Note 2195 — BOOK XXI. AN ACCOUNT OF FLOWERS, AND THOSE USED FOR CHAPLETS MORE PARTICULARLY.

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.