APETAL.© 243 



branched as in the former. The flowers are in loose 

 spikes, whereas in the former the female flowers are 

 sessile or shortly-stalked. The former may some- 

 times be a monoecious plant, not dioecious as in the 

 case of the present species. 



In habit the Dog's Mercury is erect. The plant 

 is clothed with hairs. There is a woody rootstock, 

 which is slender and creeping. The stems are 

 simple, solitary, terminal, naked below. The leaves 

 are opposite, crowded above, and larger upward, the 

 upper stalked, oblong, ovate, elliptic to lance-shaped, 

 sometimes broader and shorter, scalloped, coarsely 

 toothed, acute, hairy or rough, green, turning blue 

 when dry. There are very small stipules. 



The flowers in the male plants are in racemes, or 

 small clusters, interrupted, in the axils, slender, long- 

 stalked, the flowers stalked and with three acute 

 perianth-lobes. There are eight to twenty stamens. 

 The female flowers are in shorter spikes or racemes 

 of one to three flowers, single or two together, hidden 

 among the leaves. The styles are long, spreading, 

 bent back, with the stigmatic surface all over the 

 front. The ovaries exceed the perianth. They are 

 two-celled. The capsules are warted, hairy. The 

 seeds are grey, with a white cuticle. 



The Dog's Mercury is from 8 to 20 in. high. 

 It flowers from March to May, and is a herbaceous 

 perennial. 



As the plant is dioecious, as in the last (which is 

 monoecious) pollination must be effected by wind or 



