138 



47. URTTCACE.E. 48. ULMACE.^. 



the back ; seed oblong, smooth, shining, cariinculate, vary- 

 ing in size and in its brown and tawny mottling. 



Wa.ste places, gullies, river-banks, sandhills. — Dec- 

 Mar. — Cultivated in most warm countries for ornament 

 or for the extraction of castor-oil from the seeds. "Pro- 

 bably indigenous in Africa'" (J. D. Hooker, Fl. of Brit. 

 Ill ilia). 



Family 47. URTICACEyC. 



Plant with stinging hairs; leaves simple; 



stigma sessile L'rtic'a 1 



Plant without stinging hairs; leaves pal- 

 mate; style-branches 2. long, filiform ... Cannakis 



1. Urtica. L. 



1. Urtica. urens, L. Small 

 NrftJp. Erect annual, covered 

 with rigid hairs secreting an 

 irritating fluid; leaves opposite, 

 stalked, oval deeply toothed, 

 stipulate; male and female 

 flowers intermixed in short 

 axillary racemes; male perianth 

 of 4 equal segments, .stamens 4; 

 female perianth with the 2 outer 

 segments smaller than the 2 

 inner, which are ciliate on the 

 edge and have each a long 

 stinging hair on the back; fruit 

 dry, 1-celled, 1-seeded, indehis- 

 cent, enclosed in the perianth. 



Waste and cultivated land. — 

 July-Dec. — Temperate regions of 

 the globe. 



Cainiahis sativa, L. (Hemp), a 

 strong - smelling annual with 

 leaves palmately divided into 

 segments, is .sometimes spontaneous in cultivated 

 Flowers diircious, the males in panicles with 

 perianth and -l stamens, the females in axillary 

 witli a 1-leaved perianth. Oct. -Dec. 

 bably a native of Central Asia. 



Family 48.— ULMACE/E. 



1. Ulmus, L. 



1. Ulmus campestris, Ji. Common Elm. Tree; 

 leaves alternate, shortly stalked, oval, acuminate, unequal at 

 base, doiibly toothed, hairy at the base of the lateral nerves 

 on the underside; flowers almost sessile, in clusters, appear- 

 ing before the leaves; perianth .small, reddish, with 4-5 

 teeth and as many .stamens; fruit flat, thin, surrounded 

 by a broad, veined wing, and containing 1 pendulous seed. 



Urtica urens. 



3-7 lanceolate, 



toothed 



ground. 



a Scut 



clu.sters, 



Fibrous plant, pro- 



