312 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



of his time seem eventually to have come to nothing, like so many 

 other attempts of the same sort. 



The nettles, Urtica, as giving their name to this order, ought to be 

 mentioned. Three are given by If. as occurring in the Himalayas 

 and Thibet at high elevations, one of them in the Nilghiris, and he 

 says, " U. pilulifera, the Eoman nettle, a common European weed, 

 occurs occasionally near Simla, and elsewhere near houses in the 

 hills." We need not regret their absence from our territories, and 

 in fact many of the species of tribe Urticese given above may reason- 

 ably be regarded in the same rather contemptuous way as that class 

 of plants is in England. 



" We call a nettle but a nettle, and 

 The faults of fools but folly." Coriolanus. 



The great order Amentaceee formerly contained all plants having 

 their flowers arranged in a catkin, a feature easily recognizable. The 

 oaks, beeches, birches, willows, planes, chestnuts, hazels, and other 

 trees were thus included in this order. It is, however, in H. split up 

 into a number of orders, of which Casuarineae and Salicineae are alone 

 represented here. To C ASUARINE.E belongs Casuarina equisetifolia, sum, 

 vilayati sdru, a very well known tree, wild on the east side of the Bay 

 of Bengal, and extending to Malaya and Australia. It is outwardly 

 like a conifer, but is really leafless, the branchlets being green and 

 cylindrical with sheaths of subulate scales at the nodes. It has, or 

 had, a reputation for improving the climate of malarious places ; and 

 the branches when gently swayed by the wind give out a sound like 

 that of the sea on a beach, very pleasing to the ears of exiled islanders. 

 It is called in Australia the swamp oak, and in the Pacific Islands 

 Toa. The genus is also known as Cassowary tree and Beefwood. 



ORDER 108. SALICINEJE. Willows. 



Deciduous dioacious trees or shrubs, leaves alternate, with 

 stipules, flowers in catkins, one under each bract, composed of 

 a disk and two or more stamens ; style short or none, stigma 

 short, notched or lobed, capsule ovoid or lanceolate 2 to 4- 

 valved, seeds with a pencil of long silky hairs. 



This is a small order containing only two genera, but both well 

 known, Salix (willow) and Populus (poplar). They are mostly trees 

 of cold and temperate climates, found chiefly in damp situations. 

 The greater part of the 26 species of willow given by H. belong to 

 the Himalayas. 



SALIX. Disk of one or two separate glands. 



" See the yellow catkins cover 

 All the slender willows over." If. Howitt. 



S. tetrasperma, a small tree, leaves lanceolate, acute smooth, 

 grey beneath, petioles red, male catkins lax and few-flowered, 



