WOLF'S-BANE. 



WOOL. 



naged in the culture of the plants, they will 

 often afford two or three gatherings, but the 

 best cultivators seldom take more than two, 

 which are sometimes mixed together in the 

 manufacturing of them. It is necessary that 

 the after croppings, when they are taken, are 

 constantly kept separate from the others, as 

 they would injure the whole if blended together, 

 and considerably diminish the value of the pro- 

 duce. It is said that the best method, where 

 a third cropping is either wholly or partially 

 made, is to keep it separate, forming it into an 

 inferior kind of woad. 



The produce is mostly from about a ton to a 

 ton and a half of green leaves. The price 

 varies considerably; but for woad of the prime 

 quality it is often from 25/. to 30/. the ton, and 

 for that of an inferior quality 6/. or 7/., and 

 sometimes much more. 



To prepare it for the dyer, it is bruised by ma- 

 chinery to press out the watery part; it is after- 

 wards formed into balls and fermented, re- 

 ground, and fermented in vats, where it is 

 evaporated into cakes in the manner of indigo. 

 The haulm is burned for manure or spread 

 over the straw-yard, to be fermented along with 

 straw-dung. 



The use of woad in dyeing is as a basis for 

 the black and other colours. 



To save seed, leave some of the plants unde- 

 nuded of their leaves the second year, and 

 when it is ripe in July or August, treat it like 

 turnip-seed. 



The only diseases to which the woad is liable 

 are the mildew and rust; when young it is 

 often attacked by the fly, and obliged to be re- 

 sown, and this even on winter-ploughed grass 

 lands more than once. (London.) 



WOLF'S-BANE (dconitum). A genus of 

 ornamental, tall, free-flowering, very hardy 

 plants, succeeding well under the shade of 

 trees ; increased by division or by seeds. All 

 the species are to be dreaded, being of a poi- 

 sonous quality, highly narcotic, and acid. The 

 aconite has, however, become of great service 

 as a narcotic in many very troublesome disor- 

 ders. One species, the common wolf's-bane 

 or monk's-hood (A. napcllus}, is a native of 

 Greece, but now grows wild in this country in 

 watery places. It is perennial in habit. Root 

 fleshy, tapering; stem erect, simple, leafy, 

 clothed with minute, close hairs, and terminat- 

 ing in a solitary, simple, upright, spike-like 

 panicle of large, dark-blue, helmeted flowers, 

 without scent. The nectaries are full of honey, 

 and form the spur of the flower. Leaves deeply 

 five-cleft, cut, with linear segments, furrowed 

 above, and of a deep green, but pale beneath. 

 See ACONITE. 



WOOD. The fibrous or ligneous substance 

 of which the branches, trunks, and roots of 

 trees are principally composed. In vascular 

 trunks, the hardest wood is always in the 

 centre. See BAHK, LIBER, LIGNIN, TIMBER, 

 TRKKS, &C. 



WOODBINE. See HONEYSUCKLE. 



WOOD-RUSH (Luciola, from the Gramen 

 Luzulae, or glow-worm grass of Bauhin). These 

 plants are nearly related to Juncus, from which 

 they are at once distinguished by their flat 

 leaves. They possess little beauty, and are of 

 1152 



the easiest culture. There are seven indige- 

 nous species, all of which are described in 

 Snritk't Ens;. Flor. vol. ii. p. 177. 



WOODSIA (named in honour of Joseph 

 Woods, F. L. S., an excellent practical British 

 botanist, who first illustrated our native species 

 of A'osa). A genus of small ferns, of which 

 two species only have hitherto been discover- 

 ed : the oblong Woodsia ( W. ilvensis), and the 

 rounded-leaved Woodsia ( W.hyperboreo). These 

 ferns grow best in peat and loam mixed, and 

 are increased by division, or by seed. Their 

 roots are fibrous; fronds tufted, erect, stalked, 

 pinnate, pinnatifid, clothed with simple hairs, 

 or narrow-pointed scales. (Smith's Eng. Flor. 

 vol. iv. p. 322.) 



WOOD-SORREL (Oxalis, from oxys, acid; 

 the leaves have an acid taste). Most of the 

 plants of this genus deserve cultivating on ac- 

 count of their very pretty blossoms, which are 

 produced in great abundance. The hardy 

 species should be planted in a shady border, 

 where they will grow and flower very freely. 

 The seeds of the hardy annual species may be 

 sown in the open border in spring. There are 

 in England two wild native species, 1. The 

 common wood-sorrel (O. acctosella), which 

 grows abundantly in groves and shady places. 

 Stalks radical, single-flowered. Leaves ternate, 

 inversely heart-shaped, hairy ; root of many 

 scaly joints. Leaflets of a delicate bright green, 

 often purplish at the back, drooping at night, on, 

 long, hairy, radical, purplish foot-stalks. Flow- 

 ers solitary, drooping, bell-shaped, either white 

 or purplish, always streaked with fine branching 

 purple veins. When ripe, the blackish shining 

 seeds are projected to a distance on the slight- 

 est touch or motion, by their elastic tunics, 

 which remain contracted and wrinkled in the 

 capsule. This herb is powerfully and most 

 agreeably acid, making a refreshing and whole- 

 some conserve with fine sugar; its flavour 

 resembling green tea. Few of our wild flowers 

 are more elegant. 



2. Yellow procumbent wood-sorrel (O. cor- 

 niculata'). This species is annual, growing in 

 shady, rather moist waste ground. The root is 

 fibrous, and it has become almost a weed in 

 gardens. Stems branched, procumbent Flower 

 stalks in small umbels of yellow flowers. 



Several species of oxalis have been found in 

 the United States, among which are the follow- 

 ing, enumerated by Nuttall. I. O. acetosella. 

 2. violacea. This species appears often to 

 flower again late in the autumn, and is then 

 destitute of leaves. 3. Lyoni. PH. 4. Corniculata, 

 5. Stricta. 6. Dillenii. These two last are 

 scarcely distinct species. 



This genus of more than 100 species is, with 

 a few exceptions in Europe and America, pe- 

 culiarly indigenous to the Cape of Good Hope. 

 The leaves of all the species are more or less 

 sensitive and nictitant. (Paxton's Bot. Diet.; 

 Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 323.) See SORREL. 



WOOD-WASP. See SAW-FLY. 



WOOD- WAXEN. See GREENWEED. 



WOOL (Germ, wolk; Dutch, wol; Rus. 

 wolna). The soft, hairy, or downy substance 

 which forms the covering of sheep, and js 

 found in smaller proportion on many other 

 animals. It is an article which has continued 



