URTICACE^. 129 



old writers on lierbs as a styptic, and seems to be useful in arresting bleeding of the 

 nose. With this view, a small piece of lint moistened with the juice may be placed 

 in the nostril. An infusion, known as " nettle tea," is a common spring medicine in 

 many rural districts, and is thought to pvirify the blood. Garden recommended sting- 

 ing with nettles " to let out melancholy," an advice also given by some other old 

 writers. Bacon with reason says, " We have no good opinion of it, lest through the 

 venomous qualities of the nettle it may, with often use, breed disease of the skin." 



SPECIES II.— U RTICA PILULIPERA. Lhm. Eooh. & Am. 

 Plates MCCLXXX. MCCLXXXI. 



Annual. Leaves opposite, ovate or lanceolate-ovate, truncate or 

 rounded or subcordate at the base, acute, deeply inciso-serrate or more 

 rarely entire, on petioles as long as the breadth of the lamina or 

 longer. Flowers monoecious. Male flowers in large glomerules, 

 placed along at the extremity of the branches of lax panicles, generally 

 equalling or exceeding the petioles of the leaves; female flowers in 

 dense globular heads on solitary or branched peduncles, in pairs, 

 shorter than the petioles of the leaves ; branches of the male panicle 

 ascending; peduncles of the female (except when they are terminated 

 by a panicle of male flowers) spreading. Fruit-heads large, many- 

 flowered, globular. Inner fruit sepals concave, much hooded. Plant 

 with stinging hairs. 



Var. a, genuina. 



Plate MCCLXXX. 



Eeich, Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XII. Tab. DCLIII. Fig. 1302. 



U. pilulifera, Linn. Spec. PL p. 1395. Uelcli. Ic. 1. c. p. 10. Bah. olim. 



Leaves inciso-serrate. 



Var. j3, Dodartii. 



Plate MCCLXXXI. 



Uelch. Ic. Fl. Germ. et. Helv. Vol. XII. Tab. DCLIII. Fig. 1303. 



U. Dodartii, Llun. Spec. PI. p. 1395. Eeicli. Ic. 1. c. p. 10. Bah. olim. 



Leaves entire or nearly entire. 



By roadsides and in waste places near towns and villages in the east 

 of England, but doubtfully native. The only places where I know it 

 to be permanent in its stations, are by the side of the fish-houses, Lowe- 

 stoft, Sufl'olk; Great Yarmouth, Norfolk; and perhaps at Copford, 

 Essex, where both vars. a and 3 occur. It has occurred in, or been 

 reported from, the counties of Cornwall, Hants, Kent, Surrey, Middle- 

 sex, Cambridge, Stafford, Salop, Glamorgan, Anglesea, Lancaster, 

 Durham, Northumberland; but I cannot discover that it has remained 



VOL. VIII. s 



