By Thomas Bruges Flower, Esq. 



265 



as to form a kind of cup in which water collects, so that the stem 

 is completely surrounded by water at the places from which the 

 leaves arise. The water found collected within the cavity of the 

 connate leaves must, I imagine, be secreted or eliminated by the 

 plant itself, since I observed it to be abundantly furnished during 

 the present unusually dry and hot season, June, 1865. When no rain 

 has fallen for some weeks, and very little dew has been deposited 

 at night, yet the water remains unevaporated by the intense heat of 

 the suns direct rays. I have remarked also that on the same plant 

 whilst some of the leaves held water in considerable quantity, others 

 contained either very little or none at all which seems to point at 

 a great inequality of the secreting activity of different leaves or 

 other parts of the individual plant. The old receptacles are called 

 by the country children of Wiltshire, and other places Barber's 

 Brushes, and they form, when the seeds have fallen out, if not a 

 good-shaped at least a very penetrating hair brush. 



D. Fullonum, (Linn.) Fuller's Teasel. Engl. Bot, t. 2080. Not 

 wild in the county, but occasionally found in the neighbourhood 

 of Melksham {North-west District), where it is sometimes culti- 

 vated. The heads of this plant are used by the manufacturers of 

 woollen cloths, in raising the nap to the desired length, which is 

 effected by passing the cloth under rapidly revolving cylinders, 

 covered with the teasels ; by which process the hooked extremities 

 of the scales slightly catch the cloth, and produce the requisite 

 effect. 



The chief difference between D. Fullonum, and D. sylvestris, 

 appears to consist in the hooked extremities of the scales, but it 

 has been stated that by long cultivation on a poor soil, these hooks 

 become obsolete, and the scales assume the appearance of those of 

 B. sylvestris, consequently there is every reason to believe that D. 

 Fullonum is only a variety of sylvestris. 



Dr. Prior tells us that the name Teasel, signifies to tease, and is 

 applied metaphorically to the scratching or teasing of cloth. 1 



1 "Popular Names of British Plants," by R. C. A. Prior M.D. An admir- 

 able work exhibiting considerable learning, and much research. 



