334 POPULAR FIELD BOTANY. 
I need only mention this piant to recall it to the mind of 
even those who have never thought of making plants a study. 
I will just observe that there are three species. 
Urrica piorca, Great or Common Nettle, which, though 
often a despised plant, and feared for its sting, 1s useful in 
several ways. In Scotland and Ireland the young tops are 
boiled and eaten by the poor, and the root, boiled with 
alum, dyes yarn of a yellow colour, and a kind of hemp is 
made from the fibres. This common plant is furnished with 
a most wonderful contrivance in its sting, which points out 
the perfect works of the Almighty, and ought to fill us with 
feelings of wonder, that so mean a plant as we deem it, 
should thus be furnished with such powerful means of 
defence. The hairs by which the leaves are covered, are of 
the same construction as the sting of the bee, first pene- 
trating the skin, and then infusing a poisonous liquid which 
causes all the tingling and annoyance. ‘The pollen is dis- 
charged from the anthers in jets like smoke, to enable it to 
reach the pistils of the fertile flowers. 
Urtica urEens, Small Nettle, is frequent in waste places, 
has opposite leaves, and the clusters of green flowers more 
simple than the larger species. ‘The most venomous of our 
nettles is the 
