URTICE^. 265 



Mason cnuraorates also Urtica heterophylla, liox., •nlikh lie calls Bot-ya, and 

 Boehmeiiu inttrnqda, Willd., Kyd-bft-ya, both poinmon nettles, and Bvehmeria 

 nivea, L., the nettle lieuip or celebrated China or lUieca grass, with the vernacular 

 name Gwou. 



To raise the Buehmeria nivea (the celebrated llheoa grass of Assam) from seed, 

 a sandy soil is chosen, which is carefully dug up, raked, and smoothed, and watered, 

 and divided into plots a foot wide aud four feet long. Over six of such beds, a pint 

 of seed mixed with four pints of earth is sown broad-cast, and the ground sown is kept 

 covered with a neat screen till the phmts are an inch or two high. The young plants 

 are now transplanted to a stiti'er soil and well manured, and kept free from weeds by 

 hoe dressing. As a rule, however, the i)lant is best grown and propagated from shoots 

 or layers. To cut and prepare the Eheea the following plan is adopted, a modification 

 of wluch will serve for all similar fibre plants : — The Hheea plant is known to be fit 

 for cutting when the stems assume a brown colour for about six inches from the root. 

 Grasping the top of the stalk with tlie left hand, the leaves are to be stript olf with 

 the right, and the stalk cut through just above the hairy reticulate root, which being 

 earthed up with manure will yield another crop. To strip the fibre, grasp the stem 

 with both hands near the middle, and then with the forefinger and thumb of both 

 hands give a wrench to break the central stem, and then pass down the fingers of each 

 hand in opposite directions, thereby stripping the fibre as they go. If this can be done 

 on the field, the refuse stems, burnt and mixed with dry cow-dung, make a capital 

 manure for the following crop. The strips of fibre are now to be tied up by their 

 smaller ends into convenient bundles and steeped in cleur wiiffr for a few hours, and 

 when dried are then fit lor cleaning and hackling. Fibre thus prepared would com- 

 mand, according to quality, fi'om £60 to £120 a ton m England. 



YiLLEBRUNXEA sTLVATicA, Bl. J Trcc forcsts of Kamorta. 



PiPTURus vELUTiNUs, Wcdd. | Tricc, Track and Nankowry. 



GoNosiEoiA HiETA, Miq. J Kamorta. 



PorzoLziA, Gaudichaud. 



Flowers usually moncceious. Mule perianth 4-5- (rarely 3-)lobed. S/nmeiis as 

 many as perianth "lobes. Ovarn-rudiment present. Female prriaiith tubular, 2—1- 

 toothed at the contracted mouth. Achne almost conform with the ovaiy, aud 

 surrounded by the almost unchanged perianth, or its enlarged wings. 



P. TiMiNEA, Wedd. ^.-S. Chittagong. 



The leaves serrate, chartaceous. 



P. Indica, Gaud. Kamorta. 



I X Female perianth free, in fruit fenhy or sueeulent. 

 SAECociiLAJiTs, Gaudiehuud. 



Fruiting perianth ventricosc, laterally contracted at the mouth. Slitjma capitate, 

 persistent in fruit. Stamens 5. Flowers spicatc, diwcious, small, subtended by 

 short-toothed bractlets, clustered, the male in lax, the female in close spikes, solitary 

 or by twos in the leaf axils. 



S. rL-LeuEiiiu.MA, Gaud. F.T. Chittagong. Pegu and Upper Tenasscrim. 



Sap-sha-pen (Kurz). 



The ' liber ' yields a good cordage (Kurz). 



Okeocxibe, Miquel. 



Flotrers dini-cious. Male perianth 4-partite, valvato in bud. Stamens 4. Oiari/- 

 rudiment present. Female periitnth adnate to the ovary. Tlie limb minute, toothed, 

 or almost entire. Fruit dry, on a fleshy cup. Stigma almost peltate with long-fringed 

 borders, persistent in fruit. 



0. (Uktica) .accmixata, Iloxb. Chittagong. Ava llills. 



Leaves pennincrved, entire. 



