128 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
Common Nettle. 
French, Ortie dioique. German, Zweihiusige Nessel. 
The common name of this plant, familiar to everybody, is said by Dr. Prior “to 
have meant primarily that with which one sews; and it is, indeed, almost identical 
with needle. Applied to the plant now called so, it indicates that this supplied the 
thread used in former times by the Germanic and Scandinavian nations, which we 
know as a fact to have been the case in Scotland in the seventeenth century. West- 
macott says, “Scotch cloth is only the housewifery of the nettle.” In Friesland also 
it has been used till a late period. “ Flax and hemp bear southern names, and were 
introduced into the north to replace it.” Everyone knows by experience the pecu- 
liarity of the nettle—the numerous little hairs which beset its leaves, furnished 
with conical receptacles at the base, each exuding an acrid fluid, which, when touching 
the skin, inflicts a sharp pain, and produces often considerable inflammation. From 
this fact it is called the stinging nettle, to distinguish it from the dead nettles species 
of Lamium, which somewhat resemble it in leaves and stem. 
The leaves of the nettle when young make a good potherb, and were at one time 
eaten largely, when green vegetables were less abundant than they now are in our 
gardens. In Scotland it was the practice to “‘ force the nettles for early spring kail,” 
and we are told the nettles dressed like spinach are excellent eating. By earthing- 
up, nettles may be blanched in the same way as sea-kale, and eaten in a similar 
manner. Cattle usually refuse to eat nettles when fresh gathered or growing ; but 
when dried and made into hay, so as to destroy the poisonous matter of the stings, 
cows will relish them, and give more milk than when fed on hay alone. The leaves, 
chopped and mixed with other food, are said to be beneficial to young turkeys and 
other poultry. 
The juice of nettles yields a beautiful and permanent green dye, which is used for 
woollen stuffs in Russia. The roots, boiled with alum, produce a yellow colour, which 
dyes yarn well, and is also employed to stain eggs yellow preparatory to the feast of 
Easter by the religious of the Greek Church. Not only are nettles esteemed as an 
article of food, but the plant yields one of the best of vegetable fabrics for textile 
purposes. Campbell, complaining of the little attention paid to it in England, says: 
“In Scotland I have eaten nettles, I have slept in nettle-sheets, and I have dined off a 
nettle-tablecloth. The young and tender nettle is an excellent potherb. The stalks 
of the old nettle are as good as flax for making cloth. I have heard my mother say, 
that she thought nettle-cloth more durable than any other species of linen.” The 
fibre being produced in less quantities than that of flax, and being somewhat diffienlt 
to extract, accounts perhaps for the fact that it is but little used.in Britain, though in 
some countries it is still employed. An extraordinary application of nettles is recorded 
by Goldsmith, who states that “capons may very easily be taught to clutch a fresh 
brood of chickens throughout the year. The manner of teaching them is this. The 
capon being made very tame, about evening pluck the feathers of his breast, and rab 
the bare skin with the nettles; then put the chickens under him, which presently run 
under his breast, and rubbing the bare skin gently with their heads, allay the stinging 
smart which the nettles had produced. This is repeated a few nights, till the capon 
takes an affection to the chickens that have thus given him relief, and continues to 
afford them the protection they seek. From that time the capon brings up the 
chickens like a hen, performing all the functions of the tenderest parent.” Medicin- 
ally, the juice of the nettle acts as a slight astringent. Tt was recommended by the 
