8 WILD FLOWERS. 



and the botanical appellation, Urtica, from urendo, 

 " burning ; " on account of its stinging or burning 

 quality, because, as Gerarde says, "it stings with his 

 hurteful downe ; " nor 



" Without desert his name he seems to git 

 As that whiche quicklie burns the fingers touching it !" 



One of those curious examples of armorial bear- 

 ings taking their rise in a play on the name of their 

 bearers, which are of frequent occurrence amongst 

 the older heralds, is instanced by Gwillim,* in the 

 case of the Devonshire family of Malherbe, now, I 

 believe, extinct, who bore three nettle-leaves proper. 



Three, or according to the " Edinburgh Catalogue/' 

 four, species of nettle are considered indigenous to 

 Britain ; though the largest, and most acrimonious 

 of them, the Roman nettle (U. pilutifera), has ap- 

 parently been imported. It is very rare in this 

 island, and is said by the older botanists to have 

 been purposely introduced by the Romans. Ray, 

 however, terms this an improbable legend; nor is 

 it proved to be true by these two facts : namely, 

 that Julius Caesar landed at, or near, Romney or 

 as it was originally called, Romania and that this 

 nettle formerly abounded in the streets of that 

 town, from which, however, it is now extirpated, 

 though it still flourishes in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood, near Lyd or Lidd Church. Camden says that 

 the Roman soldiers, "brought some nettle seed with 

 them, and sowed it there for their use, to rub and 

 chafe their limbs; being told, before they came from 



* Display of Heraldic. 



