Part 153 (1/2)

11. BHMeRIA, Jacq. FALSE NETTLE.

Flowers moncious or dicious, cl.u.s.tered; the sterile much as in Urtica; the fertile with a tubular or urn-shaped entire or 2--4-toothed calyx enclosing the ovary. Style elongated awl-shaped, stigmatic and papillose down one side. Achene elliptical, closely invested by the dry and persistent compressed calyx.--No stings. (Named after _G. R. Boehmer_, Professor at Wittenberg in the last century.)

1. B. cylindrica, Willd. Perennial, smoothish or p.u.b.escent and more or less scabrous; stem (1--3 high) simple; leaves chiefly opposite (rarely all alternate), ovate to ovate- or oblong-lanceolate, pointed, serrate, 3-nerved; stipules distinct; petioles short or elongated; flowers dicious, or the two kinds intermixed, the small cl.u.s.ters densely aggregated in simple and elongated axillary spikes, the sterile interrupted, the fertile often continuous, frequently leaf-bearing at the apex.--Moist or shady ground, common. Very variable.

12. PARIETaRIA, Tourn. PELLITORY.

Flowers monciously polygamous; the staminate, pistillate, and perfect intermixed in the same involucrate-bracted cymose axillary cl.u.s.ters; the sterile much as in the last; the fertile with a tubular or bell-shaped 4-lobed and nerved calyx, enclosing the ovary and the ovoid achene.

Style slender or none; stigma pencil-tufted.--Homely, diffuse or tufted herbs, not stinging, with alternate entire 3-ribbed leaves, and no stipules. (The ancient Latin name, because growing on old walls.)

1. P. Pennsylvanica, Muhl. Low, annual, simple or sparingly branched, minutely downy; leaves oblong-lanceolate, thin, veiny, roughish with opaque dots; flowers shorter than the involucre; stigma sessile.--Shaded rocky banks, E. Ma.s.s. and Vt. to Minn., and southward. June--Aug.

ORDER 100. PLATANaCEae. (PLANE-TREE FAMILY.)

_Trees, with watery juice, alternate palmately-lobed leaves, sheathing stipules, and moncious flowers in separate and naked spherical heads, dest.i.tute of calyx or corolla; the fruit merely club-shaped 1-seeded nutlets, furnished with a ring of bristly hairs about the base_; consists only of the following genus (of uncertain relations.h.i.+p).

1. PLaTa.n.u.s, L. SYCAMORE. b.u.t.tONWOOD.

Sterile flowers of numerous stamens, with club-shaped little scales intermixed, filaments very short. Fertile flowers in separate catkins, consisting of inversely pyramidal ovaries mixed with little scales.

Style rather lateral, awl-shaped or thread-like, simple. Nutlets coriaceous, small, tawny-hairy below, containing a single orthotropous pendulous seed. Embryo in the axis of thin alb.u.men.--Large trees, with the bark deciduous in broad thin brittle plates; dilated base of the petiole enclosing the bud of the next season. (The ancient name, from p?at??, _broad_.)

1. P. occidentalis, L. Leaves mostly truncate at base, angularly sinuate-lobed or toothed, the short lobes sharp-pointed; fertile heads solitary, hanging on a long peduncle.--Alluvial banks, S. Maine to N.

Vt., Ont., S. E. Minn., E. Kan., and southward. Our largest tree, often 90--130 high, with a trunk 6--14 in diameter.

ORDER 101. JUGLANDaCEae. (WALNUT FAMILY.)

_Trees, with alternate pinnate leaves, and no stipules; flowers moncious, the sterile in catkins (aments) with an irregular calyx adnate to the bract; the fertile solitary or in a small cl.u.s.ter or spike, with a regular 3--5-lobed calyx adherent to the incompletely 2--4-celled but only 1-ovuled ovary. Fruit a kind of dry drupe, with a crustaceous or bony nut-sh.e.l.l, containing a large 4-lobed orthotropous seed._ Alb.u.men none. Cotyledons fleshy and oily, sinuous or corrugated, 2-lobed; radicle short, superior. Petals sometimes present in the fertile flowers.--A small family of important trees, consisting chiefly of the two following genera.

1. JuGLANS, L. WALNUT.

Sterile flowers in long and simple lateral catkins from the wood of the preceding year; the calyx adherent to the entire bracts or scales, unequally 3--6-cleft. Stamens 12--40; filaments free, very short.

Fertile flowers solitary or several together on a peduncle at the end of the branches, with a 4-toothed calyx, bearing 4 small petals at the sinuses. Styles 2, very short; stigmas 2, somewhat club-shaped and fringed. Fruit with a fibrous-fleshy indehiscent epicarp, and a mostly rough irregularly furrowed endocarp or nut-sh.e.l.l.--Trees, with strong-scented or resinous-aromatic bark, few-scaled or almost naked buds (3 or 4 superposed, and the uppermost far above the axil), odd-pinnate leaves of many serrate leaflets, and the embryo sweet and edible. Pith in plates. (Name contracted from _Jovis glans_, the nut of Jupiter.)

1. J. cinerea, L. (b.u.t.tERNUT. WHITE WALNUT.) Leaflets 5--8 pairs, oblong-lanceolate, pointed, rounded at base, downy, especially beneath, the _petioles and branchlets downy with clammy hairs; fruit oblong, clammy_, pointed, the nut deeply sculptured and rough with ragged ridges, 2-celled at the base.--Rich woods, N. Eng. to the mountains of Ga., west to Minn., E. Kan., and Ark. Tree 50--75 high, with gray bark, widely spreading branches, and lighter brown wood than in the next.

2. J. ngra, L. (BLACK WALNUT.) Leaflets 7--11 pairs, ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed, somewhat heart-shaped or unequal at base, smooth above, the lower surface and the _petioles minutely downy; fruit spherical_, roughly dotted, the nut corrugated, 4-celled at top and bottom.--Rich woods, W. Ma.s.s. and Conn. to Fla., west to Minn., E. Neb., E. Kan., and southward. A large and handsome tree (often 90--150 high), with rough brown bark, and valuable purplish-brown wood turning blackish with age.

2. CaRYA, Nutt. HICKORY.

Sterile flowers in slender lateral and cl.u.s.tered catkins; calyx naked, adherent to the bract, unequally 2--3-parted. Stamens 3--10; filaments short or none, free. Fertile flowers 2--5 in a cl.u.s.ter or short spike, on a peduncle terminating the shoot of the season; calyx 4-toothed; petals none. Stigmas sessile, 2 or 4, large, papillose, persistent.

Fruit with a 4-valved, firm and at length dry exocarp (involucre), falling away from the smooth and crustaceous or bony endocarp or nut-sh.e.l.l, which is incompletely 2-celled, and at the base mostly 4-celled.--Fine timber-trees, with hard and very tough wood, and scaly buds, from which in spring are put forth usually both kinds of flowers, the sterile below and the fertile above the leaves. Nuts ripen and fall in October. (?a??a, an ancient name of the Walnut.)

-- 1. _Sterile catkins fascicled (no common peduncle or sometimes a very short one) from separate lateral scaly buds near the summit of shoots of the preceding year; bud-scales few; fruit elongated-oblong; the thin-sh.e.l.led nut 2-celled below; seed sweet; leaflets short-stalked, numerous._

1. C. olivaeformis, Nutt. (PECAN-NUT.) Minutely downy, becoming nearly smooth; leaflets 13--15, oblong-lanceolate, tapering gradually to a slender point, falcate, serrate; nut olive-shaped.--River bottoms, S.