397 
meats are four, tapering, of the length of the calyx, and furnifhed 
with two-celled antheras : the calyx of the female flower is compofed 
ef two valves, which are egg-ihaped, concave, .erect, and permanent: 
there is no corolla : the germen is oval, without a ftyle, but fupplied 
with a woolly ftigma : the feed is fmgle, compreffed, blunt, fhining. 
It is very common about old walls, fides of roads, and ditch banks, 
flowering m July. 
The Urtica a is well known ; and though generally defpifed as a 
noxious weed, has been long ufed not only for -medical but for culi- 
nary and (Economical purpofes. As a ftyptic.it was formerly much 
ufed ; and we are told of various hemorrhagic affections in which it 
was fuccefsfully employed. It is alfo faid to manifeft a diuretic cha- 
racter, and to be ufeful in calculous complaints, fcurvy, gout, jaundice, 
&c. But thefe accounts have litth credit, and the nettle is now con 
fidered as a fimple oleraceous plant, and when young is found to h 
a good fubflitute for greens, or other pot-herbs. 
The fharp hairs c upon the frefh leaves of nettles readily enter the 
{kin, and thereby produce confiderable irritation and inflammation, 
and therefore have been employed in the way of a rubifacient, a 
practice which is termed urtication, and found of advantage in re- 
acc Urtica, ab urendo di&a, quod pruritum & puftuias igtii fimiles excitet." Bauh. Pin. 
b « The young moots, in the fpring, are boiled and eaten by the common people 
inftead of cabbage-greens. Light/. I, c. The ftalks may be dreffed like flax or hemp 
for making ropes, nets, cloth, paper, &c. a practice not uncommon in fome parts of 
Ruffia and Siberia. Vide Falk, Beytr'dge %ur topogr. Kenntnifs des Rujf, Reich s^ vol. 2. 
/>. 254. Vet, Acad, Handl. 1747. p. 59. Peterjb. Journ. 1778. p. 370. and others. 
The Nettle is faid to be poifonous to frogs ; for if the plant be thrown into a vefTel where 
Hagftrom Svar om Bifkotfel^ p 
fvvell, and in a few days perifh. V 
<<* 
The flings are very curious microfcopic objects : they confift of an exceedingly fin 
pointed taperin 
When th 
g 
ftmg is preffed upon, it readily punftures the (kin, and the fame preffiire forces 
up from the bag an acrimonious fluid, which inftantiy enters into the wound, and 
excites a burning inflammation. See Hooke, Difcoveries by the microfcepe, p. 22. tab, 12. 
Ixuettard, Mem. de U Acad, de Sc. de Paris, 1751. p. 350. . 
No. 
3° 
I 
florin 
