Teazle. 201 



sale. They seem to appear in numbers upon those 

 oak bushes rather than trees which spring up when 

 an oak has been cut down but the stump has not been 

 grubbed up. These shoots at first often bear leaves 

 of great size, many times larger than the ordinary 

 oak leaf; some are reall}' immense, measuring 

 occasionally fourteen or fifteen inches in length. As 

 the shoots grow into a bush the leaves diminish in 

 size and become like those of the tree. 



In the ditch the tall teazle lifts its prickl}- head. 

 The large leaves of this plant grow in pairs, one on 

 each side of the stem, and while the plant is young 

 are connected in a curious manner b}- a green mem- 

 brane, or continuation of the lower part of the leaf 

 round the stem, so as to form a cup. The stalk rises 

 in the centre of the cup, and of these vessels there 

 are three or four above each other in stories. AVheu 

 it rains, the drops, instead of falling oflT as from other 

 lea-\'es, run down these and are collected in the cups, 

 which thus form so many natural rain-gauges. If it 

 is a large plant, the cup nearest the ground — the 

 biggest" — will hold as much as two or three wine- 

 glasses. This water remains there for a considerable 

 time, for several daj's after a shower, and is fatal to 

 numbers of insects which climb up the stalk or alight 

 on the leaves and fall in. While the grass and the 

 earth of the bank are quite dry, therefore, the teazle 

 often has a supply of water ; and when it dries up, 

 the drowned insects remain at the bottom like the 

 dregs of a draught the plant has drained. Round 

 the prickly dome-shaped head, as the summer advan- 

 ces, two circles of violet-hued flowers push out from 

 cells defended b}' the spines, so that, seen protruding 



