6. MACLÙRA, Nutt. Osage Orange. Bois d'Arc.
Flowers diœcious; the staminate in loose short racemes, with 4-parted calyx, and 4 stamens inflexed in the bud; the pistillate in a dense globose head, with a 4-cleft calyx enclosing the ovary. Style filiform, long-exserted; ovule pendulous. Fruit an achene, buried in the greatly enlarged fleshy calyx. Albumen none. Embryo recurved.—Trees with milky juice, alternate entire pinnately veined leaves, caducous stipules, axillary peduncles, and stout axillary spines. (Named for the early American geologist, William Maclure.)
1. M. aurantìaca, Nutt. A tree 30–50° high; leaves ovate to oblong-lanceolate, pointed, mostly rounded at base, green and shining; syncarp globose, yellowish green, 2–3´ in diameter.—E. Kan. and Mo. to N. Tex.; extensively used for hedges. Wood bright orange.
7. MÒRUS, Tourn. Mulberry.
Flowers monœcious or diœcious; the two kinds in separate axillary and catkin-like spikes. Calyx 4-parted; lobes ovate. Stamens 4; filaments elastically expanding. Ovary 2-celled, one of the cells smaller and disappearing; styles 2, thread-form, stigmatic down the inside. Achene ovate, compressed, covered by the succulent berry-like calyx, the whole spike thus becoming a thickened oblong and juicy (edible) aggregate fruit.—Trees with milky juice and broad leaves; sterile spikes rather slender. (The classical Latin name.)
1. M. rùbra, L. (Red Mulberry.) Leaves heart-ovate, serrate, rough above, downy beneath, pointed (on young shoots often lobed); flowers frequently diœcious; fruit dark purple, long.—Rich woods, W. New Eng. to S. Ont., Dak., E. Kan., and southward. May.—Large tree, ripening its blackberry-like fruit in July.
M. álba, L. (White Mulberry.) Leaves obliquely heart-ovate, acute, serrate, sometimes lobed, smooth and shining; fruit whitish.—Spontaneous near houses. (Adv. from Eu.)
8. URTÌCA, Tourn. Nettle.
Flowers monœcious, or rarely diœcious, clustered, the clusters mostly in racemes, spikes, or loose heads. Ster. Fl. Sepals 4. Stamens 4, inserted around the cup-shaped rudiment of a pistil. Fert. Fl. Sepals 4, in pairs; the 2 outer smaller and spreading; the 2 inner flat or concave, in fruit membranaceous and enclosing the straight and erect ovate flattened achene. Stigma sessile, capitate and pencil-tufted.—Herbs, armed with stinging hairs. Leaves opposite; stipules in our species distinct. Flowers greenish; in summer. (The classical Latin name; from uro, to burn.)
[*] Perennials; flower-clusters in branching panicled spikes, often diœcious.