PLANTS OF BERMUDA. 77 



Nat : Ord : 62. ITrtieacete. 



Herbaceous plants, shrubs or trees ; flowers imperfect ; calyx 

 regular, inferior, four-lobed ; petals none ; male, stamens four, 

 opposite to lobes of calyx ; female, ovary one-celled, one-seeded, 

 styles one or two. 



Sub-order Urticese. — Pla>its ivith a watery juice ; statnens expanding 

 ivith elasticity token mature. 



I. URTICA. 



Serbs with stinging hairs and opposite leaves ; flowers unisexual in 

 axillary or terminal racemes; male, calijx four-partite, stamens four ; 

 female, calyx four -partite, the two inner lobes much larger and enclosing 

 the one-seeded nutlet. 



1. U. urens (Stinging Nettle) . An annual plant, all parts bristling 

 with irritating stings ; stem erect, branched, a foot or eighteen 

 inches high ; leaves one to two inches long, petioled, broadly ovate, 

 rounded at the base, coarsely and sharply serrated ; flowers in dense, 

 almost simple, axillary clusters, shorter than the leaves. Distribu- 

 tion, Britain, introduced North America ; habitat, cultivated ground 

 and waysides. Flowers minute, green ; December to March. 



2. TT. dioica (Stinging Nettle). Perennial, all parts armed with 

 stinging hairs; stem erect, two to three feet high, sparingly 

 branched, bluntly four-angled ; leaves heart-shaped, ovate, coarsely 

 and sharply serrate, point acute, entire ; racemes branched, axil- 

 lary, in pairs. Distribution, Britain, introduced North America ; 

 habitat, waysides and waste places. Flowers as in former species. 



II. PARIETARIA. 



Kerbs without stinging hairs and with alternate leaves; stamens and 

 ovary on the same or on separate flowers ; floivers in small axillary clus- 

 ters^ surrounded by leafy bracts ; sepals four, stamens four, stigma a sub- 

 sessile hairy tuft ; fruit small, seed -like. 



1 . P. debilis, var. floridana (Red Pellitory) . Decumbent and woody 

 at the base ; stems erect, simple, downy, reddish, six to twelve 

 inches high ; leaves entire, ovate -lanceolate, inch and a half long 

 and five-eighths of an inch wide, tapering at the base, pointed, 

 rough with minute points on the upper, glossy, dark-green surface, 

 petioles half-inch long ; clusters about three-flowered ; bracts ovate, 

 hairy, a little shorter than the membranous, four-cleft calyx. Dis- 

 tribution, Southern United States ; habitat, damp rocky waysides 

 and walls. Flowers greenish-white, stigma red; September to 

 March. 



2. F. (species ?) White Pellitory. Decumbent and woody at the 

 base ; stems ascending, branched, white and translucent ; leaves 

 broadly ovate, cordate or rounded at the base, long pointed, ob- 

 scurely crenulate, pellucid dotted, thin, very variable in size, one- 

 half to two inches long and the same in width ; clusters few-flow- 



