U R T 



U R T 



about four inches long, of an elegant, fomewhat elliptical, 

 taper-pointed form, bordered with fhallow ferratures chiefly 

 towards the end, and furnifhed, as in the laft, with a fingle 

 mid-rib, fending off tranfverfe veins ; the upper fide is 

 fmooth to thetouch, though covered with callous points, even 

 more minute than in the preceding ; the under paler, fome- 

 what downy when young, but afterwards Imooth, except 

 the rib and veins, which are finely hairy. FostJiaHs downy 

 and hairy, three-quarters of an inch long. Stipulas'nesxV)- as 

 long, lanceolate, hairy, deciduous. Panicles copious, from 

 the fears of the naked branches, loft by the laft year's foot- 

 ftalks, each of feveral ftragghng, flightly divided, racemofe 

 branches, finely downy, not hairy or ftinging. Flowers in 

 little round heads, all male in our fpecimen, four-cleft and 

 tetrandrous. 



U- cyl'tndrica, Linn. Sp. PI. 1396 ; fpkata of Thunberg, 

 which hjapOTiica, Linn. Suppl. 418 ; aitenataoi Linn. Syft. 

 Veg. which is Parletaria zeylanica, Sp. PI. 1492 ; Interrupta, 

 Sp. PI. 1398 ; and, as we have ah-eady faid, arborea, Suppl. 

 417 ; are all referred by Willdenovv to Boehmeria, in his 

 Sp. PI. v. 4. 340 ; fee tliat article. 



Urtica, in Gardening, furnifhes plants of the hardy her- 

 baceous kind, among which the fpecies cultivated are, the 

 Tartarian or hemp-leaved nettle (U.cannabina) ; the Canada 

 nettle ( U. canadenfis ) ; and the fnowy Chinefe or white- 

 leaved nettle (U. nivea). 



The firft is a rather curious plant, rifing with many fquare 

 ftalks to the height of five or fix feet, and flowers hanging 

 in the form of long catkins near the top parts of them. 



The fecond fort, or Canadian nettle, has eredl ftalks two 

 feet in height, and the flowers produced in the form of 

 branching upright aments or catkins. 



The third fort is perennial, with upright numerous ftalks 

 three or four feet in height, with the flowers in loofe aments, 

 the whole plant having a hoary white appearance. 



Method of Culture Thefe plants may be increafed by 



parting or flipping the roots in the autumn, or early in the 

 fpring, and planting them out where they are to remain. 



The third fort is rather tender, and (hould have a dry fitu- 

 alion where it is warm and ftieltered, or be kept in pots to 

 be ftteltered under frames, or in the green-houfe, during the 

 feverity of the winter feafon. 



The two firft forts afford variety in the borders and clumps 

 of pleafure-grounds, in affemblage with herbaceous plants, 

 by the fingularity of their manner of flowering, and the laft 

 among potted plants. They will continue for many years, 

 efpecially the two firft forts. 



Urtica Errans, in Zoology, the name of a fea-animal of 

 the nature of the common urtica marina in many particu- 

 lars ; but as that is always fixed down to the rocks, this 

 fpecies is always found loofe. See the next article. 



It has been fuppofed that thefe creatures affecled the fltin 

 with a pain like that of the ftinging of nettles on touching 

 them, and even the eyes of thofe who only look attentively 

 on them ; but M. Reaumur, who faw prodigious numbers 

 of them on the coafts of Poiftou, declares that he found no 

 fuch property in any of them, any more than in thofe fixed 

 to the rocks. 



