USES OF THE TEAZLE. 47 



I have observed in this case as good a return of that 

 grain as is produced by the adjoining fields where 

 teazles 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 teazle ; the Latin name car- 

 duus veneris ; the French call it chardon de foul- 

 Ion ; the Danes and Swedes, karde tidsel ; the 

 Flemings, karden distel ; the Hollanders, kaarden ; 

 Italy and Portugal, cardo ; the Spaniards, car- 

 dencha, &c. 



I believe that the teazle affords a solitary in- 

 stance of a natural production being applied to me- 

 chanical purposes in the state in which it is pro- 

 duced *. It appears, from many attempts, that the 

 object designed to be effected by the teazle cannot 

 be supplied by any contrivance successive inven- 

 tions having been abandoned as defective or injuri- 

 ous. The use of the teazle is to draw out the ends 

 of the wool from the manufactured cloth, so as to 

 bring a regular pile or nap upon the surface, free 

 from twistings and knottings, and to comb off the 

 coarse and loose parts of the wool. The head of 

 the true teazle is composed of incorporated flowers, 

 each separated by a long, rigid, chaffy substance, 



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

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

 removing roughnesses in plaster casts, 



