PERAK on limestone hills, Scortechini Ipoh Quarries, Ridley 9734! Marble Hill, Ipoh, Fox (Ridley 10686)!-DISTRIB. Burma. The Perak specimens have rather more numerously flowered cymes than those from Burma, but are in other respects indistinguishable. Family XCII. PLANTAGINACEÆ. [By D. PRAIN.] Annual or perennial scapigerous herbs. Leaves usually radical; scapes axillary. Flowers small, greenish, bracteate, often dimorphic, spicate. Sepals 4, imbricate in bud, persistent. Corolla scarious, hypogynous; lobes 4, short, imbricate in bud. Stamens 4, inserted on the corolla-tube or hypogynous; filaments filiform, persistent; anthers large, pendulous, versatile. Ovary superior, 1- to 4-celled; ovules in each cell 1 to 8. Capsule 1- to 4-celled, membranous: dehiscence circumscissile. Seeds 1 or more, usually attached by the centre; testa thin, mucilaginous; albumen fleshy; embryo cylindric, transverse; radicle inferior.-DISTRIB. Species under 100; cosmopolitan. PLANTAGO, Linn. Annual or perennial herbs with a dense rosette of radical leaves. Flowers small, greenish, in dense spikes. Sepals 4, free, imbricate, persisting. Corolla 4-lobed, scarious; lobes short, imbricate. Stamens 4, adnate to corolla-tube; filaments filiform; anthers 2-celled, versatile. Ovary superior, 2- to 4-celled; ovules one or more in each cell. Fruit a small membranous capsule; dehiscence circumscissile. Seeds peltate, albuminous, mucilaginous.-DISTRIB. Species under 100, mainly in temperate regions. PLANTAGO MAJOR, Linn. Sp. Pl. 112 (1753). A perennial herb with an erect stout rhizome. Leaves alternate, spirally disposed, all radical, sometimes sparsely pubescent, sometimes nearly glabrous on both sides, ovate or ovate-oblong, obtuse or subacute; base long-cuneate, tapering to and decurrent on the petiole; margin often irregularly and somewhat abruptly toothed; 3- to 7-, usually 5-nerved; 1 to 5 in. long, very variable in width; petiole often longer than the leaf-blade, broad and sheathing at the base. Flowers crowded or dispersed in slender rather lax spikes 2 to 6 in. long; bracts 05 to 08 in. long, broadly ovate-oblong, obtuse, with scarious margins. Calyx 12 in. long, glabrous; sepals oblong, obtuse or subacute, bluntly keeled externally, margins widely scarious. Corolla 18 in. long, glabrous; lobes lanceolate-acute, reflexed. Capsules ovoid, 12 to 15 in. long, glabrous, dehiscing horizontally a little above the base, the upper portion separating as a conical lid tipped by the remains of the style. Seeds 4 to 8, angular, rugulose, dull, blackish, length 03 in. Dene. in DC. Prodr. XII. 696; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. II. 709; Hook. f. Fl. Br. Ind. IV. 705. P. asiatica, Linn. Sp. Pl. 163; Wall. Cat. 6412; Wall. in Roxb. Fl. Ind. ed. Carey & Wall. I. 423. SINGAPORE: Hullett; Kurz. PENANG: Walker. MALACCA: Griffith. -DISTRIB. Almost cosmopolitan. In our area doubtless an introduced plant. ERRATA. P. 642, line 20, for "4. CARDANTHERA, Voigt.," read "4. CARDANTHERA, Ham. MS." Line 7 from bottom, for "CARDANTHERA TRIFLORA, Voigt," read "CARDANTHERA TRIFLORA, Ham. MS. in Voigt." |