54 FLOKA OF JAMAICA Cecropia 



erect, orthotropous. Fruit oblong, enclosed in the very thin 

 perianth. Cotyledons equal, straight ; radicle small, superior. 



Species 30-40, natives of tropical America from the West 

 Indies and Mexico to Brazil. 



C. peltata L. Syst. ed. 10, 128G (1759) & Amoen. v. 410; 

 Wright Mem. 302 ; Miq. in Fl. Bras. iv. pt. 1, 149; Griseb. Fl. 

 Br. W. Ind. 153. Yaruma de Oviedo, Sloane Cat. 45, Hist. i. 

 137, t. 88,/. 2 d- t. 89. Coilotapalus &c. Browne Hist. Jam. 111. 

 (Fig. 16, B-G.) 



Trumpet Tree, Snake Wood. 



Sloane Herb. ii. 85, 86 ! Broiighton ! Sioartz ! Wullschlaegcl ; Sloneague, 

 Priori — Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Cruz, St. Jan, 

 Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Bequia, Bar- 

 bados, Venezuela, Guiana. 



Tree 16-40 ft. Leaves 3 dm. and more in diameter, with about 7-9 

 short lobes to j of the diameter, rough on upper surface, white-tomentose 

 underneath, lobes elliptical, cuspidate. Male spikes numerous, shortly 

 stalked, about 4 cm. 1., 2 mm. br. ; female 4-2, sessile, 6-6 cm. 1., 6 mm. br. 

 When forest is cleared at an elevation of about 200 ft. this tree springs up 

 in great numbers. 



Family IX. URTICACE^. 



Herbs, shrubs or more rarely small trees. Leaves alternate 

 (but opposite in Pilea and sometimes in Boehmeria), stipulate. 

 Flowers unisexual, monoecious or dioecious, clustered or scattered, 

 clusters or flowers axillary, cymose, paniculate or crowded and 

 sessile. Perianth simple, calycine, segments imbricate or valvate, 

 or perianth .sometimes in the female flower almost closed but with 

 a small opening above, or perianth wanting (in Phenax). Seg- 

 ments of male perianth generally 4, of female 2, 3 or 4. Stamens 

 as many as the lobes of the perianth and opposite to them ; 

 filaments in bud inflexed with reversed anthers, on flowering 

 straight, exserted with erect anthers. Female flowers : ovary 

 superior, one-celled, consisting of a single carpel. Style un- 

 divided, stigma penicillate-capitate or more or less elongated. 

 Ovule aflixed at or near the base, erect or ascending, ortho- 

 tropous. Fruit an achene, sometimes enclosed in perianth. 

 Seed erect, with or without endosperm. 



Species nearly 500, natives of temperate and tropical 

 regions. 



Leaves opposite. 



Inflorescence paniculate or capituliform. Stigma shortly 



penicillate. Herbs, sometimes shrubby 4. Pilea. 



Flower-clusters sessile in axils or forming a spike. Stigma 



filiform persistent. Shrubs 5. Boehmeria. 



