344 FLORA OF TASMANIA. [Urticea. 
Hab. Common in various parts of the Island, Circular Head, Hobarton, King and Flinders' Islands, 
in Bass' Straits, Gunn, etc.— (Fl. Nov.) (v. v.) 
Distrib. New Zealand. 
A tall, but generally slender Nettle, a good deal resembling a common European one in general appearance, 
but with glabrous leaves. I owe its identification with the plant of Poiret to my friend M. Weddell.— Stents erect, 
nearly glabrous, with a few, long, stinging hairs, which are however more numerous on the petioles. Stipules lan- 
ceolate or oblong. Leaves extremely variable in form and size, from broadly ovate to narrow-linear, membranous, 
deeply toothed, acuminate, often cordate at the base ; petiole 1-3 inches long. Flowers clustered on numerous 
spikes. Achenia enclosed in the outer larger leaflets of the perianth, or in other cases the periantb forms a tubular 
sheath to the achenium. 
Gen. II. PARIETARIA, Tourn. 
Mores polygami, axillares, fasciculati v. cymosi, involucrati. Fl. masc. Perianthium 4-5-phyllum. 
Stamina 4-5. El. fcem. Perianthium tubulosum, ventricosum, 4-fidum. Ovarium liberum, perianthio 
inclusum j stigmate capitulato, sessili v. subsessili.— Herbaj taping diffusa ; foliis altemis, exstipulatis. 
A small genus of weedy plants, growing in various parts of the tropics, and warmer latitudes of the globe • 
many species have been made of its various forms, but these are reduced by M. Weddell to two or three, and 
amongst them my P. squalida, which he has rightly determined to be only a starved state of the ubiquitous P. 
debilis, Forst. P. debilis is an excessively variable plant, found in all warm parts of the globe, and is sometimes 
no larger than Australma pusilla, and at others forms a tall, erect, spreading, ramous herb, with an almost woody 
stem at the base, and leaves 2 inches long. The Tasmanian form is a diffuse, pubescent, starved-looking weed, with 
numerous, divaricating, slender branches, 6-10 inches long, and small, entire, petioled, membranous leaves, k-\ 
inch long, quite entire, ovate or ovato-rotundate. Flower* polygamous, in axillary, clustered, dense-flowered 
cymes, minute, green, and very inconspicuous, surrounded by a two- to four-leaved involucre, composed of connate 
bracteoke. Male with a four-cleft, pilose perianth, and as many stamens. Female broadly ovate or ventricose. 
Ovary compressed, of the same form as the perianth, with a minute, very short, terminal stvlr, and small, brush- 
like stigma. (Name hom paries, a wall ; in allusion to the usual habitat of the European species.) 
I. Parietaria debilis (Forst. Prodr. n. 387) ; floribus paucis axillaribus subsessilibus, involucris 
2-4-foliolatis, 1-3-floris.— Fl. N. Zeal. i. 226; Weddell in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. iv. t. 209. P. Floridana, 
XuttaV, Gen. N. Am, Plants, ii. 208. P. micrantha, Led. PI. All. iv. 356. P. appendiculata, Webb, 
Phytog. Canariens. Freyera humifusa, A. Gay, PI. C/til. v. 366, 1031. 
Var. squalida; depauperata, caule basi lignescente, ramis divaricatis, foliis parvis breve petiolatis late 
ovatis rotundatisve.— P. squalida, Nob. in Lond. Journ. Bot. vi. 285. {Gunn, 886.) 
Hab. Launceston and Spring Bay, Gunn. Var. /3. Near the sea, on the north coast of the Island ; 
Circular Head and Georgetown, Gunn. (Fl. Oct.) 
Distrib. Throughout extratropical Australia, New Zealand, the Himalaya Mountains, and Peninsula 
Gen. III. AUSTRALINA, Gaud. 
Mores monoici. Masc. axillares, ad apicem pedunculi elongati solitarii v. bini. Perianthium v. in- 
volucellum cochleare. Stamen 1. Fl. f<em. axillares, subsessiles, solitarii v. 2-3. Perianthium lagenae- 
forme, compressum, achenium amplectens, ore minimo; stylo elongato exserto.-Herba? tenella, prostrata 
V ' m6erect «; ^ ' ■ - , flip datis v. exstipulatis, grosse crenatis dentatisve. 
