NETTLE TEIBE 131 



to that of linen, hempen, or woollen rags for this purpose. Almost any 

 fibrous substance may be made into paper, but it may be either too weak, 

 or brittle, or spongy, or it may be badly coloured ; while in many cases the 

 cost of procuring and preparing the material renders it too expensive. Jacob 

 Christian Schaiier, the pastor of Ratisbon, who about a hundred years since 

 published a little book on the manufacture of paper, printed its contents on 

 paper made of various materials. The barks of the willow, aspen, beech, 

 hawthorn, lime, and mulberry, all contributed their fibres ; while the silky 

 down of willows and poplars, and the tendrils of the vine, as well as mosses, 

 lichens. Nettle-stalks, fir-cones, reeds, and even saw-dust, were used by the 

 enthusiast Schaffer ; and among them all, it is probable that the Nettle-fibre 

 proved one of the best materials for his purpose. None of his papers, how- 

 ever, are suited to the taste of our day, when readers and writers have been 

 so long accustomed to paper of a superior description. 



Our Nettle-leaf is said to be poisonous to frogs, which is much like 

 saying that hot rolls are poisonous to earthworms ; for the frog is an 

 insectivorous creature, and not likely ever to partake of Nettle-leaves. To the 

 insect world it is an important source of food. The caterpillars of some of 

 our loveliest summer and autumn butterflies feed upon it. The pretty Small 

 Tortoiseshell butterfly (Vanessa vrficce) takes its name from the plant ; and 

 its greenish-black caterpillar with yellow stripes, and spiny as the Nettle 

 itself, feeds upon the plant. During June and July, we often find on the 

 Nettle the greenish-black spiny caterpillar which will one day emerge in the 

 form of the beautiful Admiral butterfly ( Vanessa atalanfa) ; and, rolled up in 

 a little home which he has woven of silken threads, by drawing together the 

 edges of the Nettle-leaf, he eats from the walls of his own dwelling till it is 

 no longer habital)le. But the next Nettle-leaf will serve him for another 

 home till, clad in all the glory of his wings of black, scarlet, and white, he 

 wends his way to the flowers around. Not far distant we may sometimes 

 find the shining black caterpillar, whose coat is studded with white points, 

 and who is regaling himself on the Nettle-leaf, while awaiting the purplish 

 wings with their radiant spots, which shall make him known to all beholders 

 as the Peacock butterfly (Vanessa io). 



The Common Nettle grows all over Europe, about ruins and in hedges, as 

 well as in neglected fields and pastures, marking "the field of the slothful," 

 described by the wise man ; though, as Shakspere has said — 



"The strawberry grows underneath the Nettle, 

 And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best 

 Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality." 



It is sometimes three feet high, and bears its greenish spikes, often tinged 

 with purplish-brown, from May to October. Nettle-flowers are not 

 fertilized by insects, but owing to the male and female flowers being borne 

 on separate plants cross-fertilization alwaj^s takes place, the wind being the 

 carrying agent. To aid in this process the stamens behave in an interesting 

 manner ; in the flower-bud the filaments lie coiled up with the anthers in the 

 centre of the flower, l)ut when this has opened widely and the anthers are 

 ripe, the filaments suddenly straighten out with sufficient force to scatter the 



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