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Urticaceae 27 
MORUS MULBERRY 
Shrubs or trees; juice milky. Leaves alternate, dentate, often lobed, 3-veined from 
the base; stipules fugacious. Flowers in ament-like spikes, small, monoicous or dioicous. 
Perianth of staminate flowers 4-parted; segments somewhat imbricated: stamens 4. 
Perianth of pistillate flowers 4-parted, persistent, becoming fleshy in fruit, enclosing the 
ripe ovary: ovary sessile; stigmas 2, linear, spreading. Fruit an aggregate, blackberry- 
like (ours), comprising the whole pistillate spike; each fruitlet with an outer fleshy part 
and an inner stone-like part. Planted but somewhat escaped. (The Latin name.) E. 
M. rubra L. (Red Mulberry) 
HUMULUS HOP 
Herbaceous vines, rough, twining, periennial; juice watery. Leaves opposite, 
thin, palmately veined, serrate, 3—7-lobed or not lobed; stipules persistent, lanceolate, 
membranous. Flowers dioicous. Staminate flowers in loose axillary clusters: perianth 
d-parted; segments imbricate: stamens 5.  Pistillate flowers in drooping ament-like 
spikes, 2 in the axil of each ament-bract: perianth membranous, entire, clasping the 
ovary: stigmas 2, filiform, caducous. Fruit cone-like; bracts persistent, subtending the 
flat ovate akenes. Cultivated -but much escaped. (Diminutive of L. humus—the 
ground; because prostrate in the absence of support.) W. E. 
EH. lupulus L. (Cultivated Hop) 
URTICACEAE Nettle Family 
Herbs (ours) or shrubs or trees; juice watery. Leaves alternate or opposite, 
simple; pinnately veined but sometimes with several chief veins from the base (so in 
ours); stipules present or none; petioles present (ours). Flowers monoicous or dioicous 
or polygamous, small, greenish, variously arranged but the clusters axillary. Perianth 
2—5-cleft or -parted, or of 2—5 distinct segments; segments similar. Stamens as many 
as the segments or lobes of the perianth, opposite them. Ovary superior, |-celled; style 1; 
stigma capitate and brush-like or filiform. Fruit an akene. Seed |. 
A. Perennial; herbage with stinging hairs; leaves opposite, coarsely serrulate; stipules 
present; flowers not involucrate. UrtTIcA (p. 127) 
AA. Annual; herbage without stinging hairs; leaves alternate, entire; stipules none; 
flowers involucrate by leafy bracts. PARIETARIA (p. 128) 
URTICA NETTLE 
Herbs, annual or perennial (ours); hairs stinging. Stems 4-angled,  sulcate. 
Leaves opposite, coarsely serrate (ours), 3—-7-veined from the base; stipules present. 
Flowers small; clusters paired, racemes or spikes or heads, bractless. Staminate flowers 
on jointed pedicels: perianth 4-parted: stamens 4: redimentary cup-shaped ovary pres- 
ent. Perianth of the pistillate flowers 4-parted, the 2 outer parts smaller than the 2 
inner: stigma sessile or nearly so. Fruit ovate or oblong, flat, enclosed by the inner 
perianth. (lL. urere—to burn; referring to the sensation produced by the stinging hairs.) 
A. Leaves soft-pubescent on both sides; staminate flower clusters nearly equaling the 
leaves. E. U. holosericea, Nutt. (Hairy Nettle) 
AA. Leaves glabrous above or nearly so, sparsely pubescent beneath; staminate flow- 
er clusters hardly exceeding the petiole. 
