URTICA URTICAOEjE 603 



PARIETARIA 



U. Lyallii Watson 1. c. More or less pubescent, becoming nearly 

 glabrous with scattered bristles: stems slender, 4-6 feet high : stipules 

 large, membranaceous, broadly oblong, obtuse: leaves ovate, somewhat 

 cordate at base, acute, 3-9 inches long or more, coarsely serrate, onslervter 

 petioles 1-4 inches long; flowers in loose slender spreading panicles, equall- 

 ing or shorter than the petioles : sepals broadly ovate or rounded, obtuse, 

 shorter than the broadly ovate achene, which IB % of a line long. Along 

 streams, Brit. Columbia to California, 



U, gracilis Ait. Hort. Kew. iii, 341. Perennial with long creeping 

 yellow rootstocks armed with stinging hairs : stems erect, mostly simple, 

 2-7 feet high : leaves lanceolate to ovate> long-acuminate, coarsely and 

 sharply serrate, sparingly pubescent, 2-7 inches long, narrowed to rounded 

 or subcordate at base, on slender petioles shorter than the blade : stipules 

 lanceolate: flower-clusters compound, commonly longer than the petioles. 

 In rich soil, along streams, Alaska to California and across the continent. 



2 PARIETARIA L. Sp. 1052. 



Low annual or perennial herbs, the hairs not stinging, with 

 alternate leaves without stipules and small greenish polygamous 

 flowers in axillary involucrate clusters. Calyx in the perfect 

 flowers 4-parted ; in the pistillate tubular- ventricose and 4-cleft 

 with connivent lobes. Style slender or none ; stigma spatulate 

 recurved, densely tufted. Achene ovoid, enclosed in the dry calyx' 



P. debilis Forster Weddell in DC. Prodr. xvi, 235. A very slender 

 annual, 3-12 inches high, usually diffusely branched from the base, some- 

 what hispid : leaves broadly ovate, obtuse, rounded at base or abruptly cun- 

 eate, 2-6 lines long or more, on petioles about as long as the blade: clusters 

 few -flowered : bracts linear or narrowly oblong, ^-1 line long, about equal- 

 ling the flowers : achenes^ a line long. Southern Oregon to California and 

 eastward. 



P. Pennsylvania Muhl. Willd. Sp. iv, 955. A pubescent annual: 

 stem weak, simple or sparingly branched, ascending or reclining, very 

 slender, 4-15 inches high : leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, mem- 

 branaceous, dotted, acuminate at the base, 3-nerved and with 1-3 pairs of 

 weaker veins above, slender-petioled, 1-3 inches long: flowers glomerate in 

 all except the lowest axils, the clusters shorter than the petioles : bracts of 

 the involucre linear, 2-3 times as long as the flowers : style almost none : 

 achenes about % line long. In dry rocky places, Brit. Columbia to 

 eastern Oregon and the Eastern States. 



ORDER LXXXIII EUPHORBIACE^ J. St. Hil. 

 Expos. Fam. 276. (1805.) 



Herbs shrubs or trees with acrid often milky juice, alternate 

 opposite or verticillate leaves with or without stipues and 

 monoecious or dioecious flowers variously disposed. Flowers 

 mostly apetalous, sometimes the calyx also wanting or repre- 

 sented by a scale at the base of the stamens, in Euphorbia 

 subtended by an involucre that resembles a calyx. Stamens 

 one to many. Ovary usually 3-celled with one or two pendulous 

 ovules in each cell. Styles as many as cells of the ovary, sim- 

 ple, divided or many- cleft. Fruit a mostly 3-celled, elastically 

 dehiscent capsule. Seeds anatropous, with a straight or slightly 

 curved embryo in fleshy or oily albumen. 



