THE NETTLE FAMILY 
[ORDER LXXI. URTICACEjE] 
PERIANTH of 3, 4, or 6 lobes, sometimes 
reduced to scales in the female flowers, 
inserted below the seedcase (inferior). 
STAMENS usually the same number as and 
opposite to the perianth-lobes, rarely more 
or fewer, inserted at the base of the 
perianth, absent in the flowers that have 
pistils (female). The filaments are an 
interesting feature ; in several genera they 
are coiled in bud and open elastically 
with a jerk when the pollen is ripe and 
so disperse the grains of pollen in a 
cloud. 
PISTIL of i or 2 CARPELS forming a 
i- or 2-celled seedcase with the same 
number of styles and stigmas, or absent in 
the flowers that have stamens (male). 
FRUIT dry, I -seeded, decaying to free the 
seed (indehiscent). 
FLOWERS small, green, usually imperfect, 
those without pistils (male) on one plant 
and those without stamens (female) on 
another (dioecious), or both on the same 
plant (monoecious). 
LEAVES usually rough or hairy, the hairs 
sometimes stinging, and with stipules. 
DISTINGUISHED from the Spurge tribe 
by the I -celled, I -seeded fruit, and from the 
Persicaria and Goose-foot tribes by the 
often imperfect flowers. 
T HIS order has, as a rule, inconspicuous flowers which are massed together in clusters. The 
staminate flowers have a large amount of dry pollen which is often dispersed either elastically 
or by the wind, and is caught on large, brush-like stigmas. There are always stipules at the base 
of the leaves. 
The Nettle Family is a large one, and inhabits temperate and tropical countries. In the 
British Isles it is poorly represented by the Wych and Common Elm, the Hop, Nettles, and Wall 
Pellitory. It thrives best in the tropics, where it includes herbs, shrubs, and forest trees of 
considerable value and beauty. Some species have a milky juice, useful in various ways, and 
others have delicious fruits. 
Among those cultivated in the British Isles are the Mulberry and Fig. The Mulberry 
(Morus nigra), which is a native of Asia, is a very interesting tree on account of its curious fruit. 
The female flowers are collected into heads, and each flower is enclosed in an unnoticeable 4-lobed 
perianth, which becomes swollen and fleshy as the true fruit ripens inside, and it is this fleshy 
perianth which forms the juicy fruit once such a favourite in our gardens. The Fig (Ficus) has 
another unusual fruit. The so-called fruit of the Fig is, in reality, a fleshy receptacle inside which 
are the flowers and eventually the seed-like fruits : this fleshy receptacle is urn- or pear-shaped, 
with a very small aperture at the apex which is protected by scales ; on the inside is placed a whole 
collection of small male and female, or only female, flowers, which almost fill the cavity, and which, 
whether fertilised or not, develop with the receptacle into a sweet juicy fruit. The Fig furnishes a 
most interesting example of wasp fertilisation ; about 50 species of small wasps lay their eggs in 
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