STAXDLEY TREES AND SHKUBS OF MEXICO. 219 



1. TJrera microcarpa Wedd. Arch. Mus. Paris 9: 156. 1856. 

 YucatAn and Tabasco. Panama; Jamaica (type locality). 



Shrub or small tree ; leaves elliptic-oblong, 7 to 10 cm. loag. " Laol " ( Yuca- 

 tan, Maya). 



2. Urera baccifera CL.) Gaud, in Freyc. Voy. Bot. 497. 1826. 

 Urtica baccifera L. Sp. PI. ed. 2. 1398. 1763. 



Oasaca ; reported from YucatSn, and probably also in Tabasco or Chiapas. 

 Central America, West Indies, and South America. 



Shrub or small tree, 2 to 7 meters high, covered with stout stinging hairs ; 

 leaves oval or rounded-cordate, 10 to 30 cm. long or larger; flowers small, in 

 cymes, whitish, the branches of the cymes red or purplish ; fruit small, juicy, 

 white. " Ortiga de caballo " (Yucatan); " chichicastle " (Oaxaca) ; " chichi- 

 cazte" (Guatemala) ; " chichicazte nigua " (El Salvador) ; "ortiga" (Panama, 

 Porto Rico) : '"ortiga brava " (Porto Rico) ; "pringamosa" or '• pringamoza " 

 (Colombia. Santo Domingo, Venezuela); " guaina " (Colombia); " chichi cate," 

 " chichicastre " ( Cuba ) . 



The fruit is said to be edible. In YucatAn the shrub is planted for hedges. 

 The hairs sting the flesh severely and sometimes cau.-e painful sores. The 

 branches are said to be used sometimes in Colombia as a rubefacient, and the 

 fiber separated from them is employed in Cuba and elsewhere for making rope 

 and twine. According to Grosourdy,* the root has been used in Porto Rico as 

 a popular remedy for gonorrhoea, and the juice of the leaves for chills in in- 

 termittent fevers, while diuretic properties are ascribed to the plant. 



3. Urera caracasana (Jacq.) Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 154. 1859. 

 Urtica carax^amr.a Jacq. PI. Hort. Schonbr. 3: 71. pi. 386. 1798. 

 Urera caraca-snua iotrrentosa Wedd. in DC. Prodr. 16': 90. 1869. 

 Urtica cJwhica-tU Sesse & Moc. PL Nov. Hisp. 160. 1887. 



Veracruz to Sinaloa. Chiapas, and Tabasco. Central America, West Indies, 

 and tropical South America ; type from Caracas, Venezuela. 



Shrub or small tree. 2 to 4 meters high, usually armed with slender stinging 

 hairs; leaves very variable in shape, rounded-ovate to rhombic-elliptic, cordate 

 to obtuse at base, acute or acuminate at apex, sparsely or densely pubescent ; 

 flowers very small, greenish; fruit bright red at maturity. "Ortiga" (Vera- 

 cruz, Tabasco) ; " mal hombre " (Veracruz) ; " quemti^or " (Sinaloa) ; " chichi- 

 cazlillo" (Oaxaca) : " chichicaxtli." "mala mujer " (Morelos, Sesse & Mocino) : 

 "tachinole" (Durango) ; " chichicaste " (Guatemala); "ortiga colorada " 

 (Porto Rico). 



According to Reko, the Xahuatl name is " xio-patli " (xiotl, syphilis; patli, 

 remedy, medicine). He states that the plant is still used by the Indians of the 

 Sierra de JuArez as a remedy for syphilis. Sesse and Mocino state that the 

 shrub was sometimes planted for hedges. Palmer reports that in Durango it is 

 employed to cure the effects of poison ivy (Rhus tojri<^odendron and related 

 species). 



2. TJHTICASTRUM Fabr. PI. Hort. Helmst. 204. 1759. 

 1. TJrticastrum mexicanum (Liebm.) Kuntze. Rev. Gen. PL 1: 635. 1891. 

 Discocarpus viexicanus Liebm. Dansk. Vid. Selsk. Skrivt. V. 2: 309. 1S51. 

 Urera platycarpa Wedd. Ann. Sci. Nat. III. 18: 202. 1852. 

 Laportea mericana Wedd. in DC. Prodr. 16 V 84. 1879. 

 Veracruz and Oaxaca (type locality). Guatemala. 



* Ren4 de Grosourdy. El mMico botiinico criollo. 1864. 



