NETTLE TRIBE 129 



rubbed by a hot iron. The pain finally extended up the whole of the arm, 

 and so affected the lower part of his face as to threaten lockjaw. He endured 

 this tortiu'c through the whole night, after which the pain gradually lessened, 

 though for nine days after he was not wholly free from it. The Nettle of 

 Timor, which is called Daoun Sefan, or Devil's Leaf, the U. sfimulans, pro- 

 duces effects which are described as lasting for a year, and which often prove 

 fatal. Sir Joseph Hooker found that the U. crenulaki only stings at one 

 season of the year, and may be gathered with impunity at any other. He 

 adds, that Endlicher attributes the causticity of Nettle-juice to bicarbonate 

 of ammonia, which he, as well as Dr. Thompson, ascertained not to be present 

 in this species. The Nettles of Van Diemen's Land are large and virulent 

 Colonel Munday says of the U. gigas, that it is forty feet high, and its stem 

 nine or ten feet in circumference, while the leaf is as large as that of the 

 dock, and beset with hairs which look like so many shining steel needles. Our 

 own wild Nettles may, with the exception of the rare Roman Nettle, be safely 

 handled if seized courageously, and grasped firmly, but the hand must be 

 passed upwards so as to lessen the pressure ujoon the stings. 



It is some consolation, while thinking of the stinging nature of the 

 Nettles, to remember that they are far from being useless plants. In their 

 dried state they are fed upon by sheep, and growing on the jjasture, cows 

 will eat them, especially when herbage is scanty. A recent writer in an 

 agricultural journal remarks, that he has seen Nettles cut up and mingled 

 with wheat-straw as food for horses; and adds, that when thus prepared 

 they furnish as good a food as tares, and that the horses not only throve 

 upon the food, but seemed to like it. The young tops of our common 

 Nettle are boiled and eaten by country people, and have been in some cases 

 cultivated for the table ; for Walter Scott, who well knew the habits of his 

 countrymen, represents Andrew Fairservice as saying, " Nae doubt I should 

 understand my ain trade of horticulture, seeing I was bred in the parish of 

 Dreep-daily, near Glasgow, where they raise large kail under glass, and force 

 early Nettle for their spring kail." A modern authority in matters of food, 

 M. Soyer, considers that the Nettle makes an excellent dish, and even 

 recommends that it should be gathered and carried into towns for sale. A 

 little butter and gravy are, he says, to be added to the dish, and the 

 vegetable may be eaten with or without poached eggs. We have ourselves 

 in childhood often supped on a dish of Nettle-tops boiled for al)out twenty 

 minutes, and eaten with salt and vinegar. They seemed delicious, but their 

 fiavour may have been improved by the fact of their having been gathered 

 during a long country walk, and by our having watched them during the 

 process of cooking. Soma similar associations may have added a charm to 

 the Nettle-soup made in the Highlands, and for which we have known a 

 Highland friend to express during illness a great desire, and a lament that 

 no Englishwoman knew how to prepare so pleasant and salutary a dish. It 

 seems that the natives of Siberia have learned the value of the Nettle as 

 food; for Sir George Simpson, in his "Overland Journey round the World," 

 says, when referring to that country, "In the course of my rambles, I saw 

 a good deal of land under cultivation with valuable crops of wheat, barley, 

 oats, rye, potatoes, hops, and flax. I had often heard of Nettle Kail in 



III. — 17 



