PLANTS. 327 



Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica). Leaves cordate, 

 acuminate, deeply serrate. Flowers pistillate or stami- 

 nate; grows, like the former, everywhere, in rubbish- 

 heaps, waste places, etc. ; a regular nuisance in United 

 States, although in some localities in Europe it is treated 

 as hemp, and manufactured into a fine fabric called Net- 

 tle doth. H. 



The Eltn (Ulmus campestris) of Europe is a hand- 

 some tree, fifty to eighty feet high ; flowers bell-shaped, 

 greenish, dark red, appear in March, before the leaves; 

 grows everywhere in Middle Europe ; wood hard and 

 tough, is much used. by coach-makers.* 



FIFTY-NINTH FAMILY. CUPULIFER^G. MASTWORTS. 

 Oaks which are the largest and handsomest trees found 

 in the European forests. 



The Cojnmon Oak (Quercus ruber). Leaves on long 

 petioles, smooth, obtusely sinuate, lobes obtuse. Flow- 

 ers, sterile or fertile ; latter bloom in greenish catkins. 

 The acorns grow in groups of three and four together, 

 an inch long, in deep, warty cups. The oak attains to a 

 height of one hundred and twenty feet (in the forests of 

 Germany), and a diameter of six feet, standing firmly for 

 more than a century. Wood very valuable for ship- 

 building, or in plows or mill-work. The bark is em- 



* The Wliite or Weeping Elm (Ulmus araericana) and Tawny Elm, 

 Slippery or Red Elm (Ulmus fulva) are peculiar to America. The 

 first, sixty to eighty feet high, branches long, spreading, often rather 

 drooping, is a noble shade tree used for that purpose in New Eng- 

 land. Grows in low grounds, along streams ; not very common. The 

 latter, more frequent, found in rich low grounds, fence-rows, etc. The 

 inner bark of this species is so charged with mucilage, that it has been 

 added to the Materia Medica of our Shops. Of smaller size, not so 

 proper for a shade tree as the foregoing. Classed in Flora Ceslrica, 

 DarL, as Ulmacese. Tr. 



