URTICACEAB 287 



Annual. Stem 5 to 8 or 10 feet high, obtusely angular and sulcate, roughish- 

 pubesceut, often branched. Leaflets 3 to 5 inches long ; common petioles 1 to 3 

 inches in length. Staminate flowers in loose pedunculate axillary clusters, rather 

 crowded in a kind of dense panicle at summit. Pistillate flowers axillary, sessile; 

 mostly in pairs. Stigmas long, slender, densely pubescent, somewhat tawny. 

 flab. Fields, &c. : very rare. Nat. of Persia. Fl. June. Fr. Aug. 



Obs. This plant so important in Commerce and the Arts was 

 formerly one of the regular crops, with many of our farmers; but 

 it is now scarcely entitled to be enumerated among the cultivated 

 plants of Chester County. 



388. HITUUJMIS, L. 



[Latin, Humus, mould, or moist earth ; in allusion to its place of growth.] 

 STAM. FL. in loose oblong axillary panicles. PISTILLATE FL. in 

 short axillary and solitary strobile-like aments ; bracts foliaceous, 

 imbricated in several rows, each 2-flowered. Calyx a single mem- 

 branaceous scale-like enlarging sepal, its folded margin embracing 

 the ovary. Akene 1-celled, invested with the enlarged calyx, which 

 is sprinkled with orange-colored resinous atoms, and, together with 

 the bracts, forming a membranaceous cone, or ovoid-oblong ament. 

 Stem twining (with the sun or E. S. West) ; upper leaves often alter- 

 nate ; flowers greenish. 



1. H. LU^PULUS, L. Stem retrorsely aculeate ; leaves mostly 3-lobed, 

 cordate at base, petiolate, very rough. 

 LITTLE-WOLF HUMULUS. Common Hop. Hop-vine. 



Perennial. Stem 10 to 15 or 20 feet long, several from the same root (or rhizoma), 

 slender, somewhat angular and twisted, branched above. Leaves 3 to 5 inches 

 long ; petioles 1 to 3 inches in length. Pistillate cones proverbially numerous and 

 crowded (" as thick as hops"), pendulous, 1 to 2 inches in length, at maturity ; 

 bracts broadly ovate, acuminate. 

 Sab. Gardens, &c. Fl. July. Fr. September. 



Obs. This plant though cultivated (i. e. the pistillate one) in 

 almost every garden is undoubtedly indigenous along our streams. 

 The uses and value of the cones (or rather of the bitter resinous 

 atoms, with which they abound,) are well known. The pistillate 

 plant, in cultivation, being usually remote from the staminate, I 

 think the ovaries are commonly abortive. 



SUBORDER III. URTPCEAE. 



Herbs, with a watery juice, often armed with stinging hairs; leaves opposite, or 

 alternate, stipulate. ; flmoers monoicous, dioicous, or polygamous, paniculate, spiked, 

 or clustered; style single, or none; fruit an akene, or nut (caryopsis), usually 

 embraced by the persistent calyx ; embryo straight, in fleshy albumen, 



389. URTTCA, Tournef. 



[Latin, uro, to burn, and tactus, touch ; from the effect in handling it.] 

 Flowers chiefly monoicous : STAM. FL. Sepals 4 or 5, valvate in the 

 bud. PISTILLATE FL. Sepals 4, in opposite pairs, the outer pair 

 smaller, sometimes abortive. Stigma pencil-tufted, or subulate. 

 Akene somewhat compressed, ovate-oblong. Plants mostly armed 

 with stinging hairs ; flowers greenish. 



