INCOMPLETE. 341 



2-3, alternate with the inner scales ; ovary free, on a disk 2-9-celled ; 

 ovules solitary ; fruit fleshy, with 2-9 nuts; 'seeds 1 in each nut, ascending, 

 perispermic ; radicle inferior. These plants have the appearance of 

 Ericaceae, the fruit even being like that of Vacciniese, while the stigmas 

 and the general structure ot the flowers are Euphorbiaceous ; but from the 

 Euphorbiaceae they differ in the ascending seed and interior radicle. 

 They are mostly natives of Northern Europe and North America. 

 Hooker places them near Olacacese. The leaves and fruit are slightly 

 acid, agreeable ; the berries of Empetrum niyrum, the Crowberry, are eaten ; 

 the Greenlanders prepare a fermented liquor from them. The Portuguese 

 use the berries of a Corema. Genus, JSmpetrum. 



BATIS MARITIMA, a succulent shrub with opposite leaves, unisexual 

 flowers arranged in catkins, is found in the salt marshes of the West Indies. 

 The fruits are all fused in a mass with the bracts. It is sometimes made 

 the type of an Order, but is regarded by Lindley as very close to Empe- 

 traceae. Others place it near to Tamariscineaj or Chenopodiaceae. It is 

 sometimes used in West-India pickles. 



UETICACE^E. THE NETTLE ORDER. 



Coli. Urticales, Benth, et Hook. 



Diagnosis. Herbs, shrubs, or trees with stipules and monoecious 

 or dioecious or, rarely, polygamous flowers ; perianth regular, free 

 from the 1-celled (rarely 2-celled) ovary, or absent ; stamens equal 

 in number to the lobes of the perianth, and superposed to them, or 

 sometimes fewer, uncoiling elastically ; embryo straight in the 

 perisperm when this is present, the radicle pointing upwards. 



This Order is divided by Weddell into the following tribes : 

 1. UKEREE. Leaves with stinging-hairs ; leaves opposite, or if 

 alternate arranged spirally; perianth of female flower 4-parted, 

 rarely tubular, always free. Urtica, L. 2. PROCRIDE^E. Leaves 

 without stinging-hairs ; leaves opposite, or if alternate distichous ; 

 perianth of female flower free, 3-5-parted ; stigma brush-like. 

 Pilea, L. 3. BOSHMERIE^. Plants without stinging-hairs ; leaves 

 alternate or opposite ; perianth of female flower free or adnate to 

 the ovary, frequently tubular, rarely very short. Bcehmeria, L. 

 4. PARIETARIE.E. Plants without stinging-hairs ; leaves alter- 

 nate ; flowers dioecious or polygamous ; perianth of female flower 

 tubular, free. Inflorescence bracteate. Parietaria. 5. FORS- 

 KOHLIEJE. Plants without hairs or with hardened hairs; leaves 

 alternate or opposite ; flowers diclinous, involucrate ; perianth of 

 female flower tubular or wanting. Forskohlia. 



Affinities, &c. This Order is nearly related to the Malvaceae, Tiliaceae, 

 and Euphorbiaceae on the one hand, and to the amentiferous Orders on the 

 other ; differing from the former in the simple ovary, from the latter in the 



