58 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 



IV. HUMULUS. 



Perennial, herbaceous twining vines with watery juice ; 

 leaves opposite, palmately veined ; flowers dioecious ; staminate 

 flowers in loose axillary panicles, calyx 5-parted, stamens 5, 

 erect in the bud ; pistillate flowers in short axillary and soli- 

 tary spikes, 2 flowers in the axil of each bract ; perianth 

 entire, stigmas 2, filiform. 



II. LupuLUS L. Hop-vixE. Stem rough, twining high, leaves 

 rough, palmately 3-7-cleft or lobed, serrate, petiole nearly as long as 

 the leaf; staminate panicles 3-5 in. long, pistillate panicles (hops) 

 11-2 in. long in fruit, and then consisting of the greatly enlarged 

 calyces and bracts enclosing the small achenes ; fruiting parts sprin- 

 kled with yellow, aromatic, resinous grains, which give the hops 

 their peculiar value. June-July. 



Ficus CAKiCA L., the cultivated fig, also belongs to this family. 



28. URTICACE^. NETTLE FAMILY. 



Herbs with watery juice, stem and leaves often clothed 

 with stinging hairs ; undivided, stipulate leaves ; small, green- 

 ish, imperfect, apetalous flowers in axillary clusters ; calyx of 

 the staminate flowers, 4-5-parted or 4-5-sepalous ; stamens 

 as many as the sepals and opposite them, filaments inflexed 

 in the bud and straightening at maturity, anthers 2-celled ; 

 calyx of pistillate flowers 2-4-sepalous ; ovary sessile, 1-celled, 

 stigma simple or tufted ; fruit an achene commonly enclosed 

 in the dry, persistent calyx. 



L URTICA. 



Annual or perennial herbs ; leaves with stinging hairs, 

 opposite, petioled, several-nerved, dentate, or incised, stipu- 

 late ; flowers monoecious or dioecious ; calyx of the staminate 

 flowers 4-parted, stamens 4, inserted around a rudimentary 

 ovary ; pistillate flowers with 4 unequal sepals, the inner 

 ones dilated in fruit; achenes smooth, compressed. 



1. U. DioiCA L. Large Stinging Nettle. Perennial; stem 

 and leaves very bristly, stem stout, 2-3 ft. tall, 4-angled, pubescent 



