PLANTAGINACEJS. (PLANTAIN FAMILY.) 311 



§ 1. Flowers all perfect and alike, and with the 4 stamens and filiform stigma much 

 exserted, but dichogamous, i. e. with the stigma exserted from the tip of the corolla a 

 day or so before it expands and the anthers are hung out (an arrangement for crosr- 

 fertilization) : lobes of the corolla spreading or reflexed after flowering. 



* Leaves 5 - 7 -ribbed, mostly broad : spike long and slender, smooth : seeds not concave 



on the inner face: root perennial, or perhaps annual in No. 2 and 3. 



1. P. major, L. (Common Plantain.) Smooth or rather hairy, rarely 

 roughish ; leaves ovate, oblong, oval, or slightly heart-shaped, often toothed, 

 abruptly narrowed into a channelled petiole; spike dense; pod 7 -16-seeded. — • 

 Moist grounds, everywhere near dwellings. June - Sept. — A small and rougher 

 form in salt marshes. (Xat. from Eu., but probably indigenous high north.) 



2. P. Kamtschattoa, Cham. Much resembles small forms of the preced- 

 ing; but sepals and bract narrower, and pod ^-seeded. (P. Kugelii, Decaisne.) 

 — Buffalo, N. Y., Mr. Dug, and sparingly in the south. (Apparently adv.) 



3. P. sparsiflora, Michx. Slender (3' -18' high), smoothish or hairy; 

 leaves lanceolate or oblong, 3 - 5-nerved, tapering to both ends, denticulate or entire ; 

 spike sparsely-flowered, very slender ; lobes of the corolla acute ; pod 2-seeded. — 

 Mound City, Illinois (Dr. Vasey), and southward. July -Sept. 



4. P. COrdata, Lam. Tall, glabrous ; leaves heart-shaped or round-ovate 

 (3' -8' long), long-petioled, the ribs rising from the midrib; spike at length loosely 

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

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



* * Leaves linear, thick and fleshy, without ribs, or when dry obscurely 3-nerved: spike 



slender: tube of the corolla hairy below: seeds not hollowed. 



5. P. maritima, L., var. juncoides. Smooth, or the scape slightly pu- 

 bescent ; leaves flat or flatfish and channelled, erect, nearly as long as the scape 

 (5'- 12'), mostly entire; pod 2-celled or incompletely 3-4-celled, 2-4-seeded; 

 root on our coast annual or biennial. ( P. juncoides, Lam.) — Salt marshes, from 

 New Jersey northward. Near Boston a depauperate form, 2' -5' high, little 

 fleshy, grows in sand beyond the influence of salt water (D. Murray). The per- 

 ennial P. maritima occurs in New Brunswick, &c, perhaps in Maine. 



* * * Leaves 3-5-ribbed, narrow: spike thick and dense, at first or throughout very 



short: two of the scarious sepals generally united into one: seeds only 2, hollowed 

 on the inner face. 



6. P. lanceolata, L. (Ribgrass. Ripplegrass. English Plantain.) 

 Mostly hairy ; scape grooved-angled, at length much longer than the lanceolate 

 or lance-oblong leaves, slender (9'-2° high); root perennial. —Dry fields : 

 common eastward. (Nat. from Eu.) 



§ 2. Flowers of two sorts on distinct plants, apparently polygamo-dicecious ; the mostly 

 sterile ivith the usual large anthers on long capillary filaments, and the lobes of the 

 corolla reflexed or spreading ; the truly fertile ivith minute anthers on short included 

 filaments, and the corolla usually closing permanently over the apex of the fruit: 

 seeds not hollowed on the face: small annuals or biennials. 

 * Stamens 4 : spike dense. 



7. P. Virginica, L. Hairy or hoary-pubescent (2'- 9' high); leaves ob- 

 loag, varying to obovate and spatulate-lanceolate, 3 - 5-nerved, slightly or 



