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URTICA DIOICA. ORD. XLI. Scabride. 709 
centre of the flower: the filaments are four, tapering, of the length 
of the calyx, and furnished with two-celled anthere: the calyx 
of the female flower is composed of two valves, which are egg- 
shaped, concave, erect, and permanent: there is no corolla: the 
germen is oval, without a style, but supplied with a woolly stigma: 
the seed is single, compressed, blunt, shining. It is very common 
old walls, sides of roads, and ditch banks, flowering in July. 
The Urtica* is well known; and though generally despised as a 
noxious weed, has been long used not only for medical but for 
pine and pis Parnes. As a ARES it was formerly 
whieh: it id csceaitalige r ed. mie 7 
diuretic character, and to be useful in i clous ‘Complaints, 
scurvy, gout, jaundice, &c. But these accounts have little credit, 
and the nettle is now considered as a simple oleraceous plant, and 
when ts is to be a good substitute for greens, or other 
pot-n 
The et hairs® upon ihe fresh leaves of nettles readily enter 
_ the skin, and thereby produce considerable irritation and inflam- 
* “ Urtica, ab nar a dicta, quod pruritum & pustulas igni similes excitet.” 
» Bauh, Pin. — 
= ‘The pee skootaysisi” the spring, are ais Nelo and eaten by the commoa 
people “instead of cabbage-greens. Lightf.¢.c. The stalks may be dressed like 
flax or hemp for making ropes, nets, cloth, papgr, &c. a practice not uncommon 
in some parts of Russia and Siberia. Vide Falk, wate sur topogr. Kenntniss 
des Russ. Reichs, vol. 2. p. 254. Wet. Acad. Handl. 1747. p. 59. Petersb. 
Journ. 1778. p. 370. and others. The Nettle is said “A be poisonous to frogs; 
for if the plant be thrown into a vessel where these animals are confined, they soon 
begin to swell, and in a few days perish. Vide Hagstriém Soar om Biskotsel, p. 150. 
© The stings are very curious microscopic objects: they consist of an exceedingly 
fine pointed tapering hollow substance, with a perforation at the point, and a bag 
at the base. When the sting is pressed upon, it readily punctures the skin, and: 
the same pressure forces up from the bag an acrimonious fluid, which instantly 
enters into the wound, and excites a burning inflammation. See Hooke, Discoverzes 
by the Tae p. 22. tab. 12, Guettard, Mem. de EP’ Acad. de Sc. de Paris, 
1751. p. 350. 
No. 53. A, <i Sr 
