NETTLE is the vernacular equivalent of the Latin Urtica, which again gives its name to the Urticaceae. The species of Urtica are herbs covered with stinging hairs, and with unisexual flowers on the same or on different plants. The male flowers consist of a perianth of four greenish segments enclosing as many stamens, which latter, when freed from the restraint exercised upon them by the perianthsegments while still in the bud, suddenly uncoil themselves, and in so doing liberate the pollen. The female perianth is similar, but encloses only a single seed-vessel with a solitary seed. The stinging hairs consist, at the base, of a bulbous reservoir filled with acrid fluid, and prolonged into a long slender tube, the extremity of which is finely pointed. By means of this point the hair penetrates the skin and discharges its irritant contents beneath the surface. Some tropical species of Urtica produce a fluid of such potency that the most serious consequences ensue from coming into contact with the plant. Nettle tops, or the very young shoots of the nettle, πiay be used as a vegetable like spinach; but from the abundance of crystals (cystolithes) they contain they are apt to be gritty, though esteemed for their antiscorbutic properties. The fibre furnished by the stems of several species is, however, of more economic importance, being used for the purpose of cordage or paper-making. Three species of nettle are wild in the British Isles, although from their general presence in the neighbourhood of houses, or in spots where house refuse is deposited, it has been suggested that they are not really natives, a supposition that to some extent receives countenance from the circumstance that the young shoots are very sensitive to frost. In any case they follow man in his ...

NETTLE TREE is the name applied to certain trees of the genus Celtis, and belonging to the family Urticaceae. The best-known species have usually obliquely ovate, or lanceolate leaves, serrate at the edge, and marked by three prominent nerves. The flowers are inconspicuous, usually hermaphrodite, with a 4- or 5-parted perianth, as many stamens, a hairy disk, and a 1-celled ovary with a 2-parted style. The fruit is succulent like a little drupe, a character which serves to separate the genus alike from the nettles and the elms, to both of which it is closely allied. The wood of Celtis australis of southern Europe (also cultivated in England) is made use of for a variety of purposes, while the leaves serve as forage. An oil for burning is extracted from the seed of Celtis occidentalis. A North-American species is used for like purposes. Celtis australis was one of those to which the term “lotus” was applied by Dioscorides and the older authors, its berries or drupes having a sweet pleasant taste.

NETTLERASH, or Urticaria, a disorder of the skin characterized by an eruption resembling the effect produced by the sting of a nettle, namely, raised red or red and white patches occurring in parts or over the whole of the surface of the body, and attended with great itching and irritation. It may be acute or chronic. In the former variety the attack appears to be connected with digestive derangements, and often comes on after indulgence in certain articles of diet, particularly various kinds of fruit, shell-fish, cheese, pastry, &c., also occasionally from the use of certain drugs, such as henbane, copaiba, cubebs, turpentine, &c. There is at first considerable feverishness and constitutional disturbance, together with sickness and faintness, which either precede or accompany the appearance of the rash. The eruption may appear on any part of the body, but is most common on the face and trunk. In the former position it causes swelling and disfigurement while it lasts, and is apt to excite alarm in persons unacquainted with its nature. The attack may pass off in a few hours, or may last for several days, the eruption continuing to come out in successive patches. The chronic variety consists in an eruption similar to that above described, but lasting with interruptions for a length of time often extending to months or years. This form of the disease occurs independently of errors in diet, and is not attended with the feverish symptoms characterizing the acute attack. It is probably connected with constitutional conditions, and is occasionally observed in the gouty. As regards treatment, the acute variety generally yields quickly to a purgative and the use of some antacid, such as magnesia or liquor potassae. The local irritation is allayed by sponging with a warm alkaline ...

We find this name given to two different words in the original. The first is חרול, Job xxx, 7; Proverbs xxiv, 31; Zeph. ii, 9. It is not easy to determine what species of plant is here meant. From the passage in Job, the nettle could not be intended; for a plant is referred to large enough for people to take shelter under. The following extract from Denon’s Travels may help to illustrate the text, and show to what an uncomfortable retreat those vagabonds must have resorted. One of the inconveniences of the vegetable thickets of Egypt is, that it is difficult to remain in them; as nine-tenths of the trees and the plants are armed with inexorable thorns, which suffer only an unquiet enjoyment of the shadow which is so constantly desirable, from the precaution necessary to guard against them.” The קימוש, Prov. xxiv, 31; Isaiah xxxiv, 13; Hosea ix, 6; is by the Vulgate rendered _urtica_,” which is well defended by Celsius, and very probably means the nettle.”