YELLOW DEAD-NETTLE AND THE STITCHJTORT. 131 



eaten in some places, the present species might probably 

 prove equally palatable under equal pressure of circum- 

 stances. We may, in passing, mention that the common 

 stinging-nettle, which is, however, a quite distinct plant, and 

 one some distance removed in botanical classification from 

 the present plants, is largely eaten as a matter of course 

 in many rural districts, from its real or supposed value as 

 a cooler of the blood, its stinging powers being, of course, 

 destroyed by the act of boiling, and guarded against in 

 the act of gathering by the prudent wearing of leather gloves. 

 The white-blossomed plant introduced in our present 

 illustration is the greater stitchwort, the Stellaria holostea 

 of botanical nomenclature. The generic name Stellaria 

 is derived from the Latin word for a star, stella, and is 

 used as being descriptive of the star-like or stellate ap- 

 pearance of the flowers of the various species in the genus, 

 while the specific name holostea is composed of two Greek 

 words signifying all done, a name said by many writers 

 to be bestowed upon the plant by a bold figure of speech, 

 to be taken as meaning the very opposite to the 

 idea that appears on the surface, and that it was really 

 called all-bone from the very softness of its nature. 

 We should, however, be inclined to think that the 

 name was bestowed upon the plant by the fathers of 

 the science in all good faith, partly because we meet with 

 so few other examples of the same principle in nomen- 

 clature, and we may, therefore, the more readily doubt 

 whether this be indeed one, but more especially be- 

 cause, while fully admitting the delicacy of the growth, 

 we also notice that in this plant the stems are swollen 

 out at the junctions of the leaves with them, and at 

 these points they very readily snap across. 



