TEAZLE FAMILY 243 



Hated, ciccurs rarely on banks, but is not native. — Fl. April — 

 June. Annual. 



4. )'. rinwsa (Sharp-fruited Corn-salad). — About a foot high, 

 more s.lender than V. oliloria ; flowers solitary in the forks of a 

 loose cyme, pale blue ; jniit sub-globose, crowned by r erect 

 tooth, with Its barren chambers inflated and larger than the fer- 

 tile one, which is not cork)'. — Cornfields ; rare. — Fl. June — 

 August. Annual. 



5. V. denldla (Toothed Corn-salad). — Similar to the last; leaves 

 much toothed towards the base ; flowers flesh-coJoured ; fruit not 

 inflated, crowned with the same unequally 4-toothed calyx. — Corn- 

 fields and banks ; common. — Fl. June — August. Annual. 



Ord. XL. DiPSACE.E. — The Te,\zle Family 



A small Order of herbaceous plants inhabiting temperate 

 regions, and possessing no remarkable properties.. The leaves are 

 general!)' opposite and exstipulate, and the flowers, like those of 

 the Composites, are crowded together in heads -with an involucre 

 of bracts ; but each flower is also surrounded, by a calyx-like 

 iiivolucel of several more or less rigid bracteoles. The cahw is 

 superior, expanding into a cup shaped tube generally with a 

 pappus ; eorolla tubular, with 4 — 5 uneijual l^bes ; stamens 4, 

 epipetalous, not united ; jruit drv, indehiscent, i -seeded. The 

 most striking distinction between the members of this and those 

 of the following Order is the 4 free stamens is each flower, or 

 floret, as it is often called. Dipsacus Fullonum is the Fuller's 

 Teazle, a plant with large c\lindric heads of flowers, which are 

 embedded in stifl', hooked bracts. These heads fire set m frames 

 and used in dressing broad-cloth, the hooks catching up and 

 remo\-ing all loose particles of wool, but giving, way when held 

 last bv the substance of the cloth. This is almost the only 

 process in the manufacture of cloth which it has been found 

 impossible to execute by machinerv ; for although various 

 substitutes have been proposed, none has [iroved on trial exactly 

 to answer the purpose. 



1. F)fF.s.ACU.s. — Inner hraets spinous and prominent, terming 

 rigid awns all over the head. 



2. .Sc.AKKJSA. — Inner brads inconspicuous scales or hairs; 

 common receptacle cylindric. 



3. Kxai'ti.a. — Common receptacle hairy, hemispherical. 



I, Dipsacus (Teazle). — Erect prickly plants: stems angular; 

 leaves usually connate at the base ; heads usually elongated ; with 

 a columnar common receptacle; stiff spreading involucral bracts; 



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