THE APETALOUS ORDERS. 475 



trees, very rarely herbs, with a milky juice ; the staminate and 

 pistillate flowers either in separate aments or spikes, or often inter- 

 mixed and included in the same hollow and closed fleshy receptacle 

 (as in the Fig) : the calyx, &c., becoming succulent, and forming 

 a compound fruit. Seeds albuminous. Ex. Morus (the Mulber- 

 ry, Fig. 244-246), Maclura (the Osage Orange), Ficus (the Fig, 

 Fig. 241-243) : nearly all tropical. 



887. Sllbord, UrticeSB (the proper Nettle Family) ; which are 

 herbs in colder countries, but often shrubs or trees in the tropics, 

 with a watery juice, often with stinging hairs ; the flowers mostly 

 loose, spicate, or panicled ; the achenium usually surrounded by a 

 dry and membranous calyx. Embryo straight, in fleshy albumen. 

 Ex. Urtica (the Nettle), Parietaria. 



888. Subord, CaimabineSB (the Hemp Family) ; which are annual 

 erect herbs, or perennial twining plants, with a watery juice ; the 

 staminate flowers racemose or panicled ; the pistillate glomer- 

 ate, or imbricated with bracts, and forming a kind of strobile-like 

 ament. Embryo curved: albumen none. Ex. Cannabis (the 

 Hemp), Humulus (the Hop) : natives of northern temperate re- 

 gions. 



8^9. The fruit in this large and polymorphous family is mostly 

 innocent and edible, at least when cooked ; while the milky juice 

 is more or less acrid or deleterious. It also abounds in caout- 

 chouc ; much of which is obtained from some South American 

 trees of this order, and from Ficus elastica in Java. In one in- 

 stance, however, the milky juice is perfectly innocent ; that of the 

 famous Cow-tree of South America, which yields copiously a rich 

 and wholesome milk. One of the most virulent of poisons, the 

 Bohon Upas, is the concrete juice of Antiaris toxicaria of the Indian 

 Archipelago. The Bread-fruit is the fleshy receptacle and multi- 

 ple fruit of Artocarpus. Fustic is the wood of the South Ameri- 

 can Morus tinctoria. The resin called Gum Lac exudes and forms 

 small grains on the branches of the celebrated Banyan-tree (Ficus 

 Indica, Fig. 119). Nettles are remarkable for their stinging ven- 

 omous hairs, and tough fibres of the stem, which, as in those of 

 Hemp, are used for cordage. The leaves of the Hemp are stimu- 

 lant and narcotic, and are extensively used in the East for intoxi- 

 cation. Hops are the catkins of Humulus Lupulus; the bitter and 

 sedative principle chiefly resides in the yellow grains that cohere 

 to the scales and cover the fruit. 



