USES OF THE TEASEL. 39 



little attention seems given to the eradication of intrusive 

 rubbish, and, consequently, after gathering the crop the 

 soil is frequently in a very foul state, and from hence 

 the chief injury to the land may arise, rather than from 

 the teasel plant. Though this crop requires no manure, 

 nor affords any to the soil, yet the removal of the earth 

 so repeatedly by the hoe and spade becomes equivalent 

 to a fallow : with us a wheat crop often succeeds the 

 teasel, and I have observed in this case as good a return 

 of that grain as is produced by the adjoining fields 

 where teasels had not been grown. 



This plant seems to be known in many countries by 

 a name expressive of its use. Old Gerard has recorded 

 several of these names. Its old English name was the 

 carding teasel; the Latin name, carduus veneris; the 

 French call it chardon de foullon ; the Danes and 

 Swedes, karde tidsel ; the Flemings, karden distel ; the 

 Hollanders, kaarden ; Italy and Portugal, cardo ; the 

 Spaniards, cardencha, &c. 



I believe that the teasel affords a solitary instance of 

 a natural production being applied to mechanical pur- 

 poses in the state in which it is produced.* It appears, 

 from many attempts, that the object designed to be 

 effected by the teasel cannot be supplied by any con- 

 trivance successive inventions having been abandoned 

 as defective or injurious. The use of the teasel is to 

 draw out the ends of the wool from the manufactured 

 cloth, so as to bring a regular pile or nap upon the sur- 

 face, free from twistings and knottings, and to comb 

 off the' coarse and loose parts of the wool. The head 

 of the true teasel is composed of incorporated flowers, 

 each separated by a long, rigid, chaffy substance, the 

 terminating point of which is furnished with a fine hook. 

 Many of these heads are fixed in a frame ; and with 

 this the surface of the cloth is teased, or brushed, until 

 all the ends are drawn out, the loose parts combed off, 

 and the cloth ceases to yield impediments to the free 



* Equisetum hyemale, the Dutch rush, or shave grass, is yet used 

 in its natural state for finishing fine models in wood, and in removing 

 roughness in plaster casts. 





