perfect or polygamo-dicecious, each subtended by a bract. Calyx of 

 4 imbricated sepals, persistent. Corolla salverform with a short tube, or nearly 

 rotate ; limb 4-parted ; lobes imbricated in the bud, two lateral exterior. Stamens 

 4, or sometimes 2, on the tube of the corolla : filaments commonly capillary : 

 anthers 2-celled, versatile. Ovary 2-celled (or rarely falsely 3-4-celled), with one 

 or more ovules in each cell. Style or stigma mostly hairy. Capsule (pyxidium) 

 circumscissile toward the base, and with a loose partition falling away with the 

 lid; the seeds attached to its face. Seed-coat developing copious mucilage 

 when wetted. Scape from the axils of the radical or subradical leaves, mostly 

 bearing a single simple spike or head of greenish or whitish small flowers, in 

 summer. 



§ 1. Stamens 4: flowers all perfect: corolla not closed over the fruit. 



* Flowers dichogamous, proterogynous ; the style projecting from the apex of the unopened 

 corolla; the anthers long-exserted on capillary filaments after the corolla has expanded. 



•)— Corolla glabrous (as also the whole inflorescence, except in P. macrocarpn) : seeds not hollowed 

 (or barely concave) on the inner face: leaves 3-8-nerved or ribbed, plane: root perennial. 



■h- Eibs or nerves of the broad leaves mainly confluent with the thick and dilated lower portion of 

 the midrib: ovules only 2 in each cell : seeds by abortion sometimes solitary. 



P. cordata, Lam. Very smooth : leaves cordate or ovate (3 to 8 inches long), sometimes 

 repand-dentate, long-petioled, 7-9-ribbed : scape fistulous, stout, a foot or two high, includ- 

 ing the narrow spike : bracts rotund-ovate, very obtuse, as are the ovate and obovate sepals 

 and the corolla-lobes : capsules broadly ovoid, twice the length of the calyx : seeds 4 to 2, 

 large, oblong. — HI. i. 338 ; Jacq. Eclog. t. 72. P. Kentuckensis, Michx. Fl. i. 94. — Along 

 streams (Canada ■? Pursh), New York to Wisconsin and Louisiana, common only westward. 

 ++ -H- Ribs or nerves of the leaf free quite to the contracted base. 



= Leaves ovate or oval, or in small forms oblong, rarely subcordate, several-ribbed, base abruptly 

 contracted into a distinct petiole, not fleshy, glabrous or pubescent, from entire to sparingly re- 

 pand-dentate : ovules and seed's at least 2 in each cell : scapes with the spike a span to 2 feet high. 



P. major, L. (Common Plantain.) Spike commonly dense, obtuse at apex : sepals 

 rotund-ovate or obovate, scarious-margined ; the exterior and the bract more or less cari- 

 nate : ovules 8 to 18: seeds as many or by abortion fewer, small, angled by mutual press- 

 ure, usually light brown, minutely reticulated : capsule ovoid, very obtuse, circumscissile 

 near the middle and near the level of the summit of the sepals. — Waysides and near 

 dwellings throughout the country, doubtless introduced from Europe, but also native from 

 Lake Superior far northward. Runs into some monstrosities and several varieties, an 

 extreme in saline soil being var. minima, Decaisne in DC. Prodr. xiii. 695 (P. minima, DC), 

 with scapes 2 to 5 inches high, and leaves proportionally small. (Cosmop.) 



Var. Asiatica, Decaisne. Capsule usually more broadly ovoid, circumscissile 

 near the base and much within the calyx. — P. Asiatica, L. Spec. i. 113; Franchet & 

 Savatier, Enum. PI. Jap. 384. (Includes perhaps P. Kamtschatica, Cham, and Link, or 

 plants cultivated as such, with 4, 5, or 6 seeds.) — A very large indigenous form, coast of 

 California near San Francisco (capsule globose-ovoid) to the borders of British Columbia; 

 Saskatchewan to the Arctic Sea. Perhaps a distinct species. (N. Asia, Himalaya.) 



P. Rugelii, Decaisne. Leaves paler, commonly thinner : spikes long and thin, atten- 

 uate at the apex : sepals oblong, all as well as the similar bract acutely carinate : cap- 

 sules erect in the spike, cylindraceous-oblong (somewhat over 2 lines long, one-sixteenth 



