FAMILY HERBAL. 243 



Nettle, Urtica. 



A" plant too common to nerd much descrip- 

 tion. It is three' feet high ; the stalks are angulatcd 

 and rough ; the leaves are large, and of a beautiful 

 shape, regularly from a broad base diminishing to 

 a sharp point, and nicely serrated round the edges ; 

 the colour of these and of the stalks is a dusky 

 green, and they arc both covered with a kind of 

 prickles, which easily make their way into the 

 skin, and have at their base, a hollow bag of sharp 

 juice, which gets into the wound, occasioning that 

 swelling, inflammation, and pain that follows. The 

 naked eye may distinguish these bags at the bottom 

 of the prickles on the stalk of a full grown nettle, 

 but a microscope shews them all over. The (lowers 

 of the nettle, are yellowish, little, and inconsiderable, 

 the seeds are small, and round, the root is long and 

 creeping. 



The juice of the nettle is good against overflow- 

 ings of the menses. The root is to be given in infu- 

 sion, and it works powerfully by urine, and is excel- 

 lent against the jaundice. 



Roman Nettle. Urtica Romana. 



A wild plant of the nettle kind, but not com- 

 mon. It is two feet high, the stalks are round, 

 and of a deep green colour. The leaves are large, 

 and of a deep green also ; broad at the base, narrow 

 to the point, and deeply serrated. The flowers are 

 small and inconsiderable, the fruit is a round ball, 

 as big as a large pea, it stands on a long loot-stalk, 

 and is of a deep green colour, and full of small 

 brown seeds. All the plant is covered with the 

 same sort of prickles as the common nettle, but they 

 are shorter and finer ; they are silverv, white at th 



