728 URTICACE^. (NETTLE FAMILY.) 



6. 1IIERCUR1AL.IS, L. Mercury. 

 Flowers dioecious. Perigoniiim 3-4-parted, valvate in staminate, and 

 imbricate in pistillate flowers. Petals 0. Staminate fiowers : stamens 

 8-12 ; anther-cells 2, joined by a globular connective. Pistillate flowers : 

 ovary 2-celled, eacli cell with one ovule; style short: stigmas 2, 

 roughened on their inner aspect; stamens 2-3, reduced to filaments; 

 capsule 2, rarely 3-celled — Herbs, with colorless juice, and opposite, 

 stipulate leaves. 



m. annua, L. Annual Mercury. .3 to .5; stem erect, branch- 

 ing, thickened at nodes. Leaves tender, glabrous, short -petioled, 

 ovate to ovate-lanceolate, .02 to .06 long, crenate-serrate, slightly 

 ciliolate. Staminate floicers clustered on axillary peduncles, which are 

 longer than the leaves; pistillate flowers solitary or twin, sessile in the 

 axils; capsules beset with tubercles terminating in bristle-like papillae; 

 seeds elliptical, pitted and tubercled — All the year — Fields and 

 waste places ; common everywhere. 



Order XCV. URTICACEiE, Juss. (Nettle Family.) 



Plants with stvpiiles, and moncecioiis^ cLkbgIous^ polyga- 

 mous^ or f erf ect floioers^ fuvnisTied %oitli a regular ])erig 0- 

 nium^ free from the 1-celled^ 1-ovuled ovary, which forms a 

 1-seeded fruit. The stamens as many as the lobes of jperigo- 

 nium or sepals, and opposite them — Herbs, shrubs, or trees, 

 the stipules often deciduous. The mode of growth of the 

 different tribes of this principally tropical order differs widely. 



* Trets with perfect fiowers, on last yearns leafless branches. 



1. ULMUS. Fruit a samaroid. Anthers extrorse^ 



* * Treei, with moncBcious, dicecious, or polygamous fiowers. 



2. CELTIS. Fruit a drupe. Anthers introrse. 



3. MORUS. Fruit a compound berry, resembling a blackberry. 



4. FICUS, Fruit a fleshy receptacle containing the flowers. 



* * * Shnihs or herbs, with monacious or dicBeiousfloicers. Fruit an aJcene. 

 ^ Filaments short, straight in bud. Ovule pendulous. Stigmas 2. Embryo coiled or bent . 



5. HUMULUS. Anthers erect. Leaves 3-5-lobed. Twining shrubs, 



6. CANNABIS. Anthers drooping. Leaves 5-7-digitate-divided. Erect annuals. 



t t Filaments inflezcd in bud. Ovule erect. Style or stigma 1. Embryo straight. 



7. UETICA. © (D 2X . Perigonium of fertile flowers of 2-4, separate or nearly separate 



sepals. Herbs with stinging hairs, 



8. PARIETARIA. 2f Perigonium of fertile flowers tubular or cup-shaped, enclosing the 



akene. Unarmed, perennial herbs. 



9. FORSKAIILEA. If Perigonium of fertile flowers 0, of staminate tubular, 1-lipped. 



1. UIjUUS, L. Elm. Kharhafti. Buqisd. 



Flowers perfect. Perigonium campanulate, 4-5 -dentate, mar- 

 cescent. Stamens 4-8, inserted at base of perigonium, filaments straight 

 in bud. Ovary 2-beaked, stigmas 2, elongated, villous along their 

 inner aspect. Fruit a samaroid, composed of a utricle, surrounded by 



