602 URTICACEjE cbltis 



URTICA 



pistillate usually solitary, slender-peduncled : calyx-segments linear-oblong, 

 deciduous : drape-* globose and purple or nearly black when mature, some- 

 times orange, 4-5 lines hi diameter. On dry soil, Idaho and eastward. 



C. reticulata Torr. A sbrub or small tree 4-20 feet higb, witb bright 

 brown rough bark, the twigs pubescent: leaves thick, strongly reticulated, 

 rough-glandular above, ovate or narrower, 1-4 inches long, serrate, acute 

 or somewhat acuminate, obliquely cordate at base, on short petioles: stami- 

 nate flowers numerous; pistillate usually solitary, slender-peduncled: 

 calyx-seg - 1 tents ovate-lanceolate or oblong, deciduous: drupe globose 2-3 

 lines long, black when mature. Along streams eastern Oregon to Brit. 

 Columbia and the Rocky Mountains. 



Order LXXXII URTICACE^ Reichenb. Consp. 83. (1820.). 



Herbs, rarely shrubs with watery juice, alternate or opposite 

 mostly stipulate simple leaves and small greenish dioecious, 

 monoecious or polygamous flowers variously clustered. Calyx 

 2-5 cleft or of distinct sepals. Stamens as many as lobes of 

 the calyx or sepals and opposite them, the filaments inflexed and 

 anthers reversed in the bud, straightening at anthesis. Ovary 

 superior, 1-celled: style simple : stigma capitate and penicillate. 

 Ovule solitary, erect or ascending. Fruit an achene. Embryo 

 straight, in oily albumen. 



1 Urtica Herbs with opposite leaves aDd stinging hairs. 



2 Parietaria Herbs with alternate leaves without stinging hairs. 



1 URTICA L. Sp. 983. (Nettles.) 



Herbs with 4-angled sulcate stems, stinging hairs, opposite 

 leaves with distinct lateral stipules and small flowers clustered 

 in axillary geminate racemes, spikes or loose heads without bracts 

 Staminate flowers on jointed pedicels with 4 sepals, 4 stamens and 

 a rudimentary cup-shaped ovary: the pistillate wi'Ji 4 sepals, the 

 4 outer small and spreading, the inner erect, becoming membran- 

 aceous and enclosing the flattened ovate achene. Stigma sessile, 

 capitate, tufted. 



U. holosericea Nutt. PL Gambel. 183. Stems stout, 4-8 feet high, 

 usually simple ashy-scurfy and sparingly armed with stinging bristles : 

 leaves ovate-lanceolate, 2-6 inches long, very coarsely serrate, acuminate 

 green above, whitish beneath with a dense minute pubescence, rounded 

 or subcordate at base, all petioled : stipules membranaceous, 6 lines long, 

 oblong, obtuse or acute : staminate flowers in loose slender diffuse panicles, 

 nearly equalling the leaves : pistillate panicles denser and shorter: inner 

 sepals ovate, densely hispid % line long, about equalling 1 he broadly ovate 

 achene. About springs and along streams in the dry interior regions, 

 Washington to California and Utah. 



U. Breweri Watson Proc. Am. Acad, x, 348. Grayish with a short: 

 somewhat hispid pubescence or nearly glabrous : stem stout, 4-6 feet high, 

 stipules membranaceous, oblong-lanceolate: leaves thin, finely pubescent 

 soon glabra te, or roughish above, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 2-6 inches 

 long, acute or slightly cordate at base, coarsely serrate, on slender petioles, 

 1-3 inches long or more : flowers in short open panicles scarcely exceeding 

 the petioles: sepals obovate or rounded, obtuse, minutely hispid, nearly a 

 line long and nearly twice longer than the broadly ovate achene. Along 

 streams, Southern Oregon to California and Colorado. 



