Pilea
(from pilos, a cap; alluding to the shape of one of the perianth segments). Stingless Nettle. SYNS. Adike, Dubreuilia, ORD. Urticaceae. An extensive genus (about 160 species) of stove, annual or perennial herbs, rarely shrubby at base, sometimes creeping or diffuse, broadly scattered over the tropics, but not found in Australia. Flowers monaecious or diaecious; male perianth of four, rarely two or three, and female of three, segments; cymes solitary in the axils, sometimes densely capituliform, sometimes loosely paniculate-branched, sessile or pedunculate. Leaves opposite, entire or toothed, three-nerved or nerveless. The species are mostly weeds. The one most commonly grown in P. microphylla, which, as well as the others described, is West Indian and Tropical American, and thrives in a compost of loam and leaf mould. Propagated by seeds, by cuttings, or by divisions. P. microphylla (small-leaved).* Artillery or Pistol Plant. fl., cymes sub-sessile, contracted. Summer. l. obovate, quite entire, with a bluntish point, minute. Stem much-branched, herbaceous. h. 6in. 1793. SYN. P. muscosa. P. muscosa (musky). A synonym of P. microphylla.
P. pubescens (downy). fl., cymes corymbiform-paniculate, often 3in. in diameter, long-peduncled. l. large, ovate, pointed or bluntish at the top, coarsely serrate, entire at base, three-nerved, 2in. to 3in. long. Stem herbaceous, with branches 8in. to 12in. long. SYN. Urtica involucrata (B. M. 2481).
P. reticulata (netted). fl., spikes axillary, simple, rarely branched, often leafy at top. l. opposite, rarely alternate, ovate or oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, crenate-serrate, 3in. to 6in. long. Stem 2ft. to 3ft. high, suffrutescent or herbaceous. 1793. SYN. Urtica reticulata. (B. M. 2567.)