566 BOTANY PART n 



fruit of species of Artocarpus are eaten raw or cooked and form tin llnad- fruit of 

 the Tropics. The species of Cecropia are American, myrmecophilous trees (cf. p. 235). 



OFFICIAL. The fruits of Ficus carica. 



Family 3. Cannabinaceae. Annual or perennial herbs without latex, with 

 palmately veined leaves and free, persistent stipules. Direcious. Male flowers 

 P 5, A 5 ; stamens straight in the bud. The male inflorescences are dichasia, the 

 central branch capable of further growth. The female flowers have a slightly 

 developed, entire perianth. Ovary bicarpellary, with two large feathery stigmas ; 

 unilocular, with a pendulous, anatropous ovule. Anemophilous. Fruit, nut-like. 

 Embryo curved. 



GENERA. Humulus lupulus, the Hop, is a native of central Europe; it has a 

 perennial rhizome, which annually produces a crop of twining shoots (Fig. 576). 

 The stem and opposite leaves bear coarse hairs, and the former bears hooked 

 prickles which prevent it slipping down the support. The branches of the female 

 inflorescence are catkin-like, the scales being formed of the pairs of stipules 

 belonging to bracts of which the laminae are suppressed. The axillary shoot of 

 the bract is also suppressed, but each stipule has two flowers in its axil ; each 

 flower is enclosed by its own bract. These bracts project beyond the stipules 

 when the inflorescence is mature, and give the latter its cone-like appearance. 

 Upon them are developed the glandular hairs on account of which the Hop is 

 cultivated. 



Cannabis sativa, Indian Hemp, is an annual herb with palmately divided, 

 hairy leaves, which are opposite below and alternate in the upper portion of 

 the shoot. The female inflorescence resembles that of the Hop, but the central 

 shoot, which in that plant is suppressed, grows out in the Hemp to a leafy shoot. 

 Only a single flower is present in the axil of each bract. The same process is 

 repeated in the axil of each leaf of the leafy, middle shoot, so that the whole female 

 inflorescence is a repeatedly branched structure. The plant is utilised in Europe 

 for its bast fibres, which are from one to several centimetres long ( 17a ). The 

 glandular hairs which cover all parts of the female inflorescence secrete a sticky 

 resinous substance which is used medicinally. In the East it is used in the 

 preparation of a narcotic called Haschisch. 



OFFICIAL. Cannabis sativa provides CANNABIS IXDICA. Humulus lupulus 

 provides LI'PULUS and LUPULINUM. 



Family 4. Urticaceae. Perennial herbs or less commonly shrubs. Leaves 

 simple, stipulate. Flowers unisexual by suppression of parts, as a rule bimerous. 

 P 2 + 2, A 2 + 2. Stamens inflexed in the bud, and scattering the pollen when 

 they suddenly straighten. Ovary consisting of a single carpel, unilocular, with a 

 basal, atropous ovule. Perianth of the female flower adherent. Flowers in 

 dichasia, or crowded in dorsiventral inflorescences. Anemophilous. 



A number of the Urticaceae are characterised by the possession of stinging hairs 

 (cf. Fig. 116), e.<j. the common Stinging Nettles, Urtica dioica and U. uretis, and 

 the dangerous tropical species of Laportca. Some provide important fibres, 

 especially Boehmeria nivea from which Ramie fibre is obtained, and, of less value, 

 Urtica cannabina, and our native species of 1',-tlfn. 



Order 6. Centrospermae 



Herbs, less commonly small woody plants. Flowers with few 

 exceptions hermaphrodite and tri- or penta-merous. Perianth and 

 androecium consisting of one or two whorls. Ovary superior, 



