174 DIPSACUS. [class lY. order:. 



1. D. Fullo'num, Linn. (Fig. 216.) Fuller^s Teasel. Leaves opposite » 

 mostly united ; scales of the receptacle hooked backwards at the 

 extremity ; involucrum spreading. 



English Botany, t. 2081.— English Flora, vol. i. p. 192.— Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 139. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 163. 



This plant differs from the following, in the leaves being more fre- 

 quently united at the base, the leaves of the involucrum spreading, the 

 scales of the receptacle hairy, the points recurved and rougher. " These 

 hooks, however, become obsolete by long cultivation in a poor soil, and 

 there is every reason to believe that D. Fullonum is but a variety of 

 D. sylvestris." 



Habitat. — Waste places and hedge banks, but rare. 



Biennial ; flowering in July and August. 



The Teasel is a plant of great importance to the manufacturers 

 of woollen goods, and is cultivated to a considerable extent in our 

 southern counties, as well as in some parts of Yorkshire, and on 

 the Continent. The plants are grown best, and to the greatest perfec- 

 tion, in a strong soil : they are generally cultivated by the joint inte- 

 rests of the farmers and labourers, the former agreeing to find land 

 free of expense, together with manure and the use of his horses, while 

 the latter are at the remaining expense and all the labour, and finally 

 the profits arising from the sale of the heads are equally divided be- 

 tween the two parties. The heads are used in dressing woollen cloths, 

 for which purpose the hooked scales of the receptacle are admirably 

 adapted : indeed, no mechanical contrivance has yet been invented that 

 can supersede or equal them. The plants require much trouble and 

 care in their cultivation, and in the collecting and drying of the heads. 

 The crops are often unequal, and sometimes a complete failure ; con- 

 sequently, their value is very various, according to circumstances, 

 sometimes selling at £4, and at other times at £22 the pack : an acre 

 of land often produces 15 or 16 packs. The packs contain various 

 numbers. The larger tei-minal heads are called "kings," and there are 

 about 9,000 in a pack ; these are used for the dressing of the coarser 

 kinds of cloth. The middlings, sometimes termed " princes," have 

 from 18,000 to 20,000 in a pack, and are used for the finer and more 

 delicate qualities of cloth; and the " scrubs," which are the smallest 

 of the head.-, are of but little value. The heads are used by the 

 manufacturers, by fixing them upon frames covering a cylinder, which 

 is rapidly revolved, when the hooks at the extremity of the elastic 

 scales slightly catch the cloth, while another part of the machine draws 

 it under them; by this means the nap is raised to the desired length. 

 The hollow formed by the united base of the leaves, called " Venus's 

 cup," often contains nearly half a phit of fluid, which is esteemed a 

 cosmetic, but with what pretensions we know not. 



