DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS 63 



small, greenish, imperfect, apetalous in axillary clusters. 

 Calyx of the staminate flowers 4-5-parted or 4-5-sepalous ; 

 stamens as many as the sepals and opposite them, filaments 

 inflexed in the bud and straightening at maturity, anthers 

 2-celIed. Calyx of pistillate flowers 2-4-sepalous ; ovary 

 sessile, 1-celled, stigma simple or tufted. Fruit an akene 

 commonly enclosed in the dry, persistent calyx.* 



URTICA, Toum. 



Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves with stinging hairs, 

 opposite, petioled, several-nerved, dentate, or incised, stipulate. 

 Flowers monoecious or dioecious. Calyx of the staminate 

 flowers 4-parted ; stamens 4, inserted around a rudimentary 

 ovary. Pistillate flowers with 4 unequal sepals, the inner 

 ones dilated in fruit ; akenes smooth, compressed. ''^ 



1. U. urens, L. Small Nettle. Annual ; stem stout, 4-angled, 

 hairy, 12-18 in. tall, with few stinging hairs ; branches slender. 

 Leaves eUiptical or ovate, serrate or incised, 3-5-nerved, acute or 

 obtuse at the ends, thin, hairy ; petioles often as long as the blades ; 

 stipules short. Flower clusters axillary, in pairs, loose, mostly 

 shorter than the petioles. On damp soil in waste places.* 



22. LORANTHACE^. Mistletoe Family. 



Parasitic shrubs or herbs, leaves opposite, leathery, with- 

 out stipules. Flowers monoecious or dioecious, clustered or 

 solitary ; perianth of both calyx and corolla, or of a calyx 

 only, or sometimes wanting ; calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, 

 sepals 2-8. Stamens as many as the sepals, and opposite 

 them; ovary 1-celled, ovule 1. Fruit a berry.* 



PHORADENDRON, Nutt. 



Evergreen, shrubby plants, parasitic on trees ; branches 

 greenish, jointed, and very brittle. Leaves leathery. Flowers 

 dioecious, in short jointed spikes. Staminate flowers globular, 

 calyx 2-4-lobed, stamens sessile at the base of the lobes, 



