Plantago.

Plantago coronopus Linn. Plantagineae. Buckshorn Plantain. Star-Of-The-Earth.

Mediterranean countries and Middle Europe. The leaves are used in France as a salad. This species is mentioned as grown in gardens by Camerarius, 1586, and by many of the other botanists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; it is described by Ray in 1686 as cultivated in England and as not differing from the wild plant except in size and in the other accidents of culture. Townsend, 1726, says the seed is, now "in all the Seedsmen's Bills, tho' it is seldom in the Gardens." It is described and figured by Vilmorin among French vegetables. During the three hundred years in which we find it pictured, we see no evidence of any essential changes produced by cultivation.

Plantago major Linn. Cart-Track Plant. Plantain.

Europe, Asia and North America. In China, this plant was formerly eaten as a potherb.

Plantago maritima Linn. Seaside Plantain.

Shores of Europe and of the United States from New Jersey northward. Kalm says the French boil its leaves in a broth on their sea voyages, or eat them as a salad. It may likewise be pickled like samphire.

Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.