GIRAKDINIA.] URTICACE&. 125- 



FEM. flowers. Perianth tubular, ventricose, 2-3-toothed, at length 

 splitting on one side and spat he- like. Ovary straight ; stigma 

 subulate, papillose, ovule erect. Fruit a broad compressed achene^ 

 seated on the perianth, pericarp rather thick. Seed with a mem- 

 branous testa, albumen scanty, cotyledons broad. Species 7, in 

 Trop. Asia and Africa. 



G. heterophylla, Dene, in Jacquem.Voy. Bot. 151, t. 153 ; Brandt's 

 For. Fl. 404 ; F. B. I. V, 550 ; Kanji'lal Far. Fl. (ed. 2) 384 ; 

 Gamble Man. 656 ; Collett Fl. Siml. 462, fig. 149 ; Watt Comm. 

 Prod. Ind. 161. Urtica heterophylla, Wittd. ; Roxb. Fl. 2nd. nu 

 586. Vern. Bichua, chichru, kushki. 



A co rse erect perennial herb 4-10 ft. high, closely beset with slender 

 rigid sharp stinging hairs. Leaves 4-12 in. long and often as broad, 

 broadly ovate, acuminate ; base cordate or truncate ; margins 

 usually sharply and falcately dentate, rarely entire ; under surface 

 usually glabrous except for the bristly stinging hairs on the nerves ; 

 petioles 3-6 in. long, densely armed with stinging hairs ; stipules 

 about J in. long, ovate. Flowers small, monoecious, densely crowded. 

 MALE flowers in long slender often panicled spikes. Perianth 4- 

 partite. Stamens usually 4. Pistillode globose. FEM. flowers 

 crowded in simple or panicled spikes and usually forming a stout 

 densely bristly inflorescence up to 6 in. long or more. Perianth 

 ,V. in. long, 3-lobed, splitting when the fruit ripens ; lobes triangular,, 

 acute. Style filiform. Achenes ~ in. long, flat, obliquely ovate. 



Abundant in Dehra Dun and eastwards along the Sub-Himalayan tract. 

 Flowers during the rainy season. DISTRIB. : Sub-tropical and temp. 

 Himalaya from Kashmir to Sikkim, up to 7,000 ft. ; also in Assam 

 and the Khasia Hills, extending to Burma, Java and China. The 

 stems yield a strong silk-like fibre which is used for making twine 

 or ropes, and sometimes (in Sikkim) a coarse kind of cloth is made 

 from it. The leaves are often used as a vegetable by the village 

 people of the Western Himalaya. 



VAR. zeylanica, F. B. I. L c. 551. G. zeylanica, Dene. 1. c. 152 ; Prain 

 Beng. PI. 961 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, u, 633. Urtica zeylanica, Burm. 

 Leaves pinnatifidly lobed ; margins rather bluntly serrate ; 

 stipules broadly cordate ; female inflorescence (in fruit) densely 

 compacted into oblong or reniform masses. This variety occurs 

 in the dry south-western hilly portion of the area of this flora and 

 extends through Central India and the Deccan to Travancore and 

 Ceylon. It is often known as the Nilgiri nettle, which name, however,. 



