398 URTICACE^E. (NETTLE FAMILY.) 



BROUSSOXETIA PAPYRfFERA, Vent., the PAPER MULKERUY of Japan, is 

 often cultivated as a shade tree. 



MACLtRA AURANTIACA, Nutt., the OSAGE ORANGE, or BOW-WOOD of 



Arkansas, is sparingly cultivated for hedges. 



SUBORDER III. URTICE^E. THE TIIUE NETTLE FAMILY. 



5. URTICA, Tourn. NETTLE. 



Flowers monoecious, or rarely dioecious, in paniclcd racemes or spikes, or 

 close clusters. Ster. PL Sepals 4. Stamens 4, inserted around the cup-shaped 

 rudiment of a pistil. Fert. FL Sepals 4, in pairs ; the 2 outer much smaller, 

 comewhat keeled, spreading ; the 2 inner flat or concave, in fruit membrana- 

 ceous and enclosing the straight and erect ovate flattened achenium. Stigma 

 eessilc, capitate and pencil-tufted. Herbs armed witli stinging hairs. Leaves 

 opposite. Flowers greenish. (The classical Latin name ; from uro, to burn.) 

 * Floivers in branching panicled spikes, often diuccions. 



1. TJ. gTatciliS, Ait. (TALL WILD NETTLE.) Sparingly bristly, slender 

 (2 -6 high) ; leaves ovate-lanceolate, pointed, serrate, 3-5-nerved from the 

 rounded or scarcely heart-shaped base, almost glabrous, the elongated petioles spar- 

 ingly bristly ; spikes slender and loosely panicled. 1J. (U. procera, \Vilhl.) 

 Fence-rows and moist ground; common, especially northward. July. Total- 

 ly distinct from the next, with slenderer and longer-petioled leaves, smaller flow- 

 ers, and scarcely any stinging hairs except on the petioles and sparingly on the 

 principal veins. 



2. U. DiolcA, L. (GREAT STINGING-NETTLE.) Very bristly and stinging 

 (2 -3 high) ; leaves ovate, heart-shaped, pointed, very deeply serrate, downy under- 

 neath as well as the upper part of the stem; tpilcet much branched. 1J. Waste 

 places, and road-sides, chiefly eastward. June- Aug. (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Flowers in simple capitate clusters, on peduncles shorter than the slender petioles. 



3. U. trRENS, L. (SMALL STINGING-NETTLE.) Leans tllijiiical or orate, 

 very coarsely and deeply serrate with spreading teeth ; flower-duster* 2 in each 

 axil, small and loose. Waste grounds, near dwellings, eastward: scarce. 

 Plant 8 -12' high, sparsely beset with stinging bristles. (Nat. from Eu ) 



4. U. plirpurscens, Nutt. leaves ovate and mostly heart-t,/mpcd, tho 

 upper ovate-lanceolate, coarsely serrate-toothed ; flou'cr-clnslers globular, 1 - 2 in 

 each axil, and spiked at the summit. 1 Alluvial soil, in shade; Kentucky 

 and southward. Stem slender, - 3 high, beset with scattered stinging bris- 

 tles, as an? the petioles, &c. 



6. JLAPORTEA, Gaudich. WOOD NKTTLB. 



Flowers monoecious or sometimes dioecious, in loose cymes ; the upper widely 

 spreading and chiefly or entirely fertile ; the lower mostly sterile. Ster. Fl. 

 Sepals and stamens 5, with a hemispherical rudiment of an ovary. Ftrt. Fl. 

 Calyx of 4 sepals, the two outer or one of them minute; the two inner much 



