220 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



sole of the foot, and ago, to act, or exercise. It is rather a worthless 

 weed, but is not much inclined to spread, or be troublesome, on farm 

 lands. The leaves are a convenient and popular dressing for blisters, 

 and other sores ; a fact which seems to have been known in the time of 

 Shakspeaee — as we may learn from his Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Sc. 2. 



" Eom. Your Plantain leafis excellent for tliat. 

 " Ben. For what, I pray thee ? 

 " Eom. For your broken shin." 



Pod 2-seeded. 



2. P. lanceola'ta, L. Leaves lanceolate, acute at each end ; scape 

 sulcate-angled, long and slender ; spike ovoid-cylindric, short ; calyx 

 deeply 3-parted ; capsule 2-seeded. 



Lanceolate Plantago. Ribgrass. English Plantain. Buckhorn Plan- 

 tain. 



iSooi perennial. Leaves i - S or 10 inches long, hairy, narrowed gradually at base to a 

 paJioZe 2-5 or 6 inches in length. Scapes several, 1-2 feet high, somewhat pilose with 

 appressed hairs. .S^JiAre 1 - 2 inches long, at first ovoid-oblong, finally nearly cylindric, 

 dense-flowered. Bracteoles ovate, acuminate, scarious on the margins and at apex — the 

 slender point at length reflexed. Calyx deeply 3-parted (or rather of 3 sepals), the 

 outer or lower segment or sepal oval, truncate, emarginate, with 2 green keel-like lines— 

 the lateral segments or sepals rather longer, boat-shaped, acute, keel green, fringed with 

 hairs near the apex. Corolla dirty white. Stamens several times longer than the corolla ; 

 anthers greenish- white. Seeds oblong, convex on one side concave on the other, shining, 

 brown or amber-colored. 



Pastures and upland meadows: introduced. Native of Europe. Fl. May -August. 

 Fr. July -September. 



Obs. This species, also, is extensively naturalized, and is particularly 

 abundant in upland meadows, or clover grounds. The seeds being nearly 

 the same size and weight as those of the red clover, they cannot readily 

 be separated — and thus the two plants are disseminated together, in the 

 culture of clover. I^early all kinds of stock eat this Plaintain freely, and 

 it has even been cultivated expressly for a Sheep-pasture ; but it is gene- 

 rally much disliked, in Pennsylvania. I do not, however, perceive any 

 mode of getting rid of it, or even of arresting its progress, unless it can 

 be choked down by heavy crops of Clover and the valuable Grasses. 



Okder XLYL BIG^TONIA'CE^. (Bignonia Family.) 



Woody or sonaetimes herbaceous plants, with mostly opposite, simple or compound leaves' y 

 and didynamous or diandrous f/jv;ers. Calyx 2-lipped or 5-cleft ; corolla tubular or bcll- 

 Bhaped, 5-lobed, somewhat irregular and 2-lipped, deciduous ; ovai~y free, 2-celled by the 

 projection of the placenta ; capsule coriaceous or woody, 2-valved, many-seeded ; seedi 

 large, flat, often winged, destitute of albumen. 



Sub-order 1. Bignone^. 



Woody plants with 1 - 2-celled and 2-valved pods. Seeds flat and winged. 



1. TE'COMA, fuss. Trumpet-flower. 



[Xame abridged from the Mexican.] 



CalijX bell shaped, 5-toothed. Corolla funnel-form 5-lobed, a little irre- 



