THE WHITE AND RED 

 DEAD-NETTLES. 



J,amium album, Lamium purpureum. 

 Nat. Ord., Lablatce. 



EVERAL species of dead-nettle are 

 indigenous, and of these we figure 

 three, the white and red being 

 represented on the present plate, 

 while the third appears further 

 on in our series. 



These plants are all called in- 

 differently dead-nettles, blind-nettles, 

 or archangels, the proper prefix 

 defining the colour of the plant 

 being also given, that the particu- 

 lar species in question may be 

 identified. The first two names 

 point clearly to the harmless 

 nature of the plants as contrasted with 

 the stinging-nettle, a plant they in 

 some degree resemble, while the third 

 we must perforce leave unexplained at 

 all. The old names of plants appear to 

 have been often very arbitrarily bestowed, and any meaning 

 that may have decided their choice is not uncommonly 

 now lost to us. The name is somewhat high-sounding, 

 and we can recall with great amusement the blank as- 

 tonishment exhibited in the face of a friend, who, after 



