398 



URTICACE^E. (NETTLE FAMILY.) 



Broussonetia papyri'fera, Vent., the Paper Mulberry of Japan, is 

 often cultivated as a shade tree. 



Maclura aurantiaca, Nutt., the Osage Orange, or Bow-wood of 



Arkansas, is sparingly cultivated for hedges. 



Suborder III. VBTICEJ!. The True Nettle Family. 



5. UBT1CA, Tourn. Nettle. 



Flowers monoecious, or rarely dioecious, in panicled racemes or spikes, or 

 close clusters. Ster. Fl. Sepals 4. Stamens 4, inserted around the cup-shaped 

 rudiment of a pistil. Fert. Fl. Sepals 4, in pairs; the 2 outer much smaller, 

 comewhat keeled, spreading; the 2 inner flat or concave, in fruit membrana- 

 ceous and enclosing the straight and erect ovate flattened aehenium. Stigma 

 sessile, capitate and pencil-tufted. — Herbs armed with stinging hairs. Leaves 

 opposite. Flowers greenish. (The classical Latin name ; from uro, to burn.) 



* Flowers in branching panicled spikes, often dioecious. 



1. IT. gracilis, Ait. (Tall Wild Nettle.) Sparingly bristly, slender 



(2° -6° high); leaves ovate-lanceolate, pointed, serrate, 3-5-nerved from the 

 rounded or scarcely heart-shaped base, almost glabrous, the elongated petioles spar- 

 inghi bristly ; spikes slender and loosely panicled. y. (U. procera, WilJd.) — 

 Fence-rows and moist ground; common, especially northward. July. — Total- 

 ly distinct from the next, with slenderer and longer-pctioled leaves, smaller flow- 

 ers, and scarcely any stinging hairs except on the petioles and sparingly on the 

 principal veins. 



2. U. dioica, L. (Great Stinging-Nettle.) Very bristly and stinging 

 (2° -3° high) ; leaves ovate, heart-shaped, pointed, very deejdy serrate, downy under- 

 neath as well as the upper part of the stem; spikes much branched. TJ. — Waste 

 places, and road-sides, chiefly eastward. June -Aug. (Nat. from Eu.) 



*= * Floivers in simple capitate clusters, on peduncles shorter than the slender petioles. 



3. IT. tjrens, L. (Small Stinging-Nettle.) Leaves elliptical or ovate, 

 very coarsely and deeply serrate with spreading teeth ; Jlower-chisters 2 in each 

 axil, small and loose. Q — Waste grounds, near dwellings, eastward : scarce. 

 Plant 8' -12' high, sparsely beset with stinging bristles. (Xat. from Eu.) 



4. IT. ptarpuraSCens, Nutt. Leaves ovate and mostly heart-shaped, the 

 upper ovate-lanceolate, coarsely serrate-toothed ; flower-clusters globular, 1 - 2 in 

 each axil, and spiked at the summit. © ? — Alluvial soil, in shade ; Kentucky 

 and southward. — Stem slender, £° - 3° high, beset with scattered stinging bris- 

 tles, as ar<? the petioles, &c. 



6. LAPOBTEA, Gaudich. Wood Nettle. 



Flowers monoecious or sometimes dioecious, in loose cymes ; the upper widely- 

 spreading and chief!)' or entirely fertile ; the lower mostly sterile. Ster. Fl. 

 Sepals and stamens 5, with a hemispherical rudiment of an ovary. Fert. Fl. 

 Calyx of 4 sepals, the two outer or one of them minute; the two inner much 



