URTICACE. 127 
segments of the perianth. Female flowers with the perianth of 4 
sepals, the 2 outer ones very small or abortive: ovary free; stigma 
sessile, multifid, or filiform. Achene ovoid, compressed, naked or 
enclosed in the more or less enlarged perianth. 
Annual or perennial herbs, with opposite leaves, and small per- 
sistent stipules. Flowers sessile, in spikes, rarely in globular heads, 
on the branches of axillary panicles. Leaves and stem generally with 
stinging hairs. 
The name of this genus of plants is derived from the Latin word wro, I burn, 
from the uneasy burning sensation produced by the sting of the species. 
SPECIES I—URTICA DIOICA. Lim. 
Pirate MCCLXXIX. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. XII. Tab, DCLIV. Fig. 1824. 
Billot, F\. Gall. et Germ. Exsice. No. 457. 
Perennial. Rootstock creeping, with fleshy stolons. Leaves oppo- 
site, ovate or lanceolate, cordate or rounded at the base, acuminate or 
acute, coarsely serrate or inciso-serrate, on petioles shorter than the 
breadth of the lamina. Flowers diccious. Male and female flowers 
in glomerules arranged in elongated slightly interrupted spikes, which 
are combined into branched panicles; panicles in pairs, longer than the 
petioles of the leaves; branches of the panicle of the male plants 
ascending or spreading, those of the female plants recurved. Fruit 
glomerules minute, few-flowered, not globular. Fruit sepals concave, 
none of them conspicuously hooded. Plant with stinging hairs. 
In waste ground, hedgebanks, by roadsides, &c. Very common, 
and generally distributed. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Late Summer, Autumn. 
Stem erect, 18 inches to 4 feet high, simple or more rarely branched. 
Leaves 2 to 4 inches long, variable in breadth, somewhat rugose, from 
the longitudinal veins being deeply impressed above, but not distinctly 
so, as the tertiary veins are not so deeply impressed; serratures of 
the margins variable in depth, with the outer margin curved, so that 
the point is directed towards the apex of the leaf, the basal ones smaller 
than the others. Petiole not more than as long as, and often shorter, 
than the breadth of the leaves. Stipules strapshaped, rather small. 
Panicles 1 to 3 inches long. Male spikes slender, female rather dense. 
Nut ovate-ovoid, compressed, olive, nearly smooth, slightly shining, 
enclosed in the enlarged and connivent inner sepals. Plant hairy; the 
stem and leaves on both sides furnished with stout stinging hairs. 
Leaves dull dark green, paler beneath. 
