real nettles
and the so-called dead nettles; the leaves for instance of the white
dead nettle are very like those of the stinger. The dead nettles,
however, are not at all related to the true nettle, and belong to
quite a different family called the Labiate tribe, from the Latin word
_Labium_, "a lip," in allusion to the form of the corolla. Is the pain
better, now, Jacko? "Yes, it is getting less severe; look what large
white lumps have arisen on the back of my hand." The sting of the
nettle is a very curious and interesting object under the microscope.
It consists of a hollow tube with a glandular organ at the bottom of
it, in which is contained an acrid fluid very irritating to the skin;
the fine point of the sting or hair pierces the skin, and the pressure
forces up the fluid from the bottom of the hair, which is then
conveyed into the wound by a point at the top of the sting.

[Illustration: LABIATE PLANT.

_a._ Stamens. _b._ Corolla. _c._ Calyx.]

[Illustration: STING OF NETTLE, MAGNIFIED.]

The nettles of foreign countries have much greater poisonous
properties. The effects of incautiously handling some East Indian
species are terrible. The first pain is compared with the pain
inflicted by a red-hot iron; this increases and continues for days. A
French botanist was once stung by one of these nettles in the
Botanical Gardens of Calcutta; he says the pain so affected the lower
part of his face that he feared lock-jaw. He did not get rid of the
pain till nine days had expired. Dr. Hooker saw gigantic nettles in
Nepal, one was a shrubby species growing fifteen feet high, called by
the natives _mealum-ma_. They had so great a dread of it that Dr.
Hooker could hardly persuade them to help him to cut it down. He
gathered several specimens without allowing any part to touch his
skin, but the "scentless effluvium" was so powerful as to cause
unpleasant effects for the rest of the day. "The sting produces
violent inflammation, and to punish a child with _mealum-ma_ is the
severest Lepcha threat." Then there is the nettle of Timor, or
_devils-leaf_, the sting of which sometimes produces fatal effects.
Tree-nettles in Australia are occasionally found as much as
twenty-five feet in circumference. There are three species of stinging
nettles in this country, the great nettle, the small nettle, and the
Roman nettle; the first two are very common, the last very rare
indeed. There is a curious story told of the introduction