236 
SINGULAR VARIETY OF PLANTAGO MAJOR. 
succession. As soon as a head is perceptible, the good old custom of our ancestors of 
breaking the mid-rib of a leaf or two, and turning the latter inwards for blanching and 
protecting the young Cauliflowers, must be rigidly performed, or the inflorescence will 
expand with heat and turn yellow from alternate dews and sunshine ; but should they 
come in too quickly in succession for immediate use (which, however, is seldom the case) 
they must be cut in time with a goodly length of stalk, and several full-grown leaves 
attached, and their stalks inserted in damp sand, or placed in pans renewed with fresh 
water daily, in a dark damp room or vegetable storehouse, which every establishment 
should possess. 
Watering must be zealously followed up until the heads are about half-developed in 
size, when it must be exclusively withheld, the hand-glasses removed to the cucumber 
ridge, and the Cauliflowers themselves exposed to all the benefits that genial rains and 
increasing sunshine can confer upon them. 
OBSERVATIONS ON A SINGULAR VARIETY OE PLANTAGO MAJOR, 
CALLED THE “ BESOM PLANTAIN ” OF RAY. 
By R. Scott , Chatsworth. 
In Vol. I. of the “ Florigraphia Britannica,” p. 193, are the following remarks 
“ The variety called by Ray the ‘ Besome Plantain or Plantain with spiky tufts,’ has 
been noticed since the year 1632, when it was found by Dr. Johnson in the Isle of 
Thanet, and has since been observed in various parts of the country. The peculiarity of 
this form is owing to the bracteas becoming foliaceous, which beautifully shows that 
bractese are only diminutive forms of leaves.” 
Now, although in the above extract, the foliaceous form of the bracts is regarded as an 
instance of morphology, yet in some respects it differs from most forms which come under 
that character : every spike which the plant produces has its bracts foliaceous, and, as I 
have proved, this peculiarity may be reproduced from seed. 
In the summer of 1845 my attention was directed to a plant of Plantago Major var., 
from which I gathered seeds in the autumn. These seeds were sown in April 1846, four 
of the largest plants of that sowing were saved, and have invariably produced all the spikes 
with foliaceous bracts. 
Again, in the Autumn of last year I gathered seeds from the plants raised in 1846. 
Those seeds were sown last April, and of the plants from that sowing (without reference to 
size) thirty-seven were saved. At present, August 9th, thirty-four of these plants have 
spikes, and all the spikes have foliaceous bracts. Nor can I perceive the least tendency 
to revert to the form which obtains in Plantago Major. 
Here we have a peculiarity, produced originally by a favourable concurrence of climatic 
or other conditions, observed in a common plant more than 200 years ago, and since found 
in various parts of the country, becoming fixed, and that too in the absence of any care on 
the part of man. 
These facts open a wide and interesting field for physiological and botanical inquiry. 
Another species of this genus is occasionally met with, having one or more of the 
spikes with foliaceous bracts, I mean Plantago lanceolata. It would be desirable to 
ascertain whether in the case of this species, seeds gathered from such spikes would 
produce plants whose spikes would all bear foliaceous bracts. 
