* 

 Morua. UETICACEJB. 63 



S. CANADENSIS, Nutt., a low shrub with rusty scurf, elliptical or ovate leaves, and yellowish- 

 red insipid fruit, ranges from the Columbia River across the continent, and in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains southward to New Mexico. It may be found in the mountains of N. California. The only 

 other species, S. ROT u. \DIFOLI A, Parry, with small crowded rounded leaves and scurfy fruit, is 

 peculiar to the mountains of S. Utah. 



ORDER LXXXIV. URTICACEJE. 



Herbs (our species), with watery juice and thin tough fibrous bark, petioled 

 stipulate leaves, and often armed with stinging hairs ; flowers monoecious or dioe- 

 cious, usually green, the perianth 3 - 5-parted or -lobed, with as many stamens 

 opposite the lobes, filaments inflexed in the bud and straightening elastically; 

 ovary simple, free, ovoid, with an erect orthotropous ovule, becoming an akene or 

 drupe in fruit ; style or stigma simple, the latter often tufted ; seed albuminous, 

 with straight axile embryo and superior radicle. Flowers usually in racerned or 

 panicled cymes, with small persistent bracts. 



Mainly a tropical or subtropical order, of over 40 genera and 400 species, the following genera 

 being the only ones that are largely represented in temperate regions. The value of the order 

 lies in the great toughness of the cortical fibre, which in the Reinie or China Grass (Bcehmeria 

 nivea) is also remarkably white and silky. The following orders, which appear to have no 

 indigenous representatives in the California!] flora, are by some authorities considered as suborders 

 of Urticacece. 



The CANXABACE^E, which include the Hemp (Cannabis saliva, Linn.) and Hop (Humulus 

 Lupulus, Linn.), are distinguished by the fertile calyx of a single scale-like sepal, 2 styles, a pen- 

 dulous seed without albumen, and the embryo hooked or coiled. Hemp is an erect tall annual, 

 with digitate leaves, a native of Asia and found elsewhere frequently as an escape from cultiva- 

 tion. The Hop, a twining herbaceous perennial with palmately lobed leaves, a native of Europe 

 and N. Asia, and extensively cultivated, is indigenous in the mountains from British America to 

 New Mexico, but has not been found in California. 



The ULMACE^E and CELTIDACE^E include trees or shrubs with fugacious stipules, straight fila- 

 ments, 2 styles, and a suspended seed ; the former having perfect flowers, extrorse anthers and a 

 winged or crested fruit ; the latter polygamous flowers, introrse anthers, and the fruit a drupe. 

 The Ulmaccce are represented in America by the Elms and Planera, which are confined to the 

 Atlantic States ; the CcHidacece by several species of the genus Celtis or Hackberry, some of which 

 approach the borders of the State. C. RETICULATA, Torrey. Somewhat pubescent with short 

 spreading hairs ; leaves thick, very rough and strongly reticulated, 2 to 4 inches long, obliquely 

 ovate, cordate at base and shortly acuminate, sharply serrate or sometimes partially entire ; fruit 

 3 lines or more in diameter, on slender pedicels 5 to 7 lines long. Of New Mexico and Texas, 

 Oregon (0. Doiiylasii, Planch.), and apparently also from the Cerros Islands of Lower California, 

 Vcitch. C. BUEVIPES, Watson. Slightly pubescent; leaves rather thin, minutely scabrous 

 above, prominently reticulated beneath, 12 to 18 lines long, obliquely ovate-oblong, acuminate, 

 rounded or shortly cuneate at base, entire ; fruit nearly 3 lines long, on slender pedicels 2 lines 

 long, about equalling the very slender petioles. Near Camp Grant, S. E. Arizona, Dr. J. T. 

 Roihrock (n. 367) on Lieut. Wheeler's Expedition, 1874 ; described as a tree 20 feet high and 

 18 inches in diameter, with light-colored bark. -Another form, referred to C. occidcntalis, var. 

 pumila, in Bot. King Exp. 321, but probably distinct, ranges from Idaho to E. Nevada and S. 

 Utah. 



The MORACE.E are another closely allied order of trees or shrubs, with milky juice, fugacious 

 stipules, minute monoecious or dioecious flowers in close spikes or heads or often on an open or 

 closed receptacle, becoming fleshy in fruit. To this very important order belong the Fig (Ficus), 

 which includes the Banyan and many India-rubber trees, the Poison Upas (Antiaris toxicarin), 

 the Mulberry (Morus), the Paper Mulberry (Broussonctia papijrifcra}, the Osage Orange (Madura 

 aurantiaca), the Breadfruit, and numerous others yielding various useful products. Scarcely 

 half a dozen species are natives of North America ; only the following approaches the borders of 

 California. MORUS MICROPHYLLA, Buckley, Proc. Acad. Philad. 1862, 8. A small tree 15 to 

 20 feet high ; leaves more or less pubescent, at length scabrous, ovate, often somewhat cordate at 

 base, acuminate, serrate, sometimes lobed, usually an inch or two long ; staminate amenta less 

 than half an inch long ; fruit small, black and sour. Frequent in Texas and ranging west to 

 Prescott, Arizona, Palmer. 



