1210 XCVII. PL ANT AGINEJS . [ Planta.jo . 
Ovary 2-celled, with usually more than 2 superposed pairs of ovules iu each 
cell 1. P. * major. 
Ovary 2-celled, with 1 ovule in each cell. Flowers in very dense ovate or 
broadly oblong spikes or heads 2. P. *lanceolata 
Ovary 2-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell without spurious dissepments. 
Spikes very slender, interrupted. Flowers small. Leaves usually rather 
broad. Calyx not exceeding § line 3. P. clebilis. 
Spikes rigid, not very close, above lin. long (excepting depauperated 
specimens with few flowers). Leaves usually narrow. Calyx 1 to 14 
line long "4 . P. varia. 
1. P. *major (the greater,) Linn ; Dene, in DC. Prod. xiii. i. 694. A peren- 
nial, glabrous or hairy ; rootstock stout truncate. Leaves oblong or oblong- 
ovate, sub-entire or toothed, 3- to 7-ribbed, 2 to oin. long, of variable width, the 
petioles about 3 or 4in. Scape short; spike 3 to 6in., or sometimes longer. 
Flowers scattered or crowded. Bracts long as the calyx. Sepals glabrous, 2 
lines long, margins broadly scarious, obtusely keeled. Filaments short. Seeds 
black, very minute. — P. asiatica ; Linn. Wight. 111. t. 177. 
Hab.: A widely spread weed. Introduced by cultivation. 
2. P. "lanceolata (lanceolate), Linn.; Dene, in DC. Prod, xiii.i. 714; BentliFl. 
Austr. v. 138. Stock usually more or less woolly or silky-hairy. Leaves radical, 
lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acute, entire or minutely and obscurely toothed, 
contracted at the base, more or less hairy or glabrous. Scapes long. Flowers in 
a close dense ovate spike or head, often becoming oblong when old. Lower sepals 
usually united almost to the top. Ovary 2-celled with only one ovule in each cell. 
Hab.: A weed of Europe and temperate Asia, met with as a stray from cultivation paddocks. 
3. P. debilis (weak), I?. Br. Prod. 425 ; Bcnth. FI. Austr. v. 139. Ver^ 
near P. varia, and according to F. v. M. only a variety of that species. Stock 
without any or with only a few long woolly hairs between the leaves, the foliage 
and inflorescence hirsute or nearly glabrous. Leaves radical, oblong or 
lanceolate, entire or toothed, usually broader and shorter than in P. varia. 
Scapes very slender, from 2 or 3in. to 1ft. high, the flowers all distant when fully 
out, and much smaller than in P. varia, forming a slender interrupted spike often 
occupying above half the scape. Calyx not exceeding f line when in fruit and 
still smaller at the time of flowering, the opaque centre of the sepals with a few 
appressed hairs or more frequently glabrous. Ovary 2-celled, with 2 collateral 
ovules in each cell. Capsule with 4 or fewer seeds. — Dene, in DC. Prod. xiii. i. 701. 
Hab.: Brisbane River, Moreton Bay, F. v. Mueller, C. Stuart ; Armadilla, IT. Barton ; widely 
spread but not so common as P. varia. 
4. P. varia (various), B. Br. Prod. 424; Bcnth. FI. Austr. v. 139. A 
perennial often flowering the first year so as to appear annual, but forming 
ultimately a thick stock with the membranous dilated imbricate bases of the 
leaves enveloped in long reddish brown woolly or silky hairs sometimes very 
copious, in other specimens very few or scarcely any. Leaves all radical, erect 
or rosulate, usually lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, entire or bordered by a few 
teeth, with 1, 3 or 5 nerves prominent underneath, contracted into a long petiole, 
more or less hirsute, the whole leaf under 2in. in some specimens, -bin. to 1ft. 
long in others and varying occasionally but rarely to ovate-lanceolate, more 
frequeutly to linear. Scapes longer than the leaves, bearing in the upper 
portion a rather dense or more or less interrupted spike from 1 to 3 or 4in. long, 
more or less hirsute, with short or long hairs more appressed than on the leaves ; 
in starved specimens grown in very dry places, the spikes are sometimes reduced 
to very few or even only 2 or 3 flowers clustered at the end of a short scape. 
Calyx sessile within a bract rather shorter and marrower than the sepals and not 
at all or very narrowly scarious on the margins. Sepals all free, 1J to line 
