2 WILD FLOWERS. 



It is of that family which, under the general name 

 of Urticece, contains the precious bread-fruit (Arto- 

 cdrpus), the mulberry the hop the hemp the fig 

 tribe, with its many caoutchouc-producing members 

 the fustic of the dyer the far-famed poison-tree, 

 or upas, of Java the stately banyan, with its thou- 

 sand-rooting branchlets ; and innumerable other in- 

 dividual species, each celebrated for some powerful, 

 and most frequently some valuable, product or pecu- 

 liarity. 



We must, however, relinquish the contemplation 

 of these glorious vegetable wonders, to consider a 

 few of the practical uses to which the more humble 

 plant, which is their representative in the British 

 Isles, has been applied. 



From an early period it has been largely employed 

 in rustic medicine ; having been administered in 

 scurvy, gout, jaundice, nephritis, and various other 

 complaints ; especially in such as were attended by 

 haemorrhage. In fact, a modern authority, Dr. 

 Thornton, found the practice of placing a portion of 

 lint steeped in nettle-juice, in the nostril, as pre- 

 scribed by Gerarde, to be effectual where all his 

 other remedies had failed.* This physician also 

 states that thirteen or fourteen nettle-seeds ground 

 to powder, and taken daily, will, without in any 

 way deranging the general health, effect a cure in 

 that most distressing disease, the goitre. The burn- 

 ing irritation produced by the nettle-sting, has been 

 found useful in paralysis, and other cases of local 



* A nettle-leaf placed on the tongue, and pressed against 

 the palate is said to have a similar effect. 