Thefe in fubftance fo much refemble a ftiff jelly, that if 

 they were called fea-jellies, there would want but a fhort 

 additional defcription to make them underftood. Their 

 llefh, if it may be fo called, appears of the colour as well as 

 the confiftence of a common jelly ; and if a piece of one of 

 them be taken up, the mere heat of the hand is fufficient to 

 make it melt away into plain water. Thefe are notwith- 

 ftanding true and perfeft animals ; and thofe who have been 

 of a contrary opinion, have not e.%amined them with fuffi- 



eient attention. There arc very different figure* among 

 them ; but this is owing to their being of different fpecies ; 

 for all thofe of the fame fpecies are ever exaftly of the fame 

 figure. One great reafon of people's fuppofing them un- 

 organized bodies, is, that what is feen of them about the 

 fhores is very often a fragment of a dead animal, not the 

 wliole of a living one ; and no wonder if all the neceffary 

 parts of an animal could not be found in fuch a piece of 

 one. 



Though the generality of thefe animals are of the fimple 

 colour of a jelly, there are fome of a greenifh caft, and 

 others which have a broad band of a beautifully purple 

 round their extremity ; and fome are beautifully fpotted 

 with brown. Their figure is very well expreffed by that 

 of the head of a large mufhroom ; their upper furface is 

 convex in the fame manner, and this convexity is greater or 

 lefs m the different kinds, as it is in the different fpecies of 

 mufhrooms. 



If one of thefe animals be dried in the fun in hot weather, 

 there remains nothing of it but a fubftance like a thin parch- 

 ment ; but if one of tlicm be boiled in water, it does not 

 difTolve away as might have been expefted, but only regu- 

 larly decreafes in fize ; and when it has become of about one- 

 fourth of its natural bignefs, it there ftops the decreafe, 

 and continues nearly of that fize, and after that will not 

 melt away upon the hand. 



All the creatures of this fpecies, which we fee thrown 

 upon the fhores, are found lifelefs and without motion ; but 

 there is nothing wonderful in that, becaufe the violent fhocks 

 and blows which they muft have received, in being dafhed 

 againft the rocks or fands by the waves, are enough to kill 

 fo tender an animal. One proof that thefe animals once hved, 

 is, that all thofe which we find about the fhores are heavier 

 than the water, and fink to the bottom ; whereas all thofe 

 feen out at fea, fwim upon the furface ; and this could not 

 be the cafe in regard to any fubftance heavier than water, 

 unlefs kept up by fome voluntary motion. This motion 

 M. Reaumur has obferved to be a reciprocal contraction and 

 dilatation of the whole body, in the manner of a fyftole 

 and diaftole. In the contraction, it elevates the convexity of 

 the body, and in the dilatation it makes it more flat ; and 

 by continually repeating thefe motions, it keeps above water 

 as a man does by fwinnuing. Mem. Acad. Par. 1710. 



Urtica Marina, the name of a remarkable genus of 

 aquatic animals, fo called from a fuppofition of their affeft- 

 ing the flvin on touching them, with a painful fenfation like 

 that of the flinging of nettles. Thefe are animals of the 

 loweft clafs, and have by many been reckoned among thofe 

 creatures called zoophytes, or plant-animals, as fuppofed 

 to partake of the nature of vegetables and of animals. 

 Some of the fpecies of this animal are found loofe upon the 

 fmooth fhores, and fome fixed to the rocks which are always 

 covered with water. This has given birth to a diftinftion 

 of them into two clafFes, which is as old as Ariftotle ; thofe 

 of the one being fuch as move in the open fea, called by 

 later writers urtic<e fohil<e, and referred by Linn^us to the 

 genus of medufa, and denominated by the common people 

 fea-jellies and fea-blubbers ( fee Urtica Errans ) ; and thofe 

 of the others fuch as are fixed to rocks, and were fuppofed 

 always to remain immoveably in the fame place, which be- 

 long to the aftiuia of Linnius. The accurate M. Reau- 

 mur has obferved, however, that even thefe lail have a 

 power of a progreffive motion, and are not doomed to an 

 eternal refidence on the fame fpot. The motion of thefe 

 creatures is fo flow, that it might eafily pafs unobferved by 

 lefs accurate obfervers ; this gentleman comparing it to that 

 of the hour-hand of a clock, and adding, that a journey of 



