AWNS. MADDER. WHITE BIRCH. 49 



against them, and the crooked awns, with which 

 they are furnished, raise the knap of the cloth. 



EDWARD. 



What are the Awns? 



MOTHER. 



They are slender, sharp bristles, such as grow 

 from the husks of barley and oats, and which you 

 call the beard. One use of the awn is, to attach 

 the ripe seeds to the coats of animals, that they 

 may be more widely dispersed. In this species of 

 teasel, it is the stiff, strong awns, hooked backwards 

 at the ends, which make the plant so useful to 

 clothiers. 



There is a plant of this class, common in the 

 west of England, called Dyer's Madder, Ru'bia 

 tincto / rum, the root of which affords a very beau- 

 tiful scarlet dye ; but what is cultivated in Holland 

 is considered by dyers as better than that -of our 

 country. Madder has the property of tinging 

 with its red colour the milk, and even the bones, 

 of the animals that feed upon it. 



The white Birch, Bet'ula al'ba (in this class, 

 according to Withering*), is very useful to the 

 inhabitants of the north of Europe ; it endures the 

 severity of cold climates better than any other tree ; 



* Tn class twenty-one, Moncecia, of Linnaeus. 



