GAMOPETAL 127 
with hooked bracts which were recurved was em- 
ployed. The heads were inserted in a frame and 
caught up loose wool, etc., that might be inter- 
mixed with woven cloth. 
I have found this teasel on the outskirts of towns 
quite recently, showing that it has been employed 
for this purpose in comparatively recent times. 
There are two British species of teasel, the common 
one having blue or lavender flowers, and in this form 
the head is long and conical, the leaves are sessile and 
the bracts are turned up. In the smaller, more local 
species, the flowers are white, the whole plant is 
covered with bristles, and the leaves are on stalks, 
whilst the bracts are recurved and the head is sub- 
globose. 
In Dipsacus, so-called because the connate leaf- 
bases are often filled with water as though the plant 
were thirsty, the bracts are spinose and exserted and 
cover the head of flowers. In Scabiosa the bracts 
are either concealed or are scale-like or absent. In 
Knautia, now merged with Scabiosa, the outer calyx 
is small with four teeth. : 
The Dipsacez are herbaceous perennials or bi- 
ennials, of which there are about a hundred and fifty 
species. 
The leaves are opposite and connate, with no 
stipules, or whorled. The flowers are in cymés or 
heads, capitate, with an outer involucre of bracts 
and an inner row beneath the flowers. The epicalyx 
is attached to the ovary. The outer flowers have the 
