URTICACEAB Igl 



flexed in bud, the rudimentary pistil clavate or subglobose. Female flowers: 

 Perianth segments 4, subequal. Ovary at length oblique. Achene oblique, 

 flattened or compressed, seated on the perianth, usually fleshy. (In honor 

 of F. L. de Laporte, a French entomblogist.) 



Species about 50, tropical Asia, Africa, and Australia, a few in North 

 America, 16 in the Philippines, a single one in our area. 



1. L. meyeniana (Walp.) Warb. Lipay, Lipang-calabao (Tag.). 



A dioecious shrub or small tree 3 to 5 m high, with numerous, minute, 

 very irritating, stinging hairs. Leaves ovate to broadly elliptic-ovate, 20 

 to 40 cm long, 10 to 22 cm wide, entire, shortly acuminate, base somewhat 

 cordate, the upper surface green, glabrous, the lower surface paler, rather 

 densely and softly pubescent; petioles 20 cm long or less. Male inflores- 

 cence axillary, paniculate, up to 2(f cm long. Flowers very numerous, 

 crowded in small glomerules on the branches, the perianth-segments about 

 2 mm long, the stamens about 3 mm long, somewhat spirally recurved. 

 Female flowers at the ends of the branchlets of the inflorescence, 8 to 12, 

 flabellately arranged, the individual inflorescences 5 to 7 mm in diameter, 

 greenish. Fruit small, fleshy, pale-violet or white, 5 to 7 mm in diameter. 



In thickets, San Pedro Macati, fl. Aug.-Nov.; widely distributed in Luzon 

 and Mindoro. Endemic. 



One of the worst of our nettle-like plants. The stinging hairs appear 

 to be mostly along the margins of the leaves, and cause very painful blisters; 

 the best remedy seems to be ammonia rubbed on the effected parts. 



3. BOEHMERIA Jacquin 



Shrubs, often with herbaceous branches, or small trees, with opposite or 

 alternate, toothed, 3-nerved leaves, the stipules usually free. Flowers 

 unisexual, in axillary, spiked, racemed, or panicled clusters. Male flowers: 

 Perianth 3- to 5-lobed or parted. Stamens 3 to 6, inflexed in bud. Female 

 flowers: Perianth tubular, 2- to 4-toothed, in fruit sometimes angled, 

 winged, or swollen. Ovary included; stigma slender, persistent. Achene 

 closely surrounded by the perianth, crustaceous, finally free. (In honor 

 of G. R. Boehmer, a German botanist.) 



Species about 50, chiefly tropical, 9 in the Philippines, a single introduced 

 one in our area. 



♦ 1, B. NIVEA (L.) Gaudich. Ramie. 



An erect, branched, monoecious shrub, 1 to 2 m high, the branches and 

 petioles hairy. Leaves all equal, long-petioled, broadly ovate, acuminate, 

 coarsely toothed, the upper surface green, scabrid, with few scattered hairs, 

 the lower surface very white, except the nerves, densely covered with ap- 

 pressed matted white hairs. Flowers small, clustered, the clusters arranged 

 in axillary panicles shorter than the petioles. (Fl. Pilip. pi. S85.) 



Rarely cultivated in Manila, fl. in Nov. and probably in other months; 

 occasional in Luzon and certainly introduced. Probably a natiw of China, 

 now found in many tropical and subtropical countries in cultivation. 



4. FLEURYA Gaudichaud 



Annual erect herbs usually with few or many stinging hairs. Leaves 

 alternate, toothed, 3-nerved. Flowers monoecious or dioecious, clustered, 

 the clusters arranged in cymes or spikes. Male flowers: Sepals 4 or B, 

 ovate-lanceolate. Stamens 4 or 5, inflexed in bud. Rudimentary ovary 



