THE WORKING OR MAKING OF CERTAIN MANUFACTURES FROM CERTAIN PLANTS OF THE GENUS URTICA AND ESCLIPIUS GROWING IN NORTH AMERICA, AND NOT HERE- TOFORE USED IN THIS REALM, WHEREBY THE FABRICKS OR PRODUCTS USUALLY HAD, MADE, OR OBTAINED FROM HEMP, FLAX, COTTON, SILK, AND OTHER THE LIKE FIBROUS MATERIALS, OR THE SEEDS OR THE PARTS THEREOF, MAY BE BENEFICIALLY HAD, MADE, OR OBTAINED
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WHITLOW, now of the New York Coffee House, Sweetings Alley, in the
County of Middlesex, Botanist, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourteenth day of June, in
the fifty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Charles
Whitlow, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Charles Whitlow, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"THE WORKING OR MAKING OF CERTAIN MANUFACTURES FROM CERTAIN PLANTS OF
THE GENUS URTICA AND ESCLIPIUS GROWING IN NORTH AMERICA, AND NOT HERE-
TOFORE USED IN THIS REALM, WHEREBY THE FABRICKS OR PRODUCTS USUALLY HAD,
MADE, OR OBTAINED FROM HEMP, FLAX, COTTON, SILK, AND OTHER THE LIKE FIBROUS
MATERIALS, OR THE SEEDS OR THE PARTS THEREOF, MAY BE BENEFICIALLY HAD,
MADE, OR OBTAINED;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Charles Whitlow, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being
thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Whitlow, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and manner of performing, the same, are particularly described and ascertained
in manner following (that is to say):-
I do take, use, and manufacture, for the purpose aforesaid, certain plants not
before worked or manufactured in Great Britain, which have been first
worked and used by me in Great Britain, and of which plants I do give
the botanical description in the usual words or terms of art in the Latin
language as here. follows:-No. 1. Urtica Whitlowi: caule 5-angulo, simplici,
orgya urenta; folijs alternis cardato, ovatis, acutis, serratis, trinervijs, punctatis ;
petiolatis, supremis oppositis; stipula bifida; paniculis pedunculatis; axillaribus
dichotomis hirsutis petiola, longioribus masculis et termalnalibus feminijs;
capsula orbiculari, compressæ, mucronata; radix 2, carnosa, pendula. No. 2.
Urtica Canadensis, Linaus: U. folijs alternis, cordati, ovatis, acuminatis, serratis,
utrinque, hispidis; paniculis axillaribus, plerumque gemienatis, divaricato, ramo-
sissimiş, inferioribus masculis petiolo longioribus, superioribus elongatis femineis;
caule hispedisissimo stimuloso. No. 3. Urtica divaricata, Linaus: U. folijs
alternis ovatis, acuminatis, serratis glabriusculis, petiolis longis, oliatis paniculis,
asillaribus solitarijs, divaricato, ramosissimis, petiola longioribus; caule stimu
loso. No. 4. Asclepias incarnata, Linaus: Asclepias pulchra Ehrhart, A. undique
pubescens, folijs approximatis, oblongis, acutis, sasi obtusis, brevissime petiolatis;
umbellis aggregatis, origine geminis; corniculis appendicum sub exertis. Obs.
radix crassa, carnosa, similis tuberosa. No. 5. Asclepias bombycinas: Asclepias
incarnata amtorum. A. undique glabriuscula, folijs remotis, lanceolatis, longius
petiolatis, sensim alternatis; umbellis aggregatis, origine geminis; corniculis
appendicum exertis. Obs. radix fibrosa, tenuis. And also for greater perspicuity
I have translated the same into the English language, as here follow, the
same numbers denoting the same plants as in the Latin descriptions. No. 1.
Urtica Whitlowi: stem five-angled, simple, six feet tall; stinging leaves, alter-
nate, heart-shaped, ovate, acute serrated, the upper ones opposite, petiolated,
dotted, three nerved; the stipule bifid or forked; the panicles peduncled;
axillary dichotomous, hirsute, the male ones longest, the female ones terminal;
the capsule orbicular, compressed, mucronate or daggered; roots perennial,
fleshy, descending or straight. No. 2. Urtica Canadensis; nettle, with
alternate heart-shaped, oval, and sharp-pointed leaves, which are serrate on
their edges and on both sides, hispid, with rigid hairs; flowers in axillary;
panicles, which are generally placed by two and two, very much spreading and
branched, the lower ones with male flowers on long penduncles, the upper
ones female flowers, on elongated petioles; stem very hispid, with stinging

page_text: hairs. No. 8. Urtica divaricata: nettle, with alternate, ovate, sharp-pointed
leaves, which are serrated on their edges and nearly smooth, standing on
long and fringed petioles or foot stalks; flowers in axillary; solitary and
wide-spreading panicles, which are longer than the petioles; stem with stinging
pubescence. No. 4. Swallow wert: A. all over pubescent; leaves closely
placed on the stem, oblong or ovate, sharp-pointed, with a blunt case shortly
petiolated; umbells many, close together, placed by two and two; horns of
the nectary nearly exerted. Observation, the root is thick and fleshy, similar
to a tuberosa. No. 5. Swallow wert, nearly smooth all over; leaves placed
at a distance, lancelate, attenuated at the base, on long petioles; umbells many
and close together, placed by two and two; horns of the nectary exerted.
Observations, the root is fibrous and slender. And that with regard to the
mode or method of working, I do avail myself of the usual modes or methods
heretofore practised with the several and various articles constituted or formed
of a fibre or staple according to the respective qualities of the same, and
that my said Invention doth consist in such and the said selection, working,
using, and manufacturing the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Whitlow, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of June, in the year of our One
thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
CHARLES WHITLOW. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of June, in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the said
Charles Whitlow came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
forty-eighth year of His said Majesty's reign.