422 THE UNIVERSE. 



In other parts we find, instead of these stimulating aro- 

 matics, beautiful mimosas, from the fissures in whose bark 

 flow emollient gums, and mallows swollen with demulcent 

 juices which medicine calls to its aid. 1 



Beneath the burning sun of India, where the naja distils 

 its dreadful venom, the nettles secrete a mortal poison. 

 This analogy to the reptile is doubly exact, so that we are 

 not at all astonished to see a German botanist call the Ur- 

 ticae "the serpents of the vegetable kingdom." It is, in 

 fact, by the same kind of organ that the plants introduce 

 the venom into a wound ; and if we look at the minute 

 quantity with which one of their hairs inoculates us, not, 

 perhaps, the hundred and fifty thousandth part of a grain ! 

 at the rapidity and intensity of the symptoms, it is 

 clear that the poison of the nettle is the deadliest known. 



Our indigenous species only produce a burning sensation, 

 which is soon dissipated, but those of tropical countries give 

 rise to very serious results. Leschenault says that he has 

 seen the sting of the indented nettle ( Urtica crenulata, 

 Linn.) bring on the most horrible suffering for a whole 

 week. Another species, which grows at Timor, and which 

 the natives call the Devil's Leaf ( Urtica urentissima\ pro- 

 duces such serious wounds that, according to Schleiden, 

 amputation is the sole means of saving life. 



1 The seeds of some leguminous plants are used by the Chinese as soap. Sow- 

 erby has suggested that the leaves of the soapwort (Saponaria officinalis} might 

 be used for the purpose, as they undoubtedly were in by-gone times, especially, it 

 is said, by the mendicant friars. The lather formed by boiling or bruising the 

 seeds in water has all the effect of soap, and readily removes grease; so that we 

 here find nature spontaneously developing a great manufacturing product, which 

 under man's hands has taken two thousand years to bring to its present perfec- 

 tion. TR. 



