662 URTICACEA., 
Order 1. Urticace®, the Nettle Order.—Character.— 
Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with a watery juice. Leaves opposite 
or alternate, usually rough or with stinging glands (fig. 169) ; 
stipulate or rarely exstipulate. Flowers small, unisexual (jig. 
1035) or rarely hermaphrodite, scattered or arranged in heads 
or catkins. Calyx inferior (jig. 1035, ¢), lobed, persistent. 
Male flower with a few distinct stamens ( fig. 1035, e, e), perigyn- 
ous, opposite the divisions of the calyx, and with a rudimentary 
ovary (fig. 1035, pr) ; filaments at first incurved. Female flower 
Fic. 1035. Fic. 1036. 
Fig. 1035. Male flower of the Small Nettle (U7tica urens). c¢. Calyx. @, & 
e, e. Stamens, with 2-celled anthers. pr. Rudimentary ovary.—Fig. 
1036. Vertical section of the ovary of the female flower ofthe same. p. 
Wall of the ovary. s. Stigma. o. Ovule. 
with a superior 1-celled ovary (figs. 733 and 1036) ; ovule erect, 
orthotropous (figs. 733 and 1036). Fruit indehiscent, surrounded 
by the persistent calyx. Seed solitary, erect (fig. 779) ; embryo 
(fig. 779) straight, enclosed in albumen ; and with a superior 
radicle, r. 
Bentham and Hooker, in ‘ Genera Plantarum,’ include the four 
succeeding orders—Moracex, Caimabinacex, Artocarpacer, and 
Ulmacex—in Urticacex, as sub-orders. 
Distribution and Numbers.—These plants are more or less 
distributed over the world. Illustrative Genera :—Urtica, Tourn. ; 
Parietaria, Towrn. The order contains more than 300 species. 
Properties and Uses.—Chiefly remarkable for yielding valu- 
able fibres, and for the acrid stinging juice contained in their 
glands. 
Behmeria.—Several species vield valuable fibres, as B. Puya (Pooah 
fibre), in Nepaul and Sikkim, and B. speciosa (Wild Rhea). The most 
celebrated of them all, however, is B. nivea, from which the tibres are ob- 
tained that are used in the manufacture of the celebrated Chinese grass- 
cloth, and for other purposes, These tibres are also now employed for textile 
fabrics, &c. The Rhea fibre of Assam, one of the strongest known fibres, is 
also derived from this plant. 
Laportea pustulata, the Wood Nettle.—This is a native of the Alleghany 
