586 NETTLE FAMILY. 



8. MORUS. Flowers usually monivcions, both sorts in catkin-]ike spikes. Calyx 4-parted. 



Stamens 4. Fertile spike altogether becoming an oval or oblong multiple pulpy 

 fruit imitating a blaekberry, but the pulp consists of the calyx, bracts, etc., of the 

 ttowers, each inclosing a small akene. (Lessons, Figs. 408, 409, 410.) 



9. BROUSSONETIA. Flowers dioecious ; the sterile in cylindrical catkins, and like those 



of Mulberry ; the fertile in globular heads, mixed with little bristly scales, their calyx 

 urn-shaped and 3-4-toothed, out of which the ripened ovary protrudes and forms a 

 club-shaped rather fleshy fruit. Style single. 



IV. NETTLE SUBFAMILY, proper. Herbs, as to our 

 wild species, with bland watery juice and tough fibrous bark ; 

 many are armed with stinging hairs. Flowers monoecious or 

 dioecious, greenish. Filaments transversely wrinkled and in- 

 flexed in the bud, straightening elastically when the calyx 

 opens. Fruit an akene; style or stigma one and simple. 



* Plant bearing stinging bristles or hairs. 



10. URTICA. Flowers in racemed, spiked, or head-like clusters ; the calyx in both sorts 



of 4 separate sepals. Stamens 4. Stigma a sessile globular tuft. Akene flat, ovate, 

 straight and erect, inclosed between the larger pair of sepals. Leaves opposite. 



11. LAPOKTEA. Flowers in loose open cymes, the upper chiefly fertile, and lower sterile ; 



the latter with 5 sepals and stamens ; the former of 4 very unequal sepals, the two 

 outer or one of them minute. Stigma slender awl-shaped, hairy down one side, per- 

 sistent on the ovate flat very oblique and nearly naked akene, which is soon reflexed 

 on its wing-margined pedicel. Leaves large, alternate. 

 • * Plant not stinging. 



12. BCEHMERIA. Flowers either dicecious or intermixed, clustered in spikes, not involu- 



crate ; the sterile as in Urtica ; the fertile with a tubular or urn-shaped calyx barely 

 toothed at the apex, inclosing the ovary and closely investing the oblong flat akene. 

 Style long and slender, the stigma on one side. Leaves opposite and serrate. 

 18. PARIETARIA. Flowers monoeciously polygamous, the different kinds intermixed in 

 involucrate-bracted cymose axillary clusters. Sterile flowers Uke Boehmeria. Fertile 

 flowers with a tubular or bell-form 4-lobed and nerved calyx inclosing the akenes. 

 Style slender or none, the stigma tufted. Leaves alternate, entire. 



1. ULMUS, ELM. (The classical Latin name.) Fine trees in deep, 

 mostly moist or alluviat soil. Flowers early spring ; fruit in early summer. 



* Leaves rough and harsh on the upper, soft and usually downy on the lower 

 surface ; seed in the middle of the orbicular or round-oval fruit, far away 

 from the shallow notch ; flower-clusters globular ; pedicels very short. 



U. Mlva, Michx. Slippery P^lm. Rather small tree, with tough red- 

 dish wood, well-known very mucilaginous inner bark, and rusty-downy 

 buds ; leaves 4'-8' long, doubly serrate, very rough above ; these and the 

 flowers sweet-.scented in drying ; calyx lobes and stamens 7-9 ; fruit much 

 less than 1' long, the seed-bearing center pubescent. N. Eng., \V. and S. 



U. montana, Wither. Wych-elm or Scotch Elm. Commonly planted, 

 from Eu. ; leaves smaller and less rough ; buds not downy ; calyx lobes 

 and stamens about 5 ; fruits 1' long, smooth. 



'oi 



♦ * Leaves smooth above, smaller; notch at the S2tmmit of the fruit reach- 

 ing nearly to the seed-bearing cell ; fruit only about ^' long. 



t- Flowers in close clusters; pedicels very short or hardly any ; stamens 

 4 or 5 ; fruit smooth, round-obovate. 



U. campestris, Linn. English Elm. Large tree from Eu., with rather 

 short horitontal or ascending branches ; leaves 2'-4' long, mostly or soon 



