COKN SALAD TEASEL. 155 



These two species have three stamens. I omitted to mention 

 that the flowers of the Red Valerian have only one stamen. 



There is a Heart-leaved Valerian growing in Colinton Woods, 

 near Edinburgh, which has rose-coloured flowers. I have not 

 succeeded in procuring a specimen. 



The second family in the Valerian tribe is that of the Corn 

 Salad. 



The Common Corn Salad, or Lamb's Lettuce (Fedia olitoria), 

 I found in May at the foot of Blackford Hill, near Edinburgh. 

 It is a common-enough plant, with its pale blue clusters of 

 inconspicuous flowers seated close to the leaves at the end of 

 the stem. The leaves are tdngue-shaped, and blunt. It is 

 much branched, and the foliage is of a pale green. The plant 

 was in former times cultivated for salad, and the French still 

 call it " Monk's Salad " Salade de CJianoine. Old Gerarde 

 calls it " White pot herb," and says, " In winter, and the first 

 months of the year, it serves for a salade herbe, and is with 

 pleasure eaten with vinegar, salt, and oile, as other salades be, 

 among which it is none of the worst." 



Edward has the Toothed Corn Salad ; he found it in corn 

 fields about Hawkhurst, flowering in July (F. dentata). Its 

 flowers are lilac, and its leaves are toothed. There are a sharp- 

 fruited and a carinated species of Corn Salad. 



We now come to the TEASEL order. The Teasel plants have 

 one petal, and a single-leafed calyx. 



The most important member of the Teasel family is the 

 Fuller's Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum, Plate X., fig. 10). It 

 grows to the height of six feet. The stems and leaves are 

 prickly, and the head is beset with large hooks. This plant is 

 very useful in cloth manufactories. It is dried in bundles, the 

 heads turned outwards. I saw a number of these bundles 

 prepared ready for the market, in a farm-house at Vallis, in 

 Somersetshire, near which place they had been cultivated. The 

 cloth is made to pass over the heads of the Teasel, which are 

 sharp enough to raise the nap, but too elastic to tear the cloth. 



