Myriocarpa
(from myrios, myriad, and karpos, fruit; alluding to the numerous fruits). ORD. Urticaceae. A genus embracing six species of stove shrubs or small trees, inhabiting tropical America, from Brazil to Mexico. Flowers dioecious, rarely monoecious, scattered at the sides of the filiform branches of the rachis, the males often sessile and densely clustered, the females looser, sessile or pedicellate, often very numerous; spikes or racemes solitary or somewhat fascicled at the axils or nodes, often branched. Leaves alternate, usually ample, petiolate, toothed, penniveined and about three-nerved. Two species are known in gardens. Where room can be spared, they will make a bold and effective appearance. They thrive in good, well-drained loam, and may be propagated by cuttings of the young wood. M. colipensis (Colipa). fl., female inflorescence consisting of pendulous, forked spikes, 1 1/2ft. to 2ft. long, densely covered with small, flask-shaped ovaries. l. 1 1/4ft. to 1 1/2ft. long, 11in. broad, elliptic, acute, rounded at base, crenate on the margins, clothed with rigid hairs, adpressedly pubescent beneath; petioles 10in. to 12in. long. Mexico, 1887. A shrub or small tree.
M. stipitata (stalked). fl., females more or less clustered; males sub-sessile, glomerulate; primary branches of the inflorescence short, the ultimate ones sometimes shorter than the leaves. l. ovate-or obovate-elliptic, or rarely elliptic-lanceolate, 4in. to 7in. long, shortly acuminate at apex, rounded or obtuse, very rarely sub-cordate at base, unequally serrate-denticulate or crenulate. Mexico, Venezuela, &c. A shrub or small tree.