Cfje Ercagurg at 33atam), 



1196 



vered with stinging hairs, and having op- 

 posite leaves, and monoecious or dioecious 

 flowers in axillary clusters or spikes. The 

 fruit is an acliene enclosed in the perianth ; 

 seed erect, conjoined with the wall of the 

 fruit. 



The species are numerous, and some of 

 them are very widely distributed. Two 

 are commonly found wild in this country, 

 while a third, IT. pihdifera, a native of 

 Southern Europe, is occasionally found in 

 the neighbourhood of villages. U. dioica, 

 the Common Nettle, is a perennial plant, 

 with stems two to three feet high, dark- 

 green heart-shaped leaves, coarsely tooth- 

 ed, and the flowers in branched spikes. XT. 

 urens, the Small Nettle, is a much smaller 

 more delicate-looking plant, with its male 

 and female flowers intermixed in small 

 loose nearly sessile clusters. XT. pihdifera, 

 commonly called the Roman Nettle, is also 

 an annual plant, intermediate in size be- 

 tween the foregoing: its male flowers are 

 in loose spikes, the females in stalked glo- 

 bular heads. 



•Although the species are for the most 

 part herbaceous, some are more or less 

 shrubby; while one, XT. Gigas, a native of 

 New South Wales, is described as a 'for- 

 midable tree.' We are indebted to Bennett's 

 Wanderings of a Naturalist in Australia 

 for the following account of it :— 



'A specimen seen by Sir William Mac- 

 Arthur, still in full vigour, rises from its 

 base by a series of buttresses of singu- 

 larly regular outline, gradually tapering 

 without a branch to the height of 120 to 

 140 feet; the trunk then divides into a 

 regularly-formed wide-spreading head, 

 which excites admiration by its extraordi- 

 nary size : but the ordinary elevation of 

 this tree is from twenty-five to fifty feet, 

 with a circumference of twelve to twenty 

 feet. The leaves, when young and in 

 vigorous growth, attain a breadth of from 

 twelve to fifteen inches, and are of a beau- 

 tiful dark-green colour As may oe ex- 

 pected, the poisonous fluid secreted from 

 the foliage is very powerful, particularly 

 in the younger leaves , and their sting is 

 exceedingly virulent, producing great suf- 

 fering, not unattended with danger. It is 

 found in the northern part of New South 

 Wales, and is a great impediment to the 

 traveller.' 



The stinging property just referred to 

 is also met with to a slight extent in our 

 English nettles. Some of the Indian species 

 seem to be particularly powerful in this 

 respect, especially XT. crenulata and XT. sti- 

 mulans. Both these, however, are ex- 

 ceeded by XT. urentissima, a native of 

 Timor, where it is called by the natives 

 the Devil's-leaf ; its effects are so violent 

 as to last for twelve months, and even to 

 produce death. The sting of the nettle 

 has a bulbous base, which serves as a 

 reservoir for the acrid fluid. From this 

 extends a long sharply-pointed tubular 

 hair. When the hand touches the nettle 

 the point of the sting enters the skin 

 and breaks off, allowing the passage of the 

 caustic fluid from the reservoir, through 



the tube, into the wound ; but if, in accord- 

 ance with the old precept, the nettle be 

 grasped forcibly, the hair is broken off 

 below the point, which then does not pene- 

 trate, and the fluid is poured out on the 

 skin, not beneath it. In the case of the 

 more noxious species it would, we imagine, 

 make little difference whether the poison 

 were on the skin or beneath it, except in 

 rapidity of action. 



Some of the Nettles are considered to 

 have medicinal properties : thus U.bacci- 

 fera in the West Indies is used as an 

 aperient ; the root of XT. pihdifera is 

 astringent and diuretic ; and Nettle-tea, 

 an infusion of the leaves of XT. dioica, is 

 much used by the peasantry in this country 

 to purify the blood. The herbage and seeds 

 of IT. membranacea, an Egyptian plant, 

 are used in Egypt medicinally. The tubers 

 of V. tuberosa, according to Roxburgh, are 

 eaten, raw boiled or roasted, by the natives 

 of India. Among the miscellaneous uses 

 of these plants, it may be mentioned that, 

 in Java, the leaves of XT. stimidans are or 

 were employed to excite and goad bulls in 

 their combats with tigers. 



The Nettles, »taking the name in the wide 

 sense, are remarkable for the excellent fibre 

 they produce. XT. argentea is employed in 

 the Sandwich Islands for making ropes, as 

 is XL baccifera in the West Indies. XT. can- 

 nabina, or Kentucky Hemp, yields abund- 

 ance of useful fibre: so also do XT.hetero- 

 phylla, IT. Puya, XT. tenacissima, and IT. 

 nivea— species severally referred to Urera, 

 Rohmeria, and Girardinia : which see. 



The Stinging Nettle of our hedges and 

 roadsides, X7. dioica, is a very ancient tex- 

 tile plant, its inner bark affording a tough 

 fibre suitable for many purposes, and used 

 by the inhabitants in many parts of Europe 

 for making cordage, fishing-lines, coarse 

 cloth, &c. Nettles have been from ancient 

 times used externally as stimulants incases 

 of paralysis. The young tops of nettles 

 are eaten as a vegetable, and may easily 

 be forced for that purpose, if nothing 

 better is to be had; but in our experience 

 they are always gritty, probably from the 

 abundance of crystalloid matter contained 

 in the cells of the epidermis (cystolithes). 

 These tender tops are much more com- 

 monly employed in this way throughout 

 Germany, Belgium, and other parts of the 

 Continent than with us. According to Sir 

 Walter Scott, the Nettle was at onetime 

 cultivated as a potherb in Scotland. Cattle 

 will eat the leaves in a dried state for forage; 

 and in some places the fresh tops are given 

 to pigs, and when chopped up, to fowls and 

 young turkeys. Both the dried leaves and 

 seeds are given to fowls in the winter- 

 time, to make them lay eggs. In Holland, 

 and also in Egypt, it is said that the horse- 

 dealers mix the seeds of nettles with oats or 

 other food, in order to give the animals 

 a sleek coat. A yellow colouring-matter, 

 employed in domestic dyeing, is obtained 

 by boiling the roots with alum ; and a de- 

 coction of the plant mixed with salt coagu- 

 lates milk. The seeds yield oil when press- 

 ed. The generic name is derived from the 



