180 A FLORA OP MANILA 



cious or dioecious. Male flowers: Calyx equally or unequally toothed or 

 divided. Petals none. Stamens as many as the calyx-lobes or fewer, in- 

 flexed in bud. Female flowers: Perianth much as in the male flowers. 

 Ovary superior, 1-celled; ^tyle or stigma solitary; ovule one, erect. Frutt 

 an achene. 



Genera 44, species about 500, of wide distribution, but chiefly tropical, 

 21 genera, and about 130 species in the Philippines. 



1- Erect shrubs or trees. 



2. Flowers in axillary fascicles 1. Pipturus 



2. Flowers paniculate or cymose. 



3. Vegetative parts with stinging hairs; fruit fleshy 2. Laportea 



3. No stinging hairs; fruit dry 3. Boehmeria 



1. Spreading or erect herbs. 

 2. Flowers cymose. 



3. A coarse, erect, branched herb with large leaves, the vegetative parts 



with stinging hairs , 4. Fleurya 



3. A very small herb with small leaves and no stinging hairs.... 5. Pilea 

 2. Flowers in axillary fascicles, or on sessile or peduncled fleshy re- 

 ceptacles. 

 3. Flowers on a fleshy sessile or peduncled receptacle, involucrate; 



leaves strongly inequilateral 6. Elatostema 



3. Flowers in axillary fascicles, not involucrate; leaves equilateral or 

 nearly so , 7. Pouzolzia 



1. PIPTURUS Weddell 



Erect dioecious shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate, 3- or 5-nerved, the 

 stipules bifld. Flowers small, in axillary clusters or the clusters spicately 

 arranged. Male flowers: Perianth 4- or 5-fid, lobes valvate. Stamens 

 4 or 5. Female flowers on a somewhat fleshy receptacle. Perianth ovoid, 

 narrowed to a minute mouth. Ovary adherent to the perianth; stigma 

 elongated. Achenes small, surrounded by the accrescent fleshy perianths, 

 forming a soft and fleshy fruit. (Greek "to fall" and "tail," in allusion to 

 the inflorescence of some species.) 



Species about 12, Mascarene Islands to Malaya, Australia, and Polynesia, 

 6 in the Philippines. 



1. P. arborescens (Link) C. B. Rob. (P. asper Wedd.). Dalunot (Tag.). 



A dioecious shrub or small tree 3 to 5 m high. Leaves ovate, 7 to 18 

 cm long, 3 to 10 cm wide, sharply acuminate, base rounded or somewhat 

 cordate, the margins toothed, the upper surface green, only slightly pubes- 

 cent, a little scabrid, the lower surface pale, rather densely and softly 

 pubescent. Male flowers in dense, axillary fascicles, the styles greenish- 

 white, exserted. Female flowers small, greenish, in dense, axillary, hemi- 

 spheric heads 6 to 6 mm in diameter, the styles long-exserted. Fruit white, 

 very soft and fleshy, depressed-globose, 1 cm in diameter or less, of n»any 

 small achenes immersed in the fleshy perianths. (Fl. Filip. pi, 371.) 



Common in thickets, fl. all the year ; throughout the Philippines. Borneo. 



2. LAPORTEA Gaudichaud 



Trees or shrubs with few to many, often minute, stinging hairs. Leaves 

 ample, entire or toothed. Flowers small, monoecious or dioecious, glomer- 

 ate, in axillary panicles. Male flowers: Sepals 4 or 5. Stamens 6, in- 



