558 BOTANY part ii 



the bract is also suppressed, but each stipule has two flowers in its axil ; each 

 flower is enclosed by its own bract. These bracts project beyond the stipules 

 when the inflorescence is mature, and give the latter its cone-like appearance. 

 Upon them are developed the glandular liairs on account of which the Hop is 

 cultivated. 



Cannabis saliva, Indian Hemp, is an annual herb with palmately divided, hairy 

 leaves, which are opposite below and alternate in the upper portion of the shoot. 

 The female inflorescence resembles that of the Hop, but the central shoot, which 

 in 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 

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

 called Haschisch. 



Official. — Cannabis sativa provides cannabis indioa. Humtdus hqjulus 

 provides lupulus and lupulinum. 



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

 sim})le, stipulate. Flowers unisexual by suppression of parts, as a rule bimerous. 

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

 suddenly straighten. Ovary consisting of a single carpel, unilocular, 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. 126), e.g. the common Stinging Nettles, Urtica dioica and U. urens, 

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

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

 Urtica cannabina, and our native species of Urtica. 



Order 6. Loranthiflorae 



"Woody plants (only the Balanophoraceae are herbaceous) with ojiposite or 

 alternate leaves and frequently with entomophilous flowers. Ovary inferior, uni- 

 locular, compouml of 1-3 carpels. 



Family 1. Santalaceae C^''). — Green plants growing in the soil and partially 

 parasitic on the roots of other plants from which their liaustoria oljtain nutrient 

 materials. In Britain, Thcsium. 



Official. — Saidalum album, the wood of which when distilled yields oleum 

 SANTALI. The wood is also of economic value. 



Family 2. Loranthaceae (^°). — Leafy semi-parasitic shrubs, living on the branches 

 of trees. Tliey are most a])undant in tiie tropics, and, for instance in South 

 America, add to the beauty of tlie forest by their brightly coloured flowers. 



Loranthus euroixicus, on Oaks in Europe. In Britain Viscum album (Fig. 534), 

 the ISlistletoe, occurs as an evergreen parasite on a number of trees. It has opjiosite, 

 obovate leaves. Stem swollen at the nodes. The inconspicuous flowers open in 

 early spring ; they are diclinous and dioecious, usually bimerous, and are borne in 

 two- to iive-llowered dichasia. The white berries ripen during the winter (December 

 to March) and are eaten by birds. By means of a viscid layer of the pericarp they 

 adhere, together with the seeds, to branches against which tlie birds rub their 



