n wrote of it: "I will speak
somewhat of the Nettle that Gardeners may understand what wrong they do
in plucking it for the weede, seeing it is so profitable to many
purposes. . . . Cunning cookes at the spring of the yeare, when Nettles
first bud forth, can make good pottage with them, especially with red
Nettles" ("Haven of Health," p. 86). In February, 1661, Pepys made the
entry in his diary--"We did eat some Nettle porridge, which was made on
purpose to-day for some of their coming, and was very good." Andrew
Fairservice said of himself--"Nae doubt I should understand my trade of
horticulture, seeing I was bred in the Parish of Dreepdaily, where they
raise lang Kale under glass, and force the early Nettles for their
spring Kale" ("Rob Roy," c. 7). Gipsies are said to cook it as an
excellent vegetable, and M. Soyer tried hard, but almost in vain, to
recommend it as a most dainty dish. Having so many uses, we are not
surprised to find that it has at times been regularly cultivated as a
garden crop, so that I have somewhere seen an account of tithe of
Nettles being taken; and in the old churchwardens' account of St.
Michael's, Bath, is the entry in the year 1400, "Pro Urticis venditis ad
Lawrencium Bebbe, 2d."

Nettles are much used in the neighbourhood of London to pack plums and
other fruit with bloom on them, so that in some market gardens they are
not only not destroyed, but encouraged, and even cultivated. And this
is an old practice; Lawson's advice in 1683 was--"For the gathering of
all other stone-fruit, as Nectarines, Apricots, Peaches, Pear-plums,
Damsons, Bullas, and such like, . . . in the bottom of your large sives
where you put them, you shall lay Nettles, and likewise in the top, for
that will ripen those that are most unready" ("New Orchard," p. 96).

The "Nettle of India" (No. 5) has puzzled the commentators. It is
probably not the true reading; if the true reading, it may only mean a
Nettle of extra-stinging quality; but it may also mean an Eastern plant
that was used to produce cowage, or cow-itch. "The hairs of the pods of
Mucuna pruriens, &c., constitute the substance called cow-itch, a
mechanical Anthelmintic."--LINDLEY. This plant is said to have been
called the Nettle of India, but I do not find it so named in
Shakespeare's time.

In other points the Nettle is a most interesting plant. Microscopists
find in it most beautiful objects for the microscope; entomologists
value it, for it is such a