USE OF THE NETTLE 



the stinging hairs which keep off all the larger animals 

 (including man) there are others, shorter and thickly set, 

 which do not sting at all, but are intended to keep off snails.^ 



The pain produced by our common nettle is, however, 

 a very trifling matter compared with that produced by some 

 of the foreign species. One of the Indian kinds was used to 

 excite and irritate bulls when they were intended to fight 

 with tigers in the games which used to be held at some 

 Indian Courts. Another found in Timor is called the DeviPs 

 Leaf ; the effect of its sting may last for twelve months and 

 may even produce death. But a still more dangerous stinging 

 plant is a handsome tree (Laportea moroides) found in 

 Australia. It is often 120-140 feet high, and has fine dark- 

 green leaves often one foot in length. The sting is so 

 powerful that even horses are killed by touching its leaves. 

 The sting of Jatropha urens is so strong that people become 

 unconscious. In Java also the sting of Urtica stimulans 

 continues to smart for twenty-four hours, and may produce 

 a fever which is very difficult to shake off.^ 



Yet our common nettle is the favourite food-plant of the 

 caterpillars of the Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Peacock, 

 Camberwell Beauty, and other butterflies.^ These caterpillars 

 are possibly more intelligent than many of our country folk, 

 who do not know that the nettle is a very useful plant, as 

 the following statements most clearly prove. Its young leaves 

 make an excellent spinach, and it was, according to Sir 

 Walter Scott, formerly cultivated in Scotland as a pot-herb. 

 Pigs, turkeys, geese, and fowls like the leaves when they are 

 chopped up. It is said that the dried leaves and seeds will 



1 Gard. Chronicle, 32, 390. 



2 Lindley, l.c. ; Ludwig, I.e. 



3 Memories of the Months First Series, p. 73. 



192 



