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Show 754 COMMON NETTLE. it readily punctures the skin, and the same pressure forees up from the bag an acrimonious fluid, which. instantly enters into the wound, and excites a burning inflammation.—Sce Hooke, Discoveries by the Microscope, p. 22, tab. 12: Guettard, Mem. de Acad. de Sc. de Paris, 1751, p. 350. Theneitle, so greatly despised, merits, however, theattention of the curious. The young shoots, in the spring, areboiled and eaten by the common people instead of cabbage greens.—Lightf, l.c. Thestalks may be dressed like flax or hemp for making ropes, nets, cloth, paper, &c.3 a practice not uncommonin some parts of Russia and Siberia.—Vide Falk. Beytrage zur Topogr. Kenntniss des 5 Russ. Reichs, vol. ii. p. 254. Vet. Acad. Handl. 1747, p. 59. Petersb. Journ. 1778, p. 370, and others, Thenettle is said to be poisonous to frogs; for if the plant be thrown into a vessel where these: als are confined, they soon begin to swell, and in a few ¢ s perish.—Vide HagstromSvar g om Biskotsel, p. 150. Asses regale on nettles andthistles, which the horse refuses, and in Sweden it is cultivated as food for oxen. It is made into paper, and the roots furnish a beautiful yellow for dyeing. Steel d its juice becomes moreflexible. MEDICAL VIRTUE, Nettle broth is good against the scurvy. The expressedjuice given a table-spoonful four times a day stops hemoptysis, and lint dipped in it, and forced up the nostrils, has stopt bleeding of the nose, when every other remedyhas failed. Cancers have beensaid to have yielded to the juice of nettles, as muchbeing taken as four ounces a day. Paralytic parts being stung with this herb, have been found to regain vigour, as well as limbs lost from rheumatism. The seeds produceafine oil, and taken inwardly in moderate quantity excite the system, especiallyles plaisirs de l’amour, and are. very forcing, therefore should be cautiously employed. Twenty or thirty grains produce vomit. ing. Excessive corpulency may be reduced by taking a fewof these seeds daily. Lastly, fourteen or fifteen of these seeds, made into a powder, and taken night and morning, will cure the goitre, without injuring the stomach, orhealth. COMMON MULBERRY. MORUS NIGRA. — Class XX1I. Moneecia. Essent, Gen. Cuar. Order 1V. Tetrandria. Male flower—Calyx four-parted: Female flower—Calyx four-leaved: Corolla none: Corolla none: Styles two: Calyx berried: Seed one. Spec. Cuan, Leaves cordate, rough. EEE DESCRIPTION. Tus rises to a lofty spreading tree. Leaves heart-shaped, sertated, veined, toothed, peduncled. Flowers male and female on the same tree; the male in catkins above, female beneath. Flowers in June. Fruit ripens in September. HISTORY. The mulberry tree is a native of Italy, and is nowcultivated ecterally over Europe, and thrives very well in England. 3c It is |