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Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves alternate, petiolate, quite entire, 3-nerved; stipules wanting. Flowers polygamous, in axillary cymes or glomerules, sessile, bracteate. Male flowers (often hermaphrodite): Perianth deeply 3–4-partite; segments valvate. Stamens 3–4, inflexed in bud. Female flowers: Perianth tubular at the base, 3–4-lobed. Ovary free within the perianth; stigma recurved, penicillate; ovule solitary, erect. Achene enclosed in the variously enlarged persistent perianth, crustaceous. Seed albuminous; cotyledons oblong or ovate.

1. P. debilis, Forst. Prodr. n. 387.—A slender flaccid more or less pubescent diffusely branched annual herb 6–18 in. high. Leaves on long slender petioles; blade ½–1½ in. long, broadly ovate or ovate-cordate, obtuse or obtusely acuminate, thin and membranous, quite entire, green on both surfaces, 3-nerved from the base. Cymes 3–7-flowered, almost contracted into sessile clusters; bracts linear, shortly united at the base. Hermaphrodite (or male) flowers usually in the fork of the cyme; perianth almost unchanged in fruit. Female flowers lateral; perianth evidently enlarged in fruit. Achene very minute, dark-brown, quite smooth.—''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 354; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 226; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 252; Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vi. 188. Urtica debilis, ''Endl. Prodr. Fl. Norfolk. 37; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 334; Raoul, Choix,'' 42.

Diffuse or creeping annual or perennial herbs. Leaves alternate, petiolate, crenate-toothed or almost entire; stipules lateral, free. Flowers monœcious, in few-flowered axillary glomerules; glomerules unisexual or androgynous. Male flowers: 1–5 together at the summit of a common peduncle. Perianth irregularly bilabiate, the outer lip inflexed in bud. Stamen solitary. Rudimentary ovary wanting. Female flowers solitary or few together, sessile. Perianth ovoid-tubular, mouth contracted and obscurely toothed. Ovary free within the perianth; stigma linear, villous; ovule erect from the base. Achene enclosed in the persistent perianth; pericarp thin, shining. Seed with scanty albumen; cotyledons ovate.