HORTUS JAMAICENSrS. |b*K4f 



NETTLES. URTICA. 



Cl. 21, en. 4. Monoecia tetrandria. Nat. or. Scabridcc. 



Gen. char. See Dwarf Elder, p. 275. Besides the dwarf elder, the following^ 

 species are natives o! Jamaica. 



'J he following species hare alternate leaves : 



1. BACCIFERA. BERRIED. 



Frutcscens; foliis amplioribus cvatis, siriu&fo-devtatis, rtervis petiolis 

 et cautious (Kiilealis. Browne, p. 337. Urtiea 9: 



Leaves alternate, cordate-toothed, prickly; stem shrubby ; female calyxes 

 berried. 



This is a small tree from, sixteen to eighteen feet high, simple, except*, at the top, 

 where it is. sub-divided, scabrous, prickly; prickles thick, shortish, standing out, oc- 

 cupying the stem longitudinally ; branches herbaceous, prickly, stinging very power- 

 fully ; leaves largfe> a span long, pctioled, cordate -ovate, serrate, nerved, smooth;, 

 the nerves underneath and the petioles prickly ; the upper sides.*!" the leaves has convex 

 points, terminated bj a prickle, scattered over them. Racemes cauline, many-parted, 

 prickly, fed; flowerset the ends .of the branchlets of the racemes, sessile, dioecious; 

 calyx of the males one-leafed, five-cleft, convex; border spreading, a little reflexed, 

 with lanceolate red segments; nectar} the bottom of the calyx, .cup-shaped, white. 

 Filaments five, thicker at tte b; nuated at the top, twice as long as the segment* 



of the cal) x, inserted lx low the divisions ol it ; audit rs three-celled, roundish, whitish ; 

 the rudiment of a pistil in the middle . calyx of the female flowers four-lobed, two of 

 the lobes a little bigger ; germ ovate, acute, compressed, green ; stigma villosc, pur- 

 ple ; calyx. berried, enlarging, at first embracing the germ to the middle, but after- 

 wards becoming like a berry, oblong, blunt at the end, four-lobed, inclosing the seed,, 

 while, pellucid ; seed small, black. Native of the West Indies, in lofty mountains 

 and in shady places, flowering in Spring. ^)'a'. Browne calls this the large prickly; 

 liettle, which he could only find in Blue Mountain Valley. 



2. LAFTULACEA. 



Leaves alternate, ovate, somewhat scabrous ; flowers terminating, sub-sessile, 

 monoecious; seeds three, cornered; stems diffuse. 



3. SF.SSIl.U'LORA. SESSILE-FLOWERED, 



Leaves alternate, lanceolate-ovate, crenate; racemes very short, axillary; 

 flowers monoecious, distinct ; stem erect. 



4. ELATA. ELATE. 



Leaves alternate, ovate-acute, serrate ; stem arboreous ; branches almost nakedj 

 racemiferous ; flowers dioecious. 



7 he following species are oppositc-lca-ced. 



5. iMICROPHVLLA. 



Humilior, disticha, difvsa, tompressa, oblique assurgens; foliolit 

 minimis, Browne, .p. 336. Urtica 4. 



Leaves ovate, acute, quite entire, with smaller ones ovate, opposite, and in- 

 termixed; flowers dioecious; stems almost simple, ascending. 



Browne 



