"Man's Footsteps." 
By James Rodway, F.L.S. 
HE descriptive name of " White Man's Foot- 
steps " is given to that insignificant weed the 
plantain (Plantago major) by the Indians of 
North America. When the savage sees its rosette of 
leaves on the prairie he recognises it as an indicator of 
the near approach of civilized man, and knows that he 
will soon have to move on before the march of the 
strangers. Like all true weeds the plantain only 
flourishes in connection with man's presence, and this 
characteristic must have been noticed at the very early 
period when the Romans gave it a name derived from 
planta, the sole of the foot, thus stamping it with a 
distinctive title to all intents and purposes the same as 
that of the American Indian. Where the European 
makes his home, in whatever quarter of the globe it may 
be, this humble weed appears as his companion, and 
where it is not strong enough to exist as a field-pest it 
finds a congenial spot in some corner of his garden. 
Although not a tropical weed, it is able to survive 
conditions that none of the favourites of the garden 
could endure, and while it would be quite impossible to 
naturalize buttercups and daisies in British Guiana, the 
plantain finds a congenial home here and there, even in 
some of the little gardens of the bovianders far away 
from the coast. 
The power of endurance in the great weed family as 
distinguished from the prettier native flowers, strikingly 
resembles that of the European as compared with other 
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