296 NETTLE FAMILY. 



seeds, from which castor-oil is expressed, and in ornamental grounds for its 

 magnificent foliage ; the peltate and palmately 7 - U-cleft leaves 1° - 2° broad, 

 or even more : fl. late summer. 



5. JATROPHA. (Derivation of name obscure.) Chiefly tropical plants ; 

 one is a weedy plant wild S., viz. 



J. tirens, var. stimuldsa (or J. STiMULdsA), Tread-Softly or Spurge- 

 Nettle, names referring to its stinging bristly hairs, which are like those of 

 Nettles : dry sandy soil, branching, 6' - 12' high ; leaves rounded heart-shaped, 

 3 - 5-lobed or variously cleft or parted ; flowers slender, white ; stamens 10, 

 their filaments almost separate, y. 



6. BUXUS, BOX. (Ancient Latin, from the Greek name of the Box-tree.) 



B. semp6rFirenS, Tree Box, and its more common var. n^na, the 

 Dwarf Box, with much smaller leaves, from the Mediterranean, are planted 

 North chiefly for borders, especially the Dwarf Box. 



7. PACHYSANDKA. (The name in Greek means thick stamens.) % 

 P. procTimbeilS. Eocky woods, W. slope of the Alleghanies, and in some 



gardens ; developing its copious spikes from the base of the short procumbent 

 densely tufted stems, in early spring. 



103. URTICACE^, NETTLE FAMILY. 



This family, taken in the largest sense, includes very various 

 apetalous plants, with monoecious or dioecious flowers (except in 

 the Elm Family), having a distinct calyx free from the 1 -seeded 

 fruit. Inner bark generally tough. Leaves with stipules, which 

 are sometimes early deciduous. There are four suborders. 



I. ELM FAMILY. Trees, the juice not milky. Leaves 

 alternate, 2-ranked, simple : stipules small and falling early. 

 Flowers monoeciously polygamous, many of them perfect, with 

 the filaments not inflexed in the bud, and 2 diverging styles or 

 long stigmas. Ovary 1 - 2-celled, with 1 or 2 hanging ovules, 

 in fruit always 1-celled and 1-seeded. 



* Fruit dry, winged ornut-lihe. Anthers turned outwards. 



1. ULJIUS. Calyx bell-shaped, 4-9-cleft. Stamens 4-9: filaments long and 



slender. Ovaiy mostly 2-celled, becoming a 1-celled thin samara or key- 

 fruit winged all round (Lessons, p. 131, fig. 301). Flowers in clusters in 

 axils of last year's .leaves, in early spring, before the leaves of the season, 

 purplish or yellowish-green. Leaves straiglit-veined, serrate. 



2. PLANERA. Like Elm, but flowers more polygamous, appearing with the 



leaves in small axillary clusters ; the lobes of the calyx and stamens only 4 

 or 5 ; the l-ceUed 1-ovuled ovary forming a wingless nut-like fruit. 

 * * Final a herry-like ghlmlar small drupe. Anthers turned inward. 



3. CELTIS. Calyx 5 - 6-parted, persistent. Stamens 5 or 6. Stigmas very long, 



tapering. Ovary and drupe 1-celled, 1-seeded. Flowers greenish, in the 

 axils of the leaves ; the lower ones mostly staminate and clustered, the upper 

 fertile and mostly solitary on a slender peduncle. 



II. FIG FAMILY. Trees with milky or colored acrid or 

 poisonous juice. Leaves alternate. Flowers strictly monoecious or 

 dioecious. Styles or stigmas commonly 2. 



§ 1. Flowers of both kinds mixed, lininij the inside of a closed fleshy receptacle, or 

 hollow flower-stalk, which ripens into what seems to be a sort of berry, 

 i. FICUS. Receptacle in which the flowers are concealed bonie in the axil of 

 the leaves. Akene seed-like. Stipules large, successively enveloping the 

 young leaves In the bud, fallinc off as the Iswfsa '^.y-V'^.Tsd- 



