Mrttca bioica. Natural Order: Urticacece — Nettle Family. 
RTICA, from the Latin uro , I burn, is the very expressive 
and appropriate botanical name of this familiar nuisance, as one 
* cannot come in contact with it without being stung. Through 
its innumerable tubular hairs there passes a viscous, venomous 
,, fluid into the pores of the skin, creating a sensation that is 
intensely disagreeable and indescribable. Hence the term 
fcs^nettled is a synonym for chagrin or any mortifying sensation. The 
I V,, Greek epithet dioica denotes belonging to the household, or familiar. 
Jwf The flowers of the nettle are small and green. The leaves of the 
young plants are sometimes used as a potherb, but of course have to 
be gathered with gloves. Some of the Asiatic varieties yield a fiber 
that is sometimes utilized as a substitute for hemp. There are in all 
about twenty-three genera and three hundred species of nettles. 
j 31 an her* 
TgROM door to door you might have seen him speed, 
Or plac’d amid a group of gaping fools, 
And whispering in their ear 
OLANDEROUS reproaches and foul infamies, 
^ Leasings, backbitings and vainglorious crakes, 
Bad counsels, praises, and false flatteries; 
All these against that fort did bend their batteries. 
— Spenser. 
with his foul lips. 
— Pollock. 
El! many a shaft, at random sent, 
Finds mark the archer little meant; 
And many a word, at random spoken, 
May soothe or wound a heart that’s broken. 
— Scott. 
IF I am traduc’d by tongues, which neither know 
My faculties nor person, yet will be 
The chroniclers of my doing — let me say, 
’Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake 
That virtue must go through. —Shakespeare. 
OKILL’D by a touch to deepen scandal’s tints While mingling truth with falsehood, sneers with smiles, 
^ With all the kind mendacity of hints, And thread of candor with a web of wiles. 
— Byron. 
