1877 GUINEA-PIGS AND NETTLES 55 



think they are much worth, I send you a copy of my 

 notes. The ideas are not clearly put— having been 

 jotted down a few years ago merely to preserve them 

 — but no doubt you will be able to understand them. 

 Do not trouble to return the MS. 



I had intended to ask you while at Down if you 

 happen to know whether stinging nettles are endemic 

 plants in South America. The reason I should like 

 to know is, that last year it occurred to me that the 

 stinging property probably has reference to some 

 widely distributed class of animals, and being told — 

 rightly or wrongly, I do not know — that ruminants 

 do not object to them, I tried whether my tame 

 rabbits would eat freshly plucked nettles. I found they 

 would not do so even when very hungry, but in the 

 same out-house with the rabbits there were confined 

 a number of guinea-pigs, and these always set upon 

 the nettles with great avidity. Their noses were 

 tremendously stung, however, so that between every 

 few nibbles they had to stop and scratch vigorously. 

 After this process had been gone through several 

 times, the guinea-pig would generally become furious, 

 and thinking apparently that its pain must have had 

 some more obvious cause than the nettles, would 

 fall upon its nearest neighbour at the feast, when a 

 guinea-pig fight would ensue. I have seldom seen 

 a more amusing spectacle than twenty or thirty of 

 these animals closely packed round a bunch of 

 nettles, a third part or so eating with apparent relish, 

 another third scratching their noses, and the re- 

 maining third fighting with one another. But what 

 I want to ask you is this. Does it not seem that 



