84 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



perhaps, the least interesting of all plants, except when we happen 

 by accident to come into too close contact with it. I mean the 

 common nettle, which you may see almost anywhere in waste, 

 neglected spots, and in perfection on the side of the mountain, 

 eastward, on the north side of the railway track, where they sometimes 

 reach the height of six feet. 



You are familiar with the nettle. What a contrast to the beau- 

 tiful orchid which we have just discussed ! We inight speak of its 

 sting. As a rule, the sting is the only point in the whole organiza- 

 tion of the family over which we ever waste a single thought. I am 

 afraid that is because of our own ordinary human narrowness. In 

 each plant or animal, we interest ourselves about that one part alone 

 which has special reference to our own relations with it for good or 

 for evil. In a strawberry, we think only oi \hQ fruit \ in the orchid, 

 which we have had in review, of the beauty of the flower ; in a deadly 

 nightshade, of the' poisonous berry, and in our nettle, of the sting. 

 Now I frankly admit that the nettle sting has an obtrusive and un- 

 necessarily pungent way of forcing itself upon human attention ; but 

 that does not sum up the whole life history of the plant. The nettle 

 exists for its own sake we may be sure, and not merely for the sake 

 of occasionally inflicting a passing smart upon meddlesome fingers. 

 Let me further say, before we leave the nettle sting, that I think it 

 one of the most highly developed among the devices by which plants 

 guard themselves against the attacks of animals. 



But let us to the flower. In most plants the flower is the most 

 conspicuous part of all. Yet in this particular plant it is so unob- 

 trusive that most people never notice its existence in any way. That 

 is because the nettle is wind-fertilized, and so does not need bright 

 and attractive petals. The flowering branches of the nettle consist 

 of a lot of little forked anther-like spikes, sticking out at right angles 

 to the stem, and half-concealed by the leaves of the row above them. 

 Like many other wind-fertilized flowers, the stamens and pistils are 

 collected on different plants, a plan which insures cross-fertilization 

 without the aid of insects. If we pick one of the stamen-bearing 

 clusters, we will see that the flower proper is made up of four tiny 

 leaf-like petals, and with four stamens doubled up in the centre. If 

 we touch one of the ripe flowers with the point of a pencil, or some 

 fine point, in a second the four stamens jump out elastically as if 

 alive, and dust the white pollen all over our fingers. Why should 



