PLANTAGO 
5*7 
placed in Polygalinae by Benth. -Hooker, and in Saxifraginae by 
Warming. 
Pittosporum Banks. Pittosporaceae. 70 sp. trop. and subtrop., Cana- 
ries to Japan and Sandwich Is. The seeds of some sp. are sticky. 
Some yield useful timber. 
Plagianthus Forst. Malvaceae (11). 10 sp. Austr., N. Z. 
Plagiocheilus Am. Compositae (vn). 7 sp. S. Am. 
Planera J. F. Gmel. Ulmaceae. 1 sp. U. S. P . aquatica J. F. Gmel., 
a useful timber tree. 
Plantaginaceae. Dicotyledons (Sympet. Plantaginales). 3 gen. with 
200 sp. cosmop. (See genera.) Annual or perennial herbs; leaves 
without distinction into stalk and blade, exstip. Firs, usually in 
heads or spikes, inconspicuous, usually $ , regular, without bracteoles, 
wind- or partly insect-fertilised. K (4), diagonally placed; C usually 
(4), membranous; A 4, with very long filaments and versatile anthers 
containing much powdery pollen; G usually (2), 2-loc., with 1 — 00 
semi-anatropous ovules on axile placentae. Fruit a membranous 
capsule, opening with a lid cut off by a peripheral dehiscence, or 
sometimes, a nut surrounded by the persistent calyx. Embryo straight, 
in fleshy endosperm. Genera: Plantago, Littorella, Bougueria. See 
P. and L. for details. The relationships of the P. are difficult to make 
out. The fir. is usually regarded as derived from a 5-merous type in 
the same way as that of Veronica, and most authors agree in regarding 
the P. as degraded forms allied to Scrophulariaceae, Labiatae, &c. The 
wind-pollination of the fir. is also an evidence of this. Benth.-FIooker 
place the P. as an anomalous order after Labiatae, Warming places 
them in Personatae. 
Plantaginales. The 6th cohort of Sympetalae (p. 140). 
Plantagineae. (Benth. -Hooker) = Plantaginaceae. 
Plantago (Toum.) Linn. Plantaginaceae. About 200 sp. cosmop.; 
5 in Brit. The Brit. sp. will serve as good illustrations of the genus. 
P. major L. (greater plantain) is a perennial with a thick root and 
a rosette of large erect leaves. In the axils of these arise the infls. 
(spikes). The fir. is markedly protogynous, the stigmas protruding 
from the bud ; the sta. appear later. Wind-pollination is the rule, as 
the structure of the firs, indicates (p. 85), but insects sometimes visit 
them for pollen. The fruit-spikes are often given as food to cage- 
birds. P. media L. (hoary plantain) shows similar general features, 
but the leaves lie flat on the ground (hence it is a most troublesome 
weed in lawns, &c.) ; they exhibit the 3/8 phyllotaxy (p. 45) very clearly. 
The fir. is more conspicuous than that of P. major and has a pleasant 
scent, and though primarily wind-pollinated, is largely visited for pollen 
in fine weather by drone-flies and bees. It is sometimes gynodioecious 
(cf. Labiatae). P. lanceolata L. (rib-wort plantain) has narrow erect 
leaves, and firs., like those of the last sp., also gynodioecious. P. Coro- 
nopns L. (buck’s-horn plantain) is a xerophytic sp. with hairy leaves, 
