I. The Greater Plantain (_P. major_) has very broad leaves and broad, short leaf-stalks. Stamens short, anthers purple. Seeds black and rough. Pastures and roadsides, May to September.
II. Hoary Plantain (_P. media_): leaves not so broad, flower-scape shorter. Stamens long, anthers whitish. Seeds brown, rough. Pastures and waste places in a dry soil, June to October. Plant more or less covered with short hairs.
III. Ribwort Plantain (_P. lanceolata_): as the scientific name implies, the leaves are lance-shaped, long and narrow. The flower-scape is deeply furrowed, the flower-spike short. Stamens long, white. Seeds black, shining. Pastures and heaths, May to October.
IV. Seaside Plantain (_P. maritima_). Rootstock branched, crown woolly. Leaves narrower than the last, margins more parallel, ribs weak. Stamens pale yellow. Seeds brown, slightly winged at end. Pastures, salt-marshes and rocks by the sea, June to September.
V. Buck’s-horn Plantain (_P. coronopus_). Leaves narrow, linear, divided, or deeply-toothed, suggesting the popular name; ribbed, hairy. Stamens pale yellow. Seeds pale brown. Poor gravelly soils, chiefly near coast. June to August.
In speaking of the Bugle on page 22 we promised to say more of Labiate flowers further on. _Salvia_ is a labiate, and of similar construction to _Ajuga_. _S. pratensis_ is a rare plant, found only in Cornwall, Kent, and Oxford, from June to August. The soft wrinkled leaves have the edges cut into convex teeth (_crenate_). The flowers are large and bright blue; they are borne in whorls, usually of four or five flowers, on a tall spike. There is a more frequent species, the Wild Sage or Clary (_S. verbenaca_), found in dry pastures all over the kingdom south of Ross-shire from June to September. It is similar in habit to _S. pratensis_, but smaller, with the flowers more inclined to purple. The Sage of the kitchen-garden is _S. officinalis_; not a native plant. The name _Salvia_ is from the Latin _Salvo_, to save or heal, from its former great repute in medicine.
Most labiate flowers produce honey from the base of the ovary; and this, of course, is a distinct bribe to insects to visit them. It would not be an economical arrangement for a flower to provide honey for all comers without the plant getting a _quid pro quo_; we therefore find all sorts of “dodges” to ensure a service being done by the honey-seeker. As we have shown in the Bugle, the anther and stigma occupy the arch of the upper lip. As a rule the ripe anthers first occupy the foremost position, so that if a bee alights on the lower lip and pushes into the corolla for the honey his hairy back will brush off the pollen from the anthers. After the honey is shed the stigmas come forward and occupy the former position of the anthers. Should a bee that has got dusted with pollen at an earlier flower now pay a visit the stigmas will collect some pollen from his back and the ovules become fertilized. This is the general plan in the order Labiatæ, but there are modifications in each genus.