196 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



true Nettle (L. gigas) of Australia. This obtains a height 

 of fifty to one hundred and thirty feet, and the sting 

 produces dangerous results. 



12. Lauracese, The Laurel family includes aromatic 

 trees and shrubs, and a few parasitic herbs, in all about 

 one thousand species. The pendulous seed has no endo- 

 sperm. The Bay, or Laurel, of Europe is an evergreen 

 tree forty to fifty feet high. The leaves were formerly 

 used to crown heroes. They are now used in flavoring 

 custards, puddings, figs packed in boxes, etc. Other 

 important products furnished by representatives of this 

 family are Cinnamon, the bark of Ginnamomum, Zeylanicum 

 of Ceylon ; Cassia bark and Cassia buds, from C. Cassia 

 of Ceylon ; Camphor, from C. camphora of China and 

 Japan ; Sassafras bark, from the Sassafras officinale of the 

 United States. The Greenheart-tree of Guiana {Nectandra 

 Modiei) furnishes a dark, heavy, and durable timber, used 

 in naval construction. 



13. Myristicaceae. Nutmeg family. These plants 

 are aromatic trees, with monadelphous stamens ; there are 

 seventy-five species, all tropical, and belonging to the genus 

 Myristica. The most important representative is the Nut- 

 meg-tree of the Malay Archipelago {M. fragrans), twenty 

 to thirty feet high, and whose fruit, or seed, deprived of 

 its integuments, is the nutmeg of commerce. The reddish 

 branching aril (a fleshy growth outside of the integuments) 

 when dry constitutes the mace of conmierce. 



14. Chenopodiaceae. The Goosefoot family con- 

 sists of about five hundred herbs, shrubs, or, sometimes, 

 trees, whose flowers have an herbaceous perianth and one 

 seed. The most important representatives are the common 

 Beet {Beta vulgaris), Sugar-Beet, and Mangel Wurzel, 



