636 URTICACEH. | Urtaca. 
stinging hairs few, weak. Spikes or racemes single or geminate in 
the axils of the upper leaves, often branched, longer or shorter than 
the petioles, the lower male and the upper female, or inflorescence 
altogether dicecious. Male perianth ;4; in. diam., glabrous or nearly 
so; female perianth much smaller when in flower but enlarging as 
the fruit ripens. Nut ovoid, compressed, rather longer than the 
persistent slightly enlarged perianth.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. FI. 
251; Benth. Fl. Austral. vi. 190. U. lucifuga, Hook. f. in. Hook. 
Lond. Journ. Bot. vi. (1847) 285; Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 225. 
Var. linearifolia, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 225.—Leaves very narrow-linear, 
1-34 in. long, 4-din. wide. Spikes shorter, sometimes reduced to axillary 
glomerules. 
NortH Anp SourtH Isuanps: Not uncommon in shaded places, from the 
North Cape to Foveaux Strait. Sea-level to 4000 ft. Flowers spring and 
summer, 
Also common in Australia and Tasmania, and very near to the northern 
U. dioica (which is sparingly naturalised in New Zealand), principally differing 
in the more slender habit, in not being conspicuously pubescent between the 
stinging hairs, and in the usually shorter spikes. 
3. ELATOSTEMA, Forst. 
Herbs, sometimes woody at the base. Leaves distichous, 
alternate, or if opposite one of each pair much smaller than the 
other, sessile or nearly so, oblique and unequal-sided; stipules 
lateral or intrapetiolar. Flowers very minute, densely crowded in 
axillary sessile or peduncled unisexual usually involucrate re- 
ceptacles ; involucral bracts broadly oblong or ovate, nearly free 
or confluent below. Male flowers: Perianth 4-5-partite ; segments 
membranous or hyaline, often spurred or tubercled on the back. 
Stamens 4-5, inflexed in bud. Rudimentary ovary minute. Fe- 
male flowers: Perianth of 3-5 very minute segments or altogether 
wanting. Stamens imperfect. Ovary straight; stigma sessile, 
penicillate; ovule erect. Achene minute, compressed, ovoid or 
ellipsoid, smooth or rarely ribbed. Seed erect; albumen usually 
wanting ; cotyledons ovate. 
About 50 species are known, for the most part natives of tropical Asia and 
Africa, but the genus extends northwards to Japan, and southwards to New 
Zealand. 
1. HE. rugosum, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 335.—Stems stout, suc- 
culent, decumbent or prostrate and rooting at the base, erect 
above, sparingly branched, 1-5ft. high. Leaves alternate, 4-10 in. 
long, obovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, acuminate, curved, unequal- 
sided, auricled and semi-amplexicaul at the sessile base, sharply 
serrate, membranous, rugose, pubescent with minute rigid hairs 
on both surfaces; stipules lanceolate, membranous, deciduous. 
Receptacles moncecious, solitary in the axils of the leaves, sessile 
or shortly pedunculate, depressed-hemispherical, often lobed, ++ in. 
