[2188] The Poterium spinosum of botanists. See B. xxii. c. [13].
[2189] See B. xxii. c. [13]. Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 5, identifies this plant with the Stœbe just mentioned.
[2190] “Acetabulis.” Fée complains of the use of this term (meaning a “small cup”) in relation to the calyces of the nettle; such not being in reality their form.
[2191] Probably in allusion to the Urtica dioica, which grows to a greater height than the Urtica urens. See B. xxii. c. [15].
[2192] “Canina.” A variety, probably, of the Urtica urens, the nettle, with the exception of the Urtica pilifera, which has the most stinging properties of all those found in Europe, and the leaves of which are the most deeply indented.
[2193] This has not been identified. They are all of them either inodorous, or else possessed of a faint, disagreeable smell.
[2194] This “lanugo,” or down, as he calls it, consists of a fine elongated tube of cellular tissue, seated upon a gland of similar tissue. In this gland a poisonous fluid is secreted, and when any pressure is made upon the gland, the fluid passes upwards in the tube. The nettle of the East, known as the Devil’s Leaf, is of so poisonous a quality as to produce death.
[2195] In some parts of the north of England and of Scotland the young plant of the Urtica dioica is eaten as greens, and is far from a disagreeable dish, strongly resembling spinach. It is also reckoned a very wholesome diet, and is taken habitually in the spring, under the impression that it purifies the blood. This notion, we see from the context, is as old as the time of the Romans.
[2196] Dalechamps speaks of it as the custom in his time to wrap up fish and game in nettles, under the impression that they would keep the longer for it.
[2197] The dead nettle, or blind nettle. See B. xxii. c. [16].