DICOTYLEDONES— MONOCHLAMYDE^ 251 



Tourn. ; Parietaria, Tourn. The order contains more than 300 

 species. 



Properties and Uses. — Chiefly remarkable for yielding valu- 

 able fibres, and for the acrid stinging juice contained in their 

 glands. 



Order 33. Moraoe^, the Mulberry Order. — Character. — 

 Trees or shrubs with a milky juice. Leaves with large stipules. 

 Flowers unisexual, in heads, spikes, or catkins. Male flowers 

 with a 8 — 4-partite calyx, or achlamydeous. 8ta/>nens 3 — 4, 

 perigynous, and opposite the segments of the calyx ; anthers 

 usually inflexed. Female flowers with 3—5 sepals. Ovary 

 superior 1 — 2-celled. Fruit a sorosis or syconus. Seed solitary, 

 pendulous ; etribryo hooked in fleshy albumen, and with a supe- 

 rior radicle. 



Distribution amd Numbers. — They are natives of both hemi- 

 spheres, and occur in temperate 



and tropical climates. Illustra- Fia. 1008. Pm. 1009. 



tive Genera : — Morus, Tourn. ; 

 Dorstenia, Plum. There are 

 over 200 species. 



Properties a/nd Uses. — The 

 milky juice of some species pos- 

 sesses acrid and poisonous pro- 

 perties, while in others it is 

 bland, and may be taken as a ^tg, ioo8. Male flower of tlie Black 



bfivprnm Ernm thp milkv iniee Mulberry (^Morus nigra). Fvj. 



Deverage. r rom me miuiy j uii,t; 1009. Vertical section of the ovary 



of some caoutchouc or India- of the female flower of tbe same. 



rubber is obtained. The inner 



bark of other species supplies fibres. Some possess stimulant, 



sudorific, tonic, or astringent properties. Many yield edible 



fruits, while the seeds generally of the plants of this order are 



wholesome. 



Order Z4l. Cannabinaoe^, the Hemp Order. — Character. 

 — Bough herbs, erect or twining, with a watery juice. Leaves 

 opposite or alternate, simple or compound, stipulate, often 

 glandular. Flowers small, unisexual, dioecious. Male flowers 

 in racemes or panicles. Calyx scaly, imbricate. Sta/mens 5, op- 

 posite the sepals ; filaments filiform. Female flowers in spikes 

 or strobiles, each flower with 1 sepal surrounding the ovary, 

 which is superior and 1-ceUed, and containing a solitary pen- 

 dulous campy lotropous ovule. Fruit dry, indehisoent. Seed 

 solitary, pendulous, without albumen ; embryo curved or spirally 

 coiled, with a superior radicle. 



