NETTLE FAMILY. _ 299 



STINGING URTICA. Small Stinging-nettle. 



Annual. Stem 8-12 inches high, erect. Leaves 1-2 inches long, obtuse or somewhat 

 cordate at the base. 

 Waste places. New York State and Eastward. 



Obs. These naturalized weeds, so well known for their stinging quali- 

 ties, are apt, especially the first mentioned, to become troublesome where 

 they are allowed to flourish. The quaint old herbalist, CULPEPPER, 

 remarks " that they may be found by feeling on the darkest night." In 

 some parts of England nettles are used- as a pot-herb, and the tough 

 bark is said to afford a thread superior in durability to that from flax. 

 There is a large-leaved native nettle which is now placed in another ge- 

 nus (Lapor'tea canaden'sis, Gavdich), the Wood-nettle, which is not 

 inclined to intrude on cultivated lands. 



8. CAN'NABIS, Tournef. HEMP. 



[An ancient Greek name, of obscure etymology.] 



STAMINATE FL., in axillary compound racemes, or panicles with 5 sepals 

 and 5 drooping stamens. PISTILLATE FL., spicate-glomerate, with single 

 bracts. Calyx of a single membranaceous sepal, folded around the sub- 

 globose ovary. Nut 1-celled, 2-valved, indehiscent. 



1. C. SATI'VA, L. Leaves digitate, petiolate ; leaflets 5 - 7, lanceolate, 

 serrate. 



CULTIVATED CANNABIS. Hemp. 



Ft: Le Chanvre. Germ. Der Hauf. Span. Canamo. 



Root annual. Stem 5 - 8 or 10 feet high, obtusely angular and sulcate, scabrous-pubes- 

 cent, often branched. Leaves mostly opposite (the upper ones often alternate) ; leaflets 

 3-5 inches long (the outside or lateral ones much smaller than the others, and often en- 

 tire especially 011 the staminate plant) ; common petioles 1-2 or 3 inches long ; stipules 

 lanceolate. Staminate. flowers greenish, in loose pedunculate axillary clusters, rather 

 crowded in a kind of dense panicle at summit. Pistillate flowers axillary, sessile, mostly 

 in pairs. Calyx subglobose, acuminate, pubescent, green, slit on one side. Stigmas long, 

 slender, densely pubescent, somewhat tawny. NuA ovoid, slightly compressed, smooth, 

 greenish, reticulated with whitish veins, enclosed in the persistent calyx. 



Cultivated. Native of Persia. Fl. June. Fr. Aug. 



Obs. This plant so important in Commerce and the Arts is culti- 

 vated on a large scale in Kentucky and some others of the fertile west- 

 ern States ; but only to a limited extent in the middle and northern 

 States. 



9. HU'MULUS, L. HOP. 



[Latin, Humus, moist earth, or mould ; in allusion to its place of growth.] 



STAMINATE FL. in loose oblong axillary-panicles with 5 sepals, and 5 

 erect stamens. PISTILLATE FL. in short axillary and solitary strobile- 

 like aments ; bracts foliaceous, imbricated in several rows, 2-flowered. 

 Calyx a single membranaceous scale-like enlarging sepal, its folded marr 



