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-celled. 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, Tourn. 
Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves with stinging hairs, 
opposite, petioled, several-nerved, dentate, or incised, stipulate. 
Flowers moncecious or dicecious. 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. Smary Nettie. Annual; stem stout, 4-angled, 
hairy, 12-18 in. tall, with few stinging hairs; branches slender. 
Leaves elliptical 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. LORANTHACEZ. MiIsTLETOE FAMILY. 
Parasitic shrubs or herbs, leaves opposite, leathery, with- 
out stipules. Flowers monecious or dicecious, 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 
dicecious, in short jointed spikes. Staminate flowers globular, 
calyx 2-4-lobed, stamens sessile at the base of the lobes, 
