SANDALWOOD FAMILY 67 



flowers 4-parted; stamens 4, inserted around a rudimentary 

 ovary. Pistillate flowers with 4 unequal sepals, the inner 

 ones dilated in fruit ; akenes smooth, compressed.* 



1. U. gracilis Ait. Slender Nettle. Perennial, slender, with 

 some stinging hairs, 2-6 ft. high. Leaves ovate-lanceolate or nar- 

 rower, with slender petioles, taper-pointed, sharply serrate, with 3-5- 

 nerves arising from the rounded or sometimes almost heart-shaped 

 base, almost smooth ; stipules lanceolate. Flower clusters in branch- 

 ing panicled spikes, longer than the petioles. Flowers dioecious or 

 bisexual. 



2. U. urens L. Small Nettle. Annual; stem stout, -l-angled, 

 hairy, 12-18 in. tall, with few stinging hairs; branches slender. 

 Leaves elliptical or ovate, serrate or incised, 3-5-nerved, acute or 

 obtuse at the ends, thin, hairy; petioles often as long as the blades ; 

 stipules short. Flower clusters axillary, in pairs, loose, mostly shorter 

 than the petioles. On damp soil in waste places. Naturalized from 

 Europe. 



22. SANTALACE^. Sandalwood Family 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees with entire leaves. Flowers usually 

 small. Calyx 4-5-cleft, its limb epigynous. Corolla wanting. 

 Stamens as many as the calyx lobes and opposite them, 

 inserted on the margin of a fleshy disk. Style 1 ; ovary 

 1-celled, with 2-4 ovules borne at the top of a free central 

 placenta. Fruit 1-seeded. 



COMANDRA Nutt. 



Low, smooth perennials with herbaceous stems, rather 

 woody below, often parasitic. Leaves alternate and nearly 

 sessile. F^lowers nearly white, in small umbel-like clusters, 

 bisexual. Calyx bell-shaped at first. Stamens borne on a 

 5-lobed disk which surrounds the pistil ; anthers connected 

 by a tuft of hairs to the calyx lobes. 



1. C. umbellata Nutt. Bastard Toadflax. Plant 8-10 in. high, 

 with very leafy stems. Roots attached to the roots of trees, from 

 which they draw nourishment. Leaves oblong or oblanceolate, pale, 

 nearly 1 in. long. Umbel-like clusters about 3-flowered, longer than 

 the leaves. Rocky, dry woods. 



