. Notes on the life history of British flowering plants. Botany; Plant ecology. 342 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS disperse tlie pollen.'' As in many other wind flowers the pollen is dry and dusty, but the bees moisten it with honey from their proboscis, which makes it easy to collect. The Plantains illustrate the difference between broad leaves, which tend to be horizontal, and narrow ones, which tend to be vertical. Thus P. media (Fig. 226) has broad leaves, which lie flat on the ground, and P. lanceolata has narrow ones, which point upwards (see also Drosera, p. 203). The seeds secrete a m
. Notes on the life history of British flowering plants. Botany; Plant ecology. 342 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS disperse tlie pollen.'' As in many other wind flowers the pollen is dry and dusty, but the bees moisten it with honey from their proboscis, which makes it easy to collect. The Plantains illustrate the difference between broad leaves, which tend to be horizontal, and narrow ones, which tend to be vertical. Thus P. media (Fig. 226) has broad leaves, which lie flat on the ground, and P. lanceolata has narrow ones, which point upwards (see also Drosera, p. 203). The seeds secrete a mucilaginous adhe- sive substance, which exudes freely as soon as they are moistened, and serves to fasten them if they meet with damp earth. We have five species. One, P. maritima, has narrow linear leaves; one, P. Coronopus, deeply toothed or pinnatifid leaves; in the other three they are broad and entire. P. lanceolata has short round heads; the last two, slender spikes; P. major with reddish brown, yellowish, or white, P. m,edia with pink or purple anthers. P. major.—Anthers reddish brown, but according to Ludwig sometimes yellow, greenish yellow, or white. The plant is glabrous or bears appressed hairs. The seeds are small, faintly rugose, somewhat flat, and covered by a layer of mucilage. P. media.—Anthers pink or purple. This species forms a passage from a wind flower to an insect flower. The long flexible filaments and feathery stigma are characteristic of a wind flower; while the violet anthers and the scent serve to attract insects. Some flowers have anthers only, and others only the pistil. These also are sometimes monoecious, sometimes dioecious, so that there are five forms of flower. The plant is covered with short hairs. ^ Kerner, Natural History of Plants, vol. ii. Fia. 226.—Plantago Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustra
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