URTICACEX. 131 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual. Summer, Autumn. 
Stem erect, commonly much branched, 9 inches to 2 feet high. Leaves 
1 to 3 inches long, with the widest part nearer the middle than in the 
other British nettles, and with the lateral veins from the base slightly 
converging towards the midrib before they disappear; teeth few, very 
large and sharp. Spikes } to 1 inch long; some of the flowers 
stalked. Seeds similar to that of U. dioica, but a little larger, and 
scarcely so broad in proportion. It is of a brighter green than 
the other British nettles, and is also more glabrous, having scarcely 
any hairs except the stinging ones. 
Small Nettle. 
French, Ortie briilante. German, Brennende Nessel. 
Sus-Orper Il.—CANNABINEA. 
Flowers diccious, not arranged on a fleshy clinanth nor spadix. 
Filaments short, not inflexed in bud. Ovary 1-celled, with a single 
erect orthotropous ovule ; stigmas 2. Fruit an achene. Albumen 
none; embryo hooked or coiled; radicle near the hilum. 
GENUS I.—CANNABIS. Tournef. 
Flowers diccious. Male flowers with the perianth of 5 nearly equal 
sepals: stamens 5, pendulous. Female flowers each in the axil of a 
minute bract: perianth split on one side and resembling a spathe, and 
enfolding the ovary: style short; stigmas 2, elongate and filiform. 
Achene indehiscent, but the 2 valves separating on pressure; embryo 
hooked, but the cotyledons not rolled up spirally. 
An erect annual herb, with opposite stalked digitate leaves, with 5 
to 7 leaflets, the upper leaves with fewer. Male flowers in a lax ter- 
minal panicle; female flowers sessile, in glomerules in the axils of the 
leaves and in a spike at the apex of the stem. 
The name of this genus of plants is derived from the Greek word kavva(ic (kannabis), 
which is supposed to be the Arabic name for the hemp. 
SPECIES I-CANNABIS SATIVA. Lin. 
Puars MCCLXXX. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. XII. Tab, DCLY. Fig. 1325. 
The only known species. 
In waste places and cultivated ground. Frequent about towns, espe- 
cially in localities frequented by bird-catchers, but not permanently 
naturalised. 
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