522 MONOECIA TETRAXDRIA 



Order 4. Tetranclria. 



419. BOEHMERIA. Willd. JSTutt. Gen. 740. 

 [Named after George Rudolph lioehmer ; a German Botanist. ] 



Stamixate Fl. Perianth 4-parted ; segments lanceolate, acute. 

 Pistillate Fl. Perianth ; but a cluster of ovate acuminate scale*, 

 with a compressed ovary within each scale ; style 1, filiform. Nut 

 compressed, ovate, margined. 



Herbaceous, or frutcscent : leaves opposite, or alternate, stipular ; flowers clus- 

 tered. Nat. Ord. 7S. Li ndl. URTICBJB. 



1. B. ctlindrica, Willd. Herbaceous ; leaves opposite, lance-ovate, 



acuminate, dentate, smoothish, on long petioles ; flowers in simple 



axillary spikes, often dioicous; staminate spikes interrupted, pistillate 



ones mostly continuous, cylindrical. Beck, Bot. p. 31G. 



Urtica cylindrica. Mx. Jim. 2. /;. 179. 



Mso y U. procera. Florul. Cestr. p. 100. Not of Willd. &c. 



Cylindrical Boehmeria. Vulgo — False Nettle. 



Root perennial. Stem 18 inches to 3 feet high, mostly simple, obtusely l-ansled, 

 with a groove on each sroe, smoothish, or slightly pilose. Leaves mostly opposite, 

 2 or 3 to 5 or 6 inches long, and an inch and half to 3 inches wide, varying from 

 ovate to elliptic, or oblong-ovate, acuminate, coarsely serrate-dentate, 3-nervtd, 

 smoothish, or sparingly pilose, ciliate-pubescent on the margin; petioles 1 to 3 

 inches long, slender, nerved, somewhat pubescent, with lance-subulate stipules at 

 ba9e. Flowers small, greenish, in clusters, on simple axillary spikes 1 to 2 or 3 

 inches in length, often dioicous, and usually with 2 or 3 small leaves at the summit 

 of the spikes. Staminate spikes slender, and generally longer than the fertile 

 ones, interrupted or with the (lords in small distant bracteate clusters ; pistillate 

 spikes shorter and thicker, continuous or with the clusters crowded so as to cover 

 the rachifl ;— where the spikes contain both staminate and pistillate florets, thej 

 are somewhat Interrupted. Fruit compressed, ovate, with a thick pubescent 

 margin, aud acuminate with the pubescent style. 



Ilab. Moist thl^ets ; along streams : frequent. Fl* July— Aug. Fr. Sept. 



Obs. The plant enumerated in my Catalogue, as B. lateriflora, I believe is not 

 distinct from this. The species, of that name, is the only additional one known 

 in the U. States,-and I have not yet met with it in Chester County. The Urtica 

 procera, of my Catalogue, I also find to be nothing but the present species of 

 Boehmeria. 



420. URTICA. I. M lU . Gen. 741. 

 [Latin, ttro, to burn, and tactus, the toucfc; from the sensation it produces.] 



Flowers sometimes dioicous. Stamiwatr Fl. Perianth single, of 

 4 roundish obtuse leaves, with the cup-shaped rudiment of a pistil in 

 the centre. Pistillate Fl. Perianth mostly of 2 persistent leaves. 

 Stigma Yillose. J\fat compressed, orbicular-ovate, shining. 



Herbaceous, or fnttescent : often pungenlly pilose; leaves opposite, or alter- 

 nate, stipular ; flowers axillary, or subterminal, in spikes, clusters, or loose cy- 

 mose and paniculate racemes, AM. Ord. 78, Lindl. UaiiCM. 



