APETAL/ 179 
A hedgerow is the favourite habitat of the Nettle. 
It lines most of the ditches of our roads and high- 
ways. Fields, whether meadow or pasture, are also 
a sure place in which to find it, along the hedgerow 
or in the ditch. As it likes open, broken ground, it 
is to be found where a manure heap has been made 
or in the garden. It cannot compete with grass. 
It is thus also fond of the more open conditions in a 
wood, loving the shade as a rule. 
The roots are yellow, fibrous and strong, being used 
like hemp. They frequently interlace. The stems 
are more or less erect, numerous, slightly branched, 
quadrangular, sulcate, with rigid stinging hairs arising 
from a tubercle with poison at the base. The leaves 
are cordate, ovate, serrate, opposite, stalked, deeply 
veined, and with hairs on both surfaces. 
The plants are dicecious in axillary spikes; the 
panicles lax in the male flowers, dense and recurved 
in the female. 
The calyx encloses the fruit directly, which is 
single, ovate, shining white. 
The Nettle reaches the height of 2 to 4 ft. 
Flowers are to be found between July and September, 
but often earlier. 
The stamens explode on the opening of the flower, 
scattering the pollen, which is dispersed by the wind. 
The stamens are bent down inwards in bud. 
The fruit is small and falls tothe ground when ripe 
around the plant, or it may be blown away by the 
wind. 
