SANDAL WOOD FAMILY 67 



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. gracilis Ait. SLENDER NETTLE. Perennial, slender, with 

 some stinging hairs, 2-6 ft. high. Leaves ovate-lanceolate or nar- 

 rower, with slender petioles, taper-pointed, sharply serrate, with 3-5- 

 nerves arising from the rounded or sometimes almost heart-shaped 

 base, almost smooth ; stipules lanceolate. Flower clusters in branch- 

 ing panicled spikes, longer than the petioles. Flowers dioecious or 

 bisexual. 



2. U. urens L. SMALL NETTLE. 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. Naturalized from 

 Europe. 



22. SANTALACEJE. SANDALWOOD FAMILY 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees with entire leaves. Flowers usually 

 small. Calyx 4-5-cleft, its limb epigynous. Corolla wanting. 

 Stamens as many as the calyx lobes and opposite them, 

 inserted on the margin of a fleshy disk. Style 1 ; ovary 

 1-celled, with 2-4 ovules borne at the top of a free central 

 placenta. Fruit 1-seeded. 



COMANDRA Nutt. 



Low, smooth perennials with herbaceous stems, rather 

 woody below, often parasitic. Leaves alternate and nearly 

 sessile. Flowers nearly white, in small umbel-like clusters, 

 bisexual. Calyx bell-shaped at first. Stamens borne on a 

 5-lobed disk which surrounds the pistil; anthers connected 

 by a tuft of hairs to the calyx lobes. 



1. C. umbellate Nutt. BASTARD TOADFLAX. Plant 8-10 in. high, 

 with very leafy steins. Roots attached to the roots of trees, from 

 which they draw nourishment. Leaves oblong or oblanceolate, pale, 

 nearly 1 in. long. Umbel-like clusters about 3-flowered, longer than 

 the leaves. Rocky, dry woods. 



