352 PLINX'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXI, 



worst, the stem of it even possessing that property ; the leaves 

 of the nettle are indented at the edge. There is one kind 

 also, which emits a smell, known as the Herculanean" nettle. 

 The seed of all the nettles is copious, and black. It is a sin- 

 gular fact that, though possessed of no spinous points, the 

 down^^ of the nettle is of a noxious nature, and that, though 

 ever so lightly touched, it will immediately produce an itch- 

 ing sensation, and raise a blister on the flesh similar in ap- 

 pearance to a burn : the well-known remedy for it is olive oil. 

 The stinging property of the nettle does not belong to the 

 plant at the earliest period of its growth, but only developes 

 itself under the influence of the sun. The plant first begins 

 to grow in the spring, at which period it is by no means a 

 disagreeable food ;*^ indeed, it has become quite a religious ob- 

 servance to employ it as such, under the impression that it is 

 a preventive from diseases the whole year through. The root, 

 too, of the wild nettle, has the effect of rendering all meat 

 more tender that is boiled with it.^° The kind that is innoxious 

 and destitute of all stinging properties, is known as the *' la- 

 mium." ^^ Of the scorpio^^ we shall have occasion to speak 

 when treating of the medicinal plants. 



tlie exception of the Urtica pilifera, which has the most stinging proper- 

 ties of all those found in Europe, and the leaves of whicli are the most 

 deeply indented. 



°^ This has not been identified. They are all of them cither inodorous, 

 or else possessed of a faint, disagreeable smell. 



^^ Tliis "lanugo," or down, as he calls it, consists of a fine elongated 

 tube of cellular tissue, seated upon a gland of similar tissue. In this 

 gland a poisonous fluid is secreted, and when any pressure is made upon 

 the gland, the fluid passes upwards in the tube. The nettle of the E:ist, 

 known as the Devil's Leaf, is of so poisonous a quality as to produce 

 death. 



59 In some parts of the north of England and of Scotland the young 

 plant of the Urtica dioica is eaten as greens, and is far from a disagreeable 

 dish, strongly rtserabling spinach. It is also reckoned a very wliolesome 

 diet, and is taken habitually in the spring, under the impression that it 

 purifies the blood. This notion, we see from the context, is as old as the 

 time of the llomans. 



60 Dalecliamps speaks of it as tlie custom in his time to wrap up fish 

 and game in nettles, under the impression that they would keep tlie longer 

 for it. 



61 The dead nettle, or blind nettle. See B. sxii. c. 16. 

 ^' See P.. xxii. c. 17. 



