220 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Shrub, 1 to 3 meters high, covered with slender stinging hairs, the trunk 

 thiols, succulent, sparsely branched ; leaves broadly ovate, crenate ; flowers dioe- 

 cious; fruit a small thin orbicular achene. 



3, BOEHMEBIA Jacq. Enum. PI. Carib. 9. 1760. 



Reference: Weddell in DC. Prodr. 16 ': 195-218. 1869. 



Shrubs or more commonly herbs ; leaves opposite or alternate, 3-nerved ; 

 flowers green, unisexual, panicled, glomerate, or spicate in the leaf axils; fruit 

 a small achene. 



A few herbaceous species occur in Mexico besides those listed below. The 

 best-known species of the genus is the ramie plant (" rami^," " seda vegetal "), 

 Boehmeria nirea (L.) Gaud., a large herb or small shrub which has been cul- 

 tivated in Mexico as well as elsewhere for its fiber. It differs from the native 

 Mexican species in having the leaves densely white-tomentose beneath. The 

 original home of the plant was probably China, but the species is now widely 

 dispersed in tropical regions. 



Flowers in dense axillary glomerules > 1. B. ulmifolia. 



Flowers in long dense spikes. 



Stipules lance-ovate ; leaves copiously pubescent on the upper surface. 



2. B. caudata. 



Stipules lance-linear ; leaves glabrate on the upper surface 3. B. palmeri. 



1. Boehmeria ulmifolia Wedd. Arch. Mus. Paris 9: 347. 1856. 

 Boehmeria fallax ulwifolia Wedd. in DC. Prodr. 16 ': 198. 1869. 

 Veracruz ; type from Jalapa. Guatemala. 



Shrub, 1. 5 to 2.5 meters high ; leaves broadly ovate, crenate. 



2. Boehmeria caudata Swartz, Prodr. Veg. Ind. Occ. 34. 1788. 

 Boehmeria flogeUiformis Liebm. Dansk. Vid. Selsk. Skrivt. V. 2: 310. 1851. 

 Veracruz to Oaxaca. Central America, West Indies, and tropical South 



America. 



Shrub or small tree, 2 to 5 meters high ; leaves ovate or lance-elliptic, closely 

 crenate. densely pubescent beneath. 



The plant is said to give a very strong fiber. This is probably the plant de- 

 scribed by Sesse and Mociiio^ as Urtica spicata. Tbat name belongs properly to 

 an Old World species of Boehmeria. 



3. Boehmeria palmeri S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 22: 453. 1887. 

 Known only from the type locality. Tequila, Jalisco. 



Shrub, 2.5 meters high; leaves ovate, 7 to 13 cm. long; flower spikes often 

 leafy at the apex. 



4. POUZOLZIA Gaud, in Freyc. Voy. Bot. 503. 1826. 



Shrubs; leaves usually alternate, 3-nerved, stipulate; flowers monoecious, 

 clustered in the leaf axils, the glomerules unisexual ; fruit a small achene. 



Leaves densely short-pilose beneath, not tomentose 1. P. palmeri. 



Leaves densely white-tomentose beneath. 



Leaves mostly 4 to 7 cm. long, abruptly acuminate 2. P. nivea. 



Leaves mostly 1.5 to 4 cm. long, rounded to acute at the apex__3. P. pringlei. 

 1. Pouzolzia palmeri S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 22: 453. 1887. 



Rocky slopes of barrancas, Jalisco and Sinnlon to Morelos ; type from 

 Guadalajara. 



Shrub, 1 to 1.5 meters high, with slender reddish brown branches ; leaves 

 bright green, ovate or oval, acuminate; flowers very small, in dense axillary 

 clusters. 



' Fl. Mex. 235. 1896. 



