204 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES 
A.S. ¢e@san, from its use in teasing wool. The second name denotes a 
woodland habitat. 
It is called Adam’s Flannel, Barber’s Brushes, Brushes, Sweep’s 
Brushes, Card Teazel, Card Thistle, Churchbrooms, Gipsy’s Combs, 
Pricky Back, Tazzel, Teasel, Venus Bath or Basin. The last name 
is explained thus by Lyte: ‘It is termed Labrum Veneris and Laver 
Lavacrum of the forme of the leaves, made up in fashion of a bason, 
which is never without water.” The name Carde Thistle is explained 
by Gerarde thus: ‘‘In some of our Northern Counties large quantities 
of the Teazel are planted that there heads may be used in Carding 
wool”. This may refer to the Fuller's Teazel. 
it was named Church Brooms from the resemblance of the flower- 
heads in shape to the long ‘“turk’s head brooms used for sweeping 
high places”. 
“Tezils or Fuller's thistle, being gathered and hanged up in house, 
where the air may come freely to it, upon the alteration of cold and 
windy weather will grow smoother and against rain will close up its 
prickles.” 
In the old days it was held to have healing virtues, the water 
caught up in the connate leaf-base being said to be good for bad eye- 
sight, and called wzrga pastorzs in Chaucer’s day. It formed part of the 
remedy “Save” also. 
ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS :— 
147. Dipsacus sylvestris, Huds.—Stem tall, stout, erect, prickly, 
leaves prickly along the midrib, lanceolate, connate, opposite, flowers 
lilac, scales of receptacle straight, longer than flowers, involucres 
curved upwards. 
Hoary Ragwort (Senecio erucifolius, L.) 
This species is found in the North Temperate Zone to-day to the 
South of Gothland, and in N. and W. Asia. In Great Britain it is 
found in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn pro- 
vinces; in Wales it is found in Glamorgan, Pembroke, Carnarvon, 
Denbigh, Flint, Anglesea, and in the Trent, Mersey, Humber, Tyne 
provinces, and in Cumberland, Lanark, Ayr, and Berwick. The Hoary 
Ragwort occurs in E. Ireland and the Channel Islands. It is common 
in S. Britain, but very rare in Scotland. 
Hoary Ragwort is a familiar wild flower of the roadside, where 
it is accompanied by such plants as Knapweed, Nipplewort, Wild 
Basil, and the many other plants of the wayside, which grow there 
