Of Leaves. 
2B1 
Of ftinging-nettles. 
Nettle is a plant known almoft to every body, there 
being very few but what have felt as well as feen 
it; but how the pain is fo fuddenly created, and by what 
means continued, we muft have recourfe to the micro- 
fcope for our information, and that will, if almoft any 
part of the plant be looked on, fhew us the whole fur- 
face thereof to be very thick fet with fharp points, that 
penetrate the Ikin when touched, and occafion pain, heat, 
and fwelling; they are reprefented in a fmall part of the 
leaf as they appear in the microfcope, by fig. 525. at 
A B, confiding of a rigid hollow body tapering from B, 
till it terminate in the moft acute point imaginable, being 
exceedingly clear and tranfparent. At the bottom of this 
cavity lies a minute bag B, containing a limpid liquor a , 
which upon the leaft touch of the prickle, is fquirted 
through the little orifice, and if it enters the fkin, pro¬ 
duces the before-mentioned mifchiefs by the pungency of 
its falts. C D fhews one of the chief fibres of the leaf, 
from whence the ftings proceed. 
The other parts of the leaf or furface of the nettle have 
very little confiderable, but what is common to moft 
plants, as the ruggednefs, indenting, and hairinefs, and 
Other roughneffes of the furface, on the outfide of the 
plant. 
Of CO wage, or co witch. 
H E R E is a certain down of a plant, brought from 
A the Eaft-Indies, which grows on a kind of hairy 
kidney bean b . The pods about three inches long, re- 
fern ;e 
t Hook’s Mic. p. 143. J. Ibid. p. 146. 
