perianth of four greenish segments enclosing as many stamens, which latter, when freed from the restraint exercised upon them by the perianth-segments while still in the bud, suddenly uncoil themselves, and in so doing liberate the pollen. The female perianth is similar, but encloses only a single seed-vessel with a solitary seed. The stinging hairs consist of a bulbous reservoir filled with. acrid fluid, prolonged into a long slender tube, the extremity of which is finely pointed. By this point the hair penetrates the skin and discharges its irritant contents beneath the surface. Nettle tops, or the very young shoots of the nettle, may be used as a vegetable like spinach; but from the abundance of crystals (cystoliths) they contain they are apt to be gritty, though esteemed for their antiscorbutic properties, which they do not possess in any exceptional degree. The fibre furnished by the stems of several species is used for cordage or paper-making. Three species of nettle are wild in the British Isles: Urtica dioica, the common stinging nettle, which is a hairy perennial with staminate and pistillate flowers in distinct plants; U. urens, which is annual and, except for the stinging hairs, glabrous, and has staminate and pistillate flowers in the same panicle; and U. pilulifera (Roman nettle), an annual with the pistillate flowers in rounded heads, which occurs in waste places in the east of England, chiefly near the sea—the more virulent of the British species. From their general presence in the neighbourhood of houses, or in spots where house refuse is deposited, it has been suggested that the nettles are not really natives, a supposition that to some extent receives countenance from the circumstance that the young shoots are very sensitive to frost. In any case they follow man in his migrations, and by their presence usually indicate a soil rich in nitrogen. The trailing subterranean root-stock renders the common nettle somewhat difficult of extirpation.
NETTLERASH, or Urticaria, a disorder of the skin characterized by an eruption resembling the effect produced by the sting of a nettle, namely, raised red or red and white patches occurring in parts or over the whole of the surface of the body and attended with great irritation. It may be acute or chronic. In the former variety the attack often comes on after indulgence in certain articles of diet, particularly various kinds of fruit, shellfish, cheese, pastry, &c., also occasionally from the use of certain drugs, such as henbane, copaiba, cubebs, turpentine, &c. There is at first considerable feverishness and constitutional disturbance, together with sickness and faintness, which either precede or accompany the appearance of the rash. The eruption may appear on any part of the body, but is most common on the face and trunk. The attack may pass off in a few hours, or may last for several days, the eruption continuing to come out in successive patches. The chronic variety lasts with interruptions for a length of time often extending to months or years. This form of the disease occurs independently of errors in diet, and is not attended with the feverish symptoms characterizing the acute attack. As regards treatment, the acute variety generally yields quickly to a purgative and the use of some antacid, such as magnesia or liquor potassae. The local irritation is allayed by sponging with a warm alkaline solution (soda, potash or ammonia), or a solution of acetate of lead, and a lotion of ichthyol has been found useful. Chronic cases have been known to benefit from the administration of creosote or salol.
NETTLESHIP, HENRY (1839–1893), English classical scholar, was born at Kettering on the 5th of May 1839. He was educated at Lancing, Durham and Charterhouse schools, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In, 1861 he was elected to a fellowship at Lincoln, which he vacated on his marriage in 1870. In 1868 he became an assistant master at Harrow, but in 1873 he returned to Oxford, and was elected to a fellowship at Corpus. In 1878 he was appointed to succeed Edwin Palmer in the professorship of Latin, which post he held till his death at Oxford on the 10th of July 1893. Nettleship had been from the first attracted to the study of Virgil, and a good deal of his time was devoted to his favourite poet. After Conington’s death in 1869, he saw his edition of Virgil through the press, and revised and corrected subsequent editions of the work. In 1875 he had undertaken to compile a new Latin lexicon for the Clarendon Press, but the work proved more than he could accomplish, and in 1887 he published some of the results of twelve years labour in a volume entitled Contributions to Latin Lexicography, a genuine piece of original work. In conjunction with J. E. Sandys, Nettleship revised and edited Seyffert’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, and he contributed to a volume entitled Essays on the Endowment of Research an article on “The Present Relations between Classical Research and Classical Education in England,” in which he pointed out the great value of the professorial lecture in Germany. In his views on the research question he was a follower of Mark Pattison, whose essays he edited in 1889 for the Clarendon Press. In Lectures and Essays on Subjects connected with Latin Literature and Scholarship, Nettleship revised and republished some of his previous publications. A second series of these, published in 1895, and edited by F. Haverfield, contains a memoir by Mrs M. Nettleship, with full bibliography.
See obituary notices in The Times (11th of July, 1893); Classical Review (October, 1893); Oxford Magazine (18th of October, 1893).
NETTLESHIP, RICHARD LEWIS (1846–1892), English philosopher, youngest brother of Henry Nettleship, was born on the 17th of December 1846, and educated at Uppingham and Balliol College, Oxford, where he held a scholarship. He won the Hertford scholarship, the Ireland, the Gaisford Greek verse prize, a Craven scholarship and the Arnold prize, but took only a second class in Litterae Humaniores. He became fellow and tutor of his college and succeeded to the work of T. H. Green, whose writings he edited with a memoir (London, 1880). He left an unfinished work on Plato, part of which was published after his death, together with his lectures on logic and some essays. His thought was idealistic and Hegelian. His literary style was excellent; but, though he had considerable personal influence on his generation at Oxford, a certain nebulousness of view prevented his making any permanent contribution to philosophy. He was fond of music and outdoor sports, and rowed in his college boat. He died on the 25th of August 1892, from the effects of exposure on Mont Blanc, and was buried at Chamounix.
NETTLE TREE, the name applied to certain trees of the genus Celtis, belonging to the family or natural order Ulmaceae. The best-known species have usually obliquely ovate, or lanceolate leaves, serrate at the edge, and marked by three prominent nerves. The flowers are inconspicuous, usually hermaphrodite, with a 4- or 5-parted perianth, as many stamens, a hairy disk and a 1-celled ovary with a 2-parted style. The fruit is succulent like a little drupe, a character which serves to separate the genus alike from the nettles and the elms, to both of which it is allied. Celtis australis is a common tree, both wild and planted, throughout the Mediterranean region extending to Afghanistan and the Himalayas; it is also cultivated in Great Britain. It is a rapidly growing tree, from 30 to 40 ft. high, with a remarkably sweet fruit, recalling a small black cherry, and was one of the plants to which the term “lotus” was applied by Dioscorides and the older authors. The wood, which is compact and hard and takes a high polish, is used for a variety of purposes. C. occidentalis, a North American species, is the hackberry (q.v.).
NETTUNO, a fishing village of the province of Rome, Italy, 2 m. E.N.E. of Anzio by rail, and 39 m. S.S.E. of Rome, 36 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 3406 (town), 5072 (commune). It has a picturesque castle built by Alexander VI. from the designs of Antonio da Sangallo the elder in 1496. It is said to have been a Saracen settlement. The picturesque costume of the Women is now worn only at festivals. To the E. on the sandy coast on the way to Astura is a military camp and a range for the trial of field artillery.
NETZE, a river of Germany, having a small portion of its upper course in Poland. It is a right-bank tributary of the Warthe, and rises in the low-lying lake district, through which the Russo-German frontier runs, to the south of Inowrazlaw. The frontier crosses Lake Goplo, which is not far from the source of the Netze, which on leaving it (in Prussian territory), flows
