103 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 



Stinging Nettles (Urtica). 



Surely, the reader says, we know a nettle when we see it, 

 and certainly know it when we touch it, without needing 

 description or figure. Perhaps so, but the average rambler, for 

 whom this book is primarily intended, would certainly pass 

 Campanula trachelium as a nettle if he encountered it before it 

 flowered ; and though he may know a nettle by being stung, he 

 cannot in that simple manner determine the species, for there 

 are three kinds occurring in England. We will, however, meet 

 the objection so far that we will not waste many words in a 

 general description, but deal more with the points of difference 

 between the species. All have a liberal supply of the stinging 

 hairs, and green flowers of two kinds. The staminate flowers 

 consist of a four-parted perianth enclosing four stamens with 

 kidney-shaped anthers. Pistillate flowers consist of a perianth 

 and a single carpel, surmounted by a brush-like stigma. The 

 name of the genus is from the Latin uro, to burn, in reference to 

 the sensation produced by the stings. 



I. The Great Nettle (Urtica dioica>, is the species figured. It is our largest 

 native nettle, and attains the height of 4 or 5 feet, the stem rising from a branching 

 perennial rootstock which throws out runners, The large leaves are saw-edged, and 

 apart from the stinging hairs are downy. Flower spikes given off in pairs, each 

 spike consisting of either staminate or pistillate flowers only ; the pistillate more 

 dense than the others. Hedgebanks chiefly. Flowering from June to September. 



II. Roman Nettle (U. pilulifera). Not so large. An annual ; leaves smooth but 

 for the stinging hairs, margin entire or toothed. Male flowers in panicles, f emale 

 gathered in heads. Flowers larger than in dioica. Under walls and among rubbish, 

 near habitations, chiefly in the Eastern counties, and near the sea. June to 

 August. 



III. Small Nettle (U. urens). The familiar annual plant of fields and wastes. 

 Leaves coarsely toothed, smooth but for stinging hairs. Panicles containing 

 flowers of both sexes ; few flowered. Flowers June to September. 



