Root of many long, stout, whitish fibres. Stem none. Leaves 
numerous, on long, channelled, ribbed stalks (petioles), broadly 
egg-shaped or oval, with 5, 7, or 9 ribs, and wavy, or variously tooth- 
ed margins, smooth, somewhat hairy when young. Scapes upright, 
simple, longer than the leaves, round, more or less hairy, terminated 
by a very long cylindrical spike of numerous, small flowers, which 
are imbricated in the bud, but which afterwards become more distant, 
each accompanied by an oblong bractea, which is pressed close to 
the calyx. Calyx (fig. 1.) cut almost to the very base into four, in- 
versely egg-shaped, concave, nearly equal segments, with a broad 
membranous margin. Corolla (fig. 3.) small, whitish, of one petal, 
with a 4-parted limb, the segments of which are oval, pointed, re- 
flexed, and soon becoming withered. Stamens, (see fig. 2, c.) much 
longer than the corolla. Anthers purplish. Capsule (fig. 5.) mem- 
branous, small, oval, pointed, 2-celled, with about 5 seeds in each 
cell. Seeds (fig. 6.) small, brownish, angular. 
“ t his plant has a peculiar tendency to follow the migrations of man, as if 
domesticated or sympathetically attached to the human race. Thus, although 
not purposely conveyed, it has followed our colonists to every part of the world, 
and has amongst the natives in some of oursettlements been emphatically named 
‘ The Englishman’s Foot;’ for, with a strange degree of certainty, wherever it 
is found there our countrymen have trod.” Prof. Burnett. 
“ Sheep, goats, and swine eat it; cows and horses refuse it. If the temperate 
ass, who is contented with the most ordinary weeds, and makes his humble re- 
past on what the horse and other animals refuse, has a preference for any vege- 
table, it is the Plantain ; for which he is often seen to neglect every other herb in 
the pasture. 
The green leaves are astringent, and are frequently applied to cuts. Bruised 
and rubbed on the part affected they will reduce the swelling, pain, and inflam- 
mation occasioned by the bite or sting of insects. The seed is a favourite food 
of birds.” VV ither ing. 
Some curious varieties of this species are occasionally met with, namely, 
Var. /3. P. latifotta minor, Bauh. Hist. v. iii. p. 505. f. 3. — Dill, in Ray’s Syn. 
p.314. — This is much smaller than the common sort. The leaves are 3-ribbed ; 
the scape not more than an inch and a half high ; with a spi/ce small in propor- 
tion. Common in corn-fields in Norfolk and Suffolk : Mr. Woodward. About 
Shirehampton and Kingsweston, near Bristol: Dr. W tTtr ering. 
Var. 7 . P. latifolia glabra dentata, Petiv. Brit. t. 4. f. 2. Leaves with large 
teeth towards the base. 
Var. S. P. pyramidalis, With. (7th ed.) v. ii. p. 231. Johns. Ger. p. 420. 
f. 4. Spike leafy. Flower-leaves disposed in a pyramidal form. 
Var. e. P. Rosea, Johns. Ger. p. 420. f. 4. Spike abortive or composed of 
leaves which are disposed in a rose-like form. Near Ripton, Huntingdonshire: 
Mr. Woodward. On Dudley Lime Rocks : Dr. Withering. — Near Oxford: 
T. Crapi-er. — Near Rugby, Warwickshire, on the road to Brownsover, be- 
tween the Mill and the Wharf; June 28, 1831: W. H. Baxter.— This and 
Var. S. often rise from the same root. 
Var. £. P: major panicula sparsa, Ray’s Syn. p. 314. — Johnson’s Gerarde, 
p. 420. f. 6. — Loud. Mag. Nat. Hist, v. iii. p.482. f. 118. — Spike abortive, leafy, 
branched into a panicle. Near Ripton, Huntingdonshire: Mr. Woodward. — 
Bedingham, near Bungay, Suffolk : Mr. Stone. 
Var. i). Scape bearing, in the place of a spike of flowers, a vast number of mi- 
nute bracteas, disposed in many small, peduncled, compound spikes, each of 
which arises from the axil of a bractea. The peduncles of the lowest spikes 
about a quarter of an inch long, the rest gradually shorter as they approach the 
top, forming, altogether, a kind of pyramidal panicle. See the annexed plate, 
f. 7; and Loudon’s Mag. of Nat. Hist. v. ix. p.204. 
This curious variety was found by my daughter Ruth, in a lane about half a 
mile from Oxford, going from Longmeadow to Iffley, July 26, 1835. 
A minute parasitical fungus, Erysiphe lamprocarpa, Link, in Willd.Sp. PI- 
v. vi. pt. i. p. 108, is found on the leaves of this species about Oxford. 
