668 CXCII. TJETICE^. 



solitary, erect, sessile or funicled, orthotropous. Feuit dry (achene) or fleshy 

 (drupe), naked or enclosed in or adnate to the sometimes accrescent perianth; 

 achenes compressed, ovoid or spherical, smooth, dotted or tuhereled, sometimes 

 winged or cottony ; drupes ovoid, usually aggregated into heads like the fruit of the 

 Mulberry ; endocarp crustaceous ; sarcocarp thin, sometimes adnate to the perianth. 

 Seed erect, usually free within the endocarp ; testa thin ; chalaza broad, brownish ; 

 albumen fleshy and oily, ra.rely abundant, very rarely {HJlatostemma). Embeto 

 straight, axile, antitropous ; cotyledons fleshy, oval or sub-orbicular, plano-convex ; 

 radicle cylindric or conical, superior. 



[The following is Weddell's classification of Urticece in De CandoUe's ' Pro- 

 dromus ' : — 



Teibe I. TJEEEBiE. — Clothed with stinging hairs. Leaves decussately opposite, or spirally 

 alternate. Perianth of ^ 4-partite or -lobed, free, rarely 2-lobed or tubular. Urtica, Obetia, 

 Flenrya, Laportea, Urera, Cfirardinia, &c. 



Tribe II. PEOCEiDEiE.- — Unarmed. _Leaves opposite, or alternate by arrest and often 

 distichous. Perianth of $ free, 3- rarely 4-partite. Stigma penioillate. *PUea, Pellionia, 

 JSlatostenvma, Procris, &c. 



Teibe III. Bcehmeeiij;. — Unarmed. Leaves opposite or alternate. Perianth of ? free or 

 adnate, usually tubular, rarely short or 0. *Ecehmeria, Pouzolzia, Memorialis, Pipturus, Ville- 

 hrtmea, Maoutia, Phenax, &c. 



Teibe IV. PAEiETAEiEa;. — Unarmed. Leaves alternate, quite entire. Flowers unisexual 

 or polygamous ; ? inflorescence involucrate. Perianth tubular, free. Parietarla, Ke/mistylis, &c. 



Teibe V. FoESKOHLiEa!. — Unarmed or prickly. Leaves alternate or opposite. Flowers 

 ynisexual, often involucrate. Perianth of ? tubular or 0. ForsJcohlea, Drog2ietia, Australina, 

 &c.— Ed.] 



UrticecB are so closely allied to More<e, Ulmacecs, Celtidece, and Cannabinece that all botanists place 

 these families in one same class (CJeticine^, ^tom^k.), with the following common characters: apetalism, 

 isostemony, stamens opposite the sepals, 1-celled and 1-ovuled ovary, usually orthotropous or campylo- 

 tropous ovule, albumen fleshy or 0, and radicle superior. 



We have indicated the analogies of Urticea with Cynoeramhecs, PiperacecB, Sam-urea, Ceratopliyllea 

 (see these families). Weddell, in his monograph of Urticea, has compared them with Tiliacece, chiefly 

 on account of the tenacity of the liher-bundles of the bark, the stipules, definite inflorescence, valvate 

 sestivation, 2-lobed anthers, smooth pollen, &c., whence he regards Urticece as a degradation from the type 

 of Malvacea;, through Tiliacece. 



Urticece are mainly tropical ; Europe is of all parts of the world the poorest in species ; but, as 

 Weddell observes, what it loses in variety and number of species is partly compensated for by the 

 multitude of individuals, so that there is perhaps no exaggeration in saying that the five or six species of 

 Nettles and Pellitories which swarm aromid our habitations cover nearly as much ground as the numerous 

 species scattered through equatorial regions. Urtica is represented in many parts of the globe, but is 

 confined to temperate and cold regions. 



E.\cept Urtica and Parietaria, all the genera (about thirty-six) are essentially tropical or sub-tropical, 

 and it is very exceptionally that a few of their species have wandered into the extratropical regions of 

 one or other hemisphere, as JBcehmeria, Elatostemma, Pilea, Laportea, &c. America possesses a third of 

 the known species, Asia and Malacca another third, the Pacific Islands and Africa another, from which a 

 dozen species inhabiting Europe must be deducted. 



The medicinal properties of Urticece are confined to the Pellitories {Parietaria) and some species of 

 Nettle. Parietaria diffusa and erecta contain Nitre, whence their use as a diuretic and in external appli- 



