Although generally considered a noxious weed, the nettle is a plant of extensive utility. By the country people the young and tender _leaves_ and _tops_ are boiled for food, and are eaten as a substitute for greens and other pot-herbs. Asses eagerly devour the leaves of nettles; and if these be boiled, and mixed with other food for poultry, they are said to promote their laying of eggs. A kind of rennet is made in the Highlands of Scotland, by adding a quart of salt to three pints of a liquor produced by the boiling of nettles. A tablespoonful of this is said to be sufficient to coagulate a bowl of milk. From the fibrous _stalks_ of the nettle, dressed in the manner of flax or hemp, cloth and paper may be made. The manufacture of these has been pursued with success in some parts of the Continent; and in our own country a coarse kind of canvass has been produced from them. The _roots_, when boiled, communicate a yellow colour to woollen cloth, linen, and cotton. It must be remarked that the _stings_ of nettles, when examined by a microscope, are shown to be extremely curious objects. They consist of a slender, tapering, sharp, and hollow substance, with a minute hole at the point, and a bag at the base. When the sting is pressed, it perforates the skin, and the same pressure forces up from the bag, into the wound, a corrosive liquor, which forms there a blister, and excites a burning and painful inflammation. If the nettle be suddenly and strongly grasped, the stings are bent or broken, and, in this case, occasion no pain. In consequence of their stinging quality, nettles have been employed, with advantage, in restoring sensation to paralytic limbs, by whipping them with these plants. They were formerly much used as a styptic; and are said to have been found useful in jaundice, scurvy, gout, and other complaints; but most of the accounts that have been given of their great medicinal virtues have now little credit. The _flowers_ and _seeds_ are said to have been tried in Italy, and found an efficacious substitute for Peruvian bark (62) in agues and other complaints. A leaf of the nettle put upon the tongue, and then pressed against the roof of the mouth, is stated to be a remedy for bleeding at the nose. 231. _The MULBERRY-TREE_ (Morus nigra, Fig. 72) _is a native of Italy, and is known by its heart-shaped and rough leaves, and its large juicy berries, each consisting of several smaller ones._