1G8 



NETTLE. 



and stimulans, and especially one, a native of Timor, which is 

 called Damn setan, or Devil's leaf, said to produce the most into- 

 lerable pain, tetanus, and sometimes death. 



The structure of the sting of the nettle is an interesting ob- 

 ject beneath the microscope. The stings bear considerable re- 

 semblance to the poison-fangs of the rattle-snake, each con- 

 sisting of a tube with a very fine orifice, widening at the 

 lower part into a chamber or receptacle, at the base of which, 

 among the cellular substance of the plant, is seated a gland. 

 The gland secretes a juice more or less acrid and venomous, 

 which is collected in the hollow receptacle. When the sharp 

 point of the stilet or tubular hair penetrates the cuticle, the 

 pressure on the hollow chamber beneath forces up the fluid 

 contained in it through the tube, and thus irritates and inflames 

 the skin *. 



Qualities and general Uses.— The tops of the common Nettle are 

 boiled and eaten in many places as greens f , and are said to be not only nu- 

 tritive, but slightly aperient ; they are boiled along with oatmeal, in the 

 Hebrides. In the Western Islands of Scotland, a rennet is prepared, by 

 adding a quart of salt to three pints of a strong decoction of Nettles; a 

 table spoonful of which is said to be sufficient to coagulate a quart of milk. 

 The fresh herb boiled and reduced to a paste, is used for feeding poultry, and 

 in some places young turkeys are fed almost exclusively upon it. When 

 recent it is refused by horses, cows, goats, sheep, and swine, but is eagerly 

 devoured by the ass. When dry it affords an excellent forage for cattle, 

 and is reputed to increase the milk of cows, and to be a preservative against 

 the contagious distemper affecting horned cattle. The leaves are the only food 

 of the caterpillars of the beautiful butterflies Atlanta, Paphia, and Urticae ; 

 they are the principal food of the Io, and the occasional food of Comma 

 album and innumerable other insects which may be one cause of the plant 

 being distasteful to cattle. Murray, after Hagstrom, states that the Nettle 

 planted in the neighbourhood of bee-hives, drives away frogs, which are said 

 to be inimical to the swarming of those insects, and that a frog plunged into a 

 vessel containing a decoction of this plant is soon destroyed. The filamentous 

 part of the stems, dressed in a similar manner to flax and hemp, may be 

 made into a kind of coarse cloth or canvass. The Kamschatdales and other 

 inhabitants of the North, have employed the stalks for a long period in the 

 manufacture of cordage, cloth, and lines which they use for fishing. Paper 



* See Hooke's Micograph. p. 142, obs. 25. 



t " Nae doubt I should understand my ain trade of horticulture, seeing 

 I was bred in the parish of Dreep-daily near Glasco, where they raise lang- 

 kail under glass, and force the early nettles for their spring kail." Andrew 

 Fairsavicc, in Rob Roy. 



