UBTICACE^E. (NETTLE FAMILY.) 399 



larger. Stigma elongated awl-shaped, hairy down one side. Achenium ovate, 

 flat, extremely oblique, reflexed on the winged or margined pedicel, nearly 

 naked. Perennial herbs, with stinging hairs and large alternate serrate leaves. 

 (Named for M. Laparte.) 



1. JL. CanadciisiS, Gandich. Leaves ovate, pointed, strongly feather- 

 veined (3' -7' long), long-petioled ; fertile cymes divergent. (U. Canadensis 

 and U. divaricata, L.) Moist rich woods ; common. Stem 2- 5 high. 



7. PIL.EA, Lindl. RICH WEED. CLEAR WEED. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious, clustered in axillary cymes. Ster. Fl. Se- 

 pals and stamens 3-4. Pert. Fl. Sepals 3, oblong, more or less unequal : 

 a rudiment of a stamen commonly before each in the form of a hooded scale. 

 Stigma sessile, pencil-tufted. Achenium ovate, compressed, straight and erect, 

 partly or nearly naked. Stingless, mostly glabrous and low herbs, with oppo- 

 site somewhat 3-nerved leaves and united stipules; the staminate flowers on 

 jointed pedicels, often mixed with the fertile. (Named from the shape of the 

 larger sepal of the fertile flower in the original species, like the pileus, or felt 

 cap, of the Romans, which partly covers the achenium. In our species the 

 three sepals are nearly equal, small, and not hooded.) 



1. P. ptiiiiiia. (RicinvEED. CLKARWEED.) Low (3'- 18' high); 

 stems smooth and shining, pellucid ; leaves ovate, coarsely toothed, pointed ; 

 clusters much shorter than the petioles ; sepals of the fertile flowers lanceolate, 

 scarcely unequal. (l) (Dubrueilia, Gaud. Adicc, Raf.) Cool and moist 

 shaded places ; common. July -Sept. 



8. BCEHMERIA, Jacq. FALSE NETTLE. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious ; the sterile much as in Urtica ; the fertile 

 with a tubular or urn-shaped entire or 2 - 4-toothed calyx enclosing the ovary. 

 Style elongated awl-shaped, stigmatic and hairy down one side. Achenium 

 elliptical, closely invested by the dry or somewhat fleshy persistent compressed 

 calyx. Hairs not stinging. (Named after G. R. Bohmer, Prof, at Witten- 

 berg in the last century. ) 



1. B. cyliiidrica, TVilld. Smoothish ; stem (l-3 high) simple; 

 leaves chiefly opposite, oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, pointed, serrate, 3- 

 nerved, long-petioled ; flowers dioecious, or the two kinds intermixed, the small 

 clusters densely aggregated in simple and elongated axillary spikes, the sterile 

 interrupted, the fertile often continuous. 1J. A state with alternate leaves is 

 B. lateriflora, Muhl. Moist thickets, &c. ; common. July -Sept. 



9. PARIETABIA, Toum. PELLITORY. 



Flowers monceciously polygamous ; the staminate, pistillate, and perfect in- 

 termixed in the same involucrate-bracted cymose axillary clusters ; the sterile 

 much as in the last ; the fertile with a tubular or oell-sliaped 4-lobed and nerved 

 calyx, woolly inside, and enclosing the ovary and adherent to the ovoid acne- 



