32 



TEASEL. DIPSACUS. 

 WILD TEASEL. Dipsacus sylvestris. 

 Plate 1, fig. 14. 



Very common in the ditches of England, though not of 

 Scotland ; growing three, four, or even five feet high, and 

 bearing, in the latter part of the summer, thick tapering heads 

 of small pink flowers, that are succeeded each by a single seed, 

 which is angular, furnished at the top with eight pores, and 

 crowned by a rim that was the calyx. The leaves are well 

 worth attention, as an example of one of the methods whereby 

 plants are preserved against drought. They are wide, large, 

 opposite, and every pair so joined together at the lower part as 

 to form a large cup ; in this not only the rain is collected, but 

 the dews of night, by trickling down the leaves, give a fresh 

 supply of water day by day, even in the hottest and driest 

 weather. The whole plant is covered with hooks and prickles, 

 so that it is seldom gathered, except the old receptacles after 

 the seeds have fallen out. These are very stiff and hard, and 

 are called by the country children of Essex and other places, 

 Barber's Brushes, and they form, if not a good -shaped, at least 

 a very penetrating hair brush. 



O.S. There are two others ; Small Teasel, which is now and then met 

 with in damp hedges; and Fuller's Teasel, grown in Yorkshire and Wilt- 

 shire, used to put the nap upon fine woollen cloth, by being drawn over it 

 quickly, when it drags the loose fibres of the cloth all in the same direction. 



" Armed with the bended awns that pull 

 Through the close web the knotted wool, 

 Raise the soft downy nap, and smooth 

 The texture with tenacious tooth. 

 No skilful art a tool has planned, 

 To match that gift of nature's hand." Bishop Mant. 



SCABIOUS. SCABIOSA. 

 FIELD SCABIOUS. Scabiosa arvensis. 



Plate 1, fg. 15. 

 Corolla four-cleft. Lower leaves ovate, upper deeply cut. 



This really beautiful plant is found in fields and hedge-rows ; 

 growing three or four feet high, bearing its leaves and 

 branches all opposite ; each branch ending in a close flat head 



