158 URTICACE^. [part i. 



the dilated receptacle, as in the Bread-fruit and 

 the Fig, and in others the metamorphosed 

 calyx, as in the INIulberry. Many of the genera 

 have one or two species which produce eatable 

 fruit, though the fruit of the other species of 

 the same genus is unwholesome ; an anomaly 

 rarely to be met with in any other order except 

 Solanacese ; and though the milky juice of most 

 of the plants is poisonous, it affords in one spe- 

 cies, the Cow-tree, wholesome food. 



TRIBE I.— URTICACE^. 



All the plants contained in this tribe agree 

 with the common Nettle in yielding a watery 

 juice when broken ; in their flowers having no 

 corolla ; in the male and female flowers being 

 distinct ; in the stamens being first erect, but 

 springing back when they discharge their pollen, 

 and remaining extended ; and in their fruit 

 being a nut. Most of them also agree in having 

 rough leaves and angular stalks, the fibres of 

 which are so tenacious as to be capable of being 

 spun. 



The common Nettle (Urtica dioica) is the 

 type of this division; and we are so accustomed 

 to consider it a noxious weed, that few persons 

 are aware of the elegance of its flowers, which 

 are disposed in drooping panicles. The male 



