238 TETRANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Uktica, 
Woodv. 14 Q—FI. Dan. 746 — Blackw. 12 —( E.Bot. 1750. E.)— Fuchs 107 — 
J. B. iii. 445. 2—Trag. 2. 1 — Ger. 570. 2 and 4 — Gars. 637 — Lonic. i. 
108. 2—Matth. 11 26—Dod. 151. 2—Lob. Obs.2 81. 1; Ic. i. 521. 2— Ger. 
Em. 706. 2 — Park. 441. 3— H. Ox. xi. 25. row 2. 1 — Pet. 1. 9. 
(Three feet or more in height, the whole plant pubescent, and clothed with 
stinging bristles. Flowers generally dioicous, sometimes monoicous. E.) 
Common Nettle. (Irish: Caolfail. W elsh: Danadlen fwyaf. Gaelic: 
Feanntagg ; Deantagg. E.) Bitch banks, and amongst rubbish. 
P. July.* 
* The stings are very curious microscopic objects: They consist of an exceedingly 
fine pointed, tapering, hollow substance, with a perforation at the point, and a bag at the 
base. (Mr. Thompson considers these stings as the excretory ducts of papillary glands. 
E.) When the sting is pressed it readily punctures the skin, and the same pressure forces 
up an acrimonious fluid from the bag, which instantly rises into the wound, and produces an 
effect that most persons have experienced. The stalks may be dressed like flax or 
hemp, for making ropes, cloth, or paper, (the fibre somewhat resembling that ob¬ 
tained from the American Aloe, which is converted to like purposes. E.) The plant 
formerly was used as an astringent, but is now disregarded. A leaf put upon the tongue, 
and pressed against the roof of the mouth, is efficacious in stopping a bleeding at the nose. 
Paralytic limbs have been recovered by stinging them with Nettles. The young shoots are 
gathered early in the spring to boil with broth or gruel, (and thus afford a salutary pottage. 
From the seeds a useful lamp-oil may be expressed. E.) Cows eat the leaves readily in 
hay, or when they are a little withered. The leaves chopped are mixed with the food 
of young turkeys, and other poultry. Cows, horses, sheep, goats, and swine refuse it. 
Asses are fond of it. (In the north of England Nettles are boiled as food for pigs. They 
are so much valued in Holland as to be occasionally cultivated, and mown five or six times 
a year for green food. Woollen stuffs may be dyed a beautiful and permanent green 
with the juice of Nettles only, as practised by M. Kalugin, of Moscow. The roots have 
been considered diuretic; boiled with alum they will dye yarn a yellow colour. Eggs are 
thus stained yellow preparatory to the feast of Easter by the religious of the Greek church. 
Loudon says that few plants force better or more rapidly, and that the tender shoots so 
produced make a delicate and high-flavoured pot-herb. Though 
“ Where rampant Nettles lift the spiry head,” 
is generally found to be rich land, these intruders should be eradicated from the finer 
pastures in moist weather by an instrument invented for the purpose, mowing being an 
idle, ineffectual method, annual, and endless. An extraordinary application of Nettles is 
recorded by Goldsmith, who states that t( 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 off his breast, and rub 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!” Hist. iii. 123. A decoction of the 
young plant bottled, with the addition of salt, will coagulate milk. Month Mag. v. 28. p. 
46*2. In the county of Salop Nettles are dressed and manufactured like flax into cloth ; this 
is likewise the case in France, where likewise they are made into paper. Indeed it is much 
to be lamented that our ingenious manufacturers do not more generally avail themselves of 
a plant which may be obtained in any quantity in every part of Britain; which would 
prove invaluable in various processes of domestic economy ; and the removal of which would 
at the same time materially benefit the agriculturist. Even this outcast, moreover, may 
“ point a moral to our tale.” Would you touch a Nettle without being injured by it, take 
hold of it stoutly. Do the same by other annoyances, and hardly any thing will disturb 
you; grapple with difficulties, and thus overcome them. The Nettle has ever been stigma¬ 
tized as the emblem of an irritable and waspish temper, as in Waller’s homely distich. 
