DIV. II 



ANGIOSPERMAE 



619 



iu that plant is suppressed, grows out in the Hemp to a leafy shoot. Only a single 

 flower is present in the axil of each bract. The same process is repeated in the 

 axil of each leaf of the leafy middle shoot, so that the whole female inflorescence 

 is a repeatedly branched structure. The plant is utilised in Europe for its bast 

 fibres, which are from one to several centimetres long. The glandular hairs 

 which cover all parts of the female inflorescence secrete a sticky resinous substance 



FIG. 615. Humulus lupulus. 1, Male inflorescence. 2, Female inflorescence. 3, Two female 

 flowers in the axil of a bract. 4, Cone-like inflorescences in fruit, (i nat. size.) 



which is used medicinally. In the East it is used in the preparation of a narcotic 

 called Haschisch. 



OFFICIAL. CannaUs saliva provides CANXABIS IXDICA. 



Family 4. Urticaceae. Perennial herbs or less commonly shrubs. Leaves 

 simple, stipulate. Flowers unisexual by suppression of parts, as a rule bimerous. 

 P 2 + 2, A 2 -f 2. Stamens inflexed in the bud, and scattering the pollen when they 

 suddenly straighten. Ovary consisting of a single carpel, uuilocular, with a basal, 

 atropous ovule. Perianth of the female flower adherent. Flowers in dichasia, 

 or crowded in dorsiventral inflorescences. Anemophilous. Widely spread in the 

 tropics. 



A number of the Urticaceae are characterised by the possession of stinging 

 hairs (cf. Fig. 55), e.g. the common Stinging Nettles, Urtica dioica and U. urens, 

 and the dangerous tropical species of Laportea. Some provide important fibres, 

 especially Boehmeria nivea from which Ramie fibre is obtained, and of less value, 

 Urtica cannabina, and our native species of Urtica. 



