NETTLE FAMILY. Joe 
1. Urticastrum divaricatum (L.) Kuntze. 
Wood Nettle. (Fig. 1267.) 
Urtica divaricata I. Sp. Pt. 985. 1753. 
Laportea Canadensis Gaud. in Freye. Voy. Bot. 498. 1826. 
mace divaricatum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 635. 
Stem rather stout, erect or ascending, 114°-4° tall. 
Leaves thin, ovate, long-petioled, acuminate or acute 
at the apex, sharply serrate, 3-nerved and pinnately 
veined, glabrous or with some stinging hairs, 3/-7/ 
long, 2’-5’ wide; petioles very slender, 114/-5’ long; 
stipule solitary, small, lanceolate, 2-cleft, commonly 
deciduous; flower-clusters large and loose, often 
longer than the petioles, the lower staminate, the 
upper pistillate, divergent, 2’-6’ broad in fruit; ulti- 
mate branches of the fruiting clusters flat, cuneate, 
emarginate; achene twice as long as the calyx, gla- 
brous, 114’ long. 
In rich woods, Nova Scotia to Ontario and Minnesota, 
south to Florida and Kansas. Ascends to 3000 ft. in the 
Adirondacks. July-Aug. 
3. ADICEA Raf. Ann. Nat. 179. 1815. 
[Pi.EA Lindl. Coll. f/.g.  182r.] 
Annual or perennial, glabrous or pubescent stingless herbs, with opposite petioled 
mostly 3-nerved leaves, connate stipules, and small numerous monoecious or dioecious flow- 
ers in axillary cymose or glomerate clusters. Staminate flowers mostly 4-parted (sometimes 
2- or 3-parted) and with a rudimentary ovary. Pistillate flowers 3-parted, the segments in 
most species unequal, each subtending a staminodium in the form of a concave scale; ovary 
straight; stigma sessile, pedicillate. Achene compressed, ovate or suborbicular. Seed-coat 
thin. Endosperm scanty or none. [Name unexplained. ] 
About 150 species, chiefly in the tropics, most abundant in tropical America. Besides the fol- 
lowing, another occurs in the southern United States. 
Adicea pumila (L.) Raf. Clearweed. 
Richweed. (Fig. 1268.) 
Urtica pumila 1. Sp. Pl. 984. _ 1753. 
Adicea pumila Raf.; Torr. Fl. N. Y. 2: 223. As syno- 
nym. 1843. 
Pilea pumila A. Gray, Man. 437. 1848. 
Annual, stems pellucid, erect, usually branched, 
glabrous, succulent, 6’-2° high. Leaves mem- 
branous, ovate, slender-petioled, acuminate or 
acute at the apex, rounded or narrowed at the hase, 
3-nerved, coarsely dentate, 1/-5’ long, sparingly 
pubescent with scattered hairs; petioles often as 
long as the blades and much longer than the pis- 
tillate flower-clusters; sepals of the pistillate 
flowers lanceolate, nearly equal; achene ovate, 
acute, 14’ long. 
In swampy, shaded situations, often on old logs, 
New Brunswick to western Ontario and Minnesota, 
south to Florida, Louisiana and Kansas. Ascends to 
3000 ft. in Virginia. Alsoin Japan. July—Sept. 
4. BOEHMERIA Jacq. Stirp. Am. 246. Al. 757. 1763. 
Perennial stingless herbs (some tropical species shrubs or even trees), with opposite or 
alternate petioled 3-nerved leaves, distinct or connate stipules, and small monoecious or dioe- 
cious flowers, glomerate in axillary spikes or heads, the fertile clusters sometimes leafy at 
the summit. Staminate flowers mostly 4-parted or the calyx of 4 distinct sepals, usually 
with a rudimentary ovary. Pistillate calyx tubular or urn-shaped, 2-4-toothed or entire, en- 
closing the sessile or stalked ovary; stigma subulate, papillose or pubescent along one side. 
Achene enclosed by the withering-persistent pistillate calyx. [In honor of Georg Rudolph 
Boehmer, 1723-1803, Professor in Wittenberg. | 
About 50 species, mostly natives of tropical regions, the following of eastern North America. 
