634 URTICACER. [Urtica, 
2. URTICA, Linn. 
Annual or perennial herbs or small shrubs, more or less armed 
with stinging hairs. Leaves opposite, petiolate, toothed or lobed, 
3—-T-nerved ; stipules lateral, free or connate. Flowers small, green, 
moncecious or dicecious, in clusters arranged in axillary simple or 
branched racemes or panicles. Male flowers: Perianth deeply 4- 
partite ; segments ovate or rounded, concave. Stamens 4, inflexed 
in bud. Rudimentary ovary cupuliform. Female flowers: Perianth 
deeply 4-partite; the 2 outer segments smaller than the inner. 
Ovary straight, ovoid; stigma sessile or nearly so, penicillate ; 
ovule solitary, erect, orthotropous. Achene ovoid or oblong, com- 
pressed, enclosed in the persistent perianth. Seed erect; albumen 
scanty; cotyledons rounded. 
Species 30 to 35, widely spread in the temperate and subtropical regions 
of both hemispheres, rarer in the tropics. One of the New Zealand species 
extends to Australia, the remaining three are endemic. 
Shrubby, 3-10ft. high. Stinging hairs copious, long, 
rigid. Leaves 2-5 in., narrow ovate-triangular to lanceo- 
late.. au BY 36 Bi a Pe al OP ei rare. 
Herbaceous, stout, 1-3ft. high, glabrous or nearly so. 
Stinging hairs few, weak. Leaves 3-6in., ovate- or 
orbicular-cordate .. ye 4A 5: -. 2. U. australis. 
Herbaceous, stout, 1ft. high, pubescent with greyish- 
white hairs. Leaves 2-3in., broadly ovate .. .. 3. U. Aucklandica. 
Herbaceous, slender, 1-2ft. high, glabrous. Stinging 
hairs few or many, weak. Leaves 3-23in., ovate- 
deltoid to lanceolate nc a Bye .. 4. U. wnetsa. 
1. U. ferox, Forst. Prodr. n. 346.—A slender much-branched 
shrub, sometimes 6-10ft. high with a woody trunk 3-4in. diam. 
at the base, but usually from 2 to 5it.; stinging hairs copious, long, 
rigid, +in. long; branchlets, petioles, and under-surface of leaves 
more or less finely pubescent. Leaves on long slender petioles; 
blade 2-5in. long, narrow ovate-triangular to lanceolate-triangular, 
acuminate, broadest at the base which is truncate or rounded or 
cordate and often lobed or hastate, thin and membranous; margins 
deeply and coarsely toothed, the teeth ending in a long rigid 
bristle; stipules interpetiolar, entire. Flowers dicecious, in axillary 
racemiform panicles 1-2in. long. Perianth densely pubescent, 
females smaller than the males. Nut ovoid, compressed, about 
gin. long. — A. Rich. Fl. Now. Zel. 354; A. Cunn. Precur. 
n. 333; Raoul, Choiw, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 225; Handb. 
N.Z. Fl. 251. 
NortH AND SourH Isnanps: Lowland districts from the Hast Cape and 
Kawhia southwards to eastern Otago, not common. Sea-level to 1000 ft. 
Tree-nettle ; Ongaonga. August-December. 
A very distinct species, easily recognised by the large size, woody stems, 
and copious stipitate stinging hairs. 
