PLANTAIN FAMILY 



4OI 



almost to the base into 3 linear segments ; and solitary, axillary, 

 yellow flowers, with red spots on the lower lip of the corolla. 

 — Chalky fields in the south-east; rare. — Fl. May — August. 

 Annual. 



Xjuga cham^pitys (Ground Pine). 



ORD. LX. PLANTAGfNE^E. — THE PLANTAIN FAMILY 



A small Order of herbaceous plants of humble growth, with 

 many, usually radical, ribbed or fleshy leaves. The flowers, which, 

 being mostly wind-pollinated, are conspicuous from their long 

 stamens, grow in spikes and are polysymmetric ; the calyx 

 4-parted, imbricate, persistent ; corolla 4-parted, chaffy, imbricate ; 

 stamens 4, alternate with the segments of the corolla, and having 

 very long, thread-like, exserted filaments, and large, versatile anthers; 

 ovary superior, 1-, 2-, or rarely 4-chambered ; style 1, slender; 

 stigma hairy ; fruit a capsule splitting transversely or not at all ; 

 seeds 1, 2, or many in each chamber. Several species in the 



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