398 URTiCACiLffi. (NETTLE FAMILY.) 



BROUSSONETIA pAPYRfFERA, Vent., the PAPER MULBERRY of Japan, is 

 often cultivated as a shade tree. 



MACLt'RA AURANTIACA, Nutt., the OSAGE ORANGE, Or BOW-WOOD of 



Arkansas, is sparingly cultivated for hedges. 



SUBORDER III. UltTICEJG. THE TRUE NETTLE FAMILY. 



5. IT R TIC A, Tourn. NETTLE. 



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

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

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

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

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

 sessile, capitate and pencil-tufted. Herbs armed with stinging hairs. Leaves 

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

 # Flowers in branching panided splices, often dioecious. 



1. U. gracilis, Ait. (TALL WILD NETTLE.) Sparingly bristly, slender 

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

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

 ingly bristly ; spikes slender and loosely panicled. 1J. (U. proccra, Willd.) 

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

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

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

 principal veins. 



2. U. DiokiA, L. (GREAT STINGING-NETTLE.) Very bristly mid stinging 

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

 ncath as well as the upper part of the stem ; spikes much branched. 1[ Waste 

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



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



3. U. URENS, L. (SMALL STINGING-NETTLE.) Leaves elliptical or ovate, 

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

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

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



4. U. purpurdSCens, Nutt. Leaves ovate and mostly heart.-sliaped, tho 

 upper ovate-lanceolate, coarsely serrate-toothed ; Jfower-duster* globular, 1 - 2 in 

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

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

 tles, as arc the petioles, &c. 



6. L.APORTEA, Gaudich. WOOD NETTLE. 



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. Fert. Fl. 

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



