216 TETRANDRJA. MONOGYNIA. DiPsAccs. 
D. sylves'tris. Leaves in opposite pairs, united at the base ; chaff 
straight. 
Jacq. Austr. 402— Curt. 202— {E. Bot. 1032. E.)— Blackw. 50— Fuchs. 
225— J. B. iii. 74 —Matth. 662— Bod. 735—Lob. Obs. 487. 3 —Ger. Em. 
1167. 2—Park. 984. 2—Ger. 1005. 1— H. Ox. vii. 36. 3. 
(A plant of more slender habit than the preceding, about four feet high. 
The leaves at the base of each pair form a cavity capable of retaining a 
considerable quantity of water long after heavy showers. E.)* 
Leaves spear-shaped, the mid-rib set with hooked prickles, as is also the 
stem. Common calyx leaves of various lengths, rising up and some over¬ 
topping the flowering head. 
Wild Teasel. (Welsh: Teilai gwylit. D. sylvestris. Linn. Syst. Veg. 
Willd. Sm. D. fallonum a. Linn. Sp. PI. Huds. E.) Uncultivated. 
cultivation of teasel. Weeding, draining, and other requisites, demand a constant la¬ 
bour throughout the year, and hence a certain expense is incurred ; but remuneration, 
loss, or great profit, circumstances must determine ; nor, perhaps, is there any article 
grown more precarious or mutable in its returns. The heads are cut from the plant with 
a knife peculiarly formed, and then fastened to poles for drying. A moist season 
proves highly injurious: they cannot be stacked like corn, as pressure destroys the 
spines, and a free circulation of air is required to dry them thoroughly. Shelter must be 
sought, so that the very bed-rooms of cottages are crowded with them in dripping sea¬ 
sons, and they are basked in the sun with every passing gleam ; which is attended with 
more trouble than the farmers care to bestow upon them. In casualty w'eather teasels 
have been known to vary from 4/. to 22/. the pack ! from 51. to 71. may be the average 
price ; 10,000 heads to the pack. An average crop for two years may be seven packs 
to the acre ; which at 6/., will bring 42/.; expences 13/. 16s., leaving a clear profit for two 
years upon an acre (after deducting among other outgoings rent 4/.) 28/. 4s. This is a 
great temptation to venture on cultivation ; yet the manufacturers are so sensible of 
the risk and trouble, that they prefer purchasing to-growdng it. The teasel affords a 
rare instance of natural production being applied to mechanical purposes in the 
state in which it is produced. The object designed to be effected by its use cannot be 
supplied by any artificial contrivance, successive inventions having been abandoned as 
defective or injurious. Many heads are fixed in a frame, and with this the surface of 
the cloth is teased, or brushed, until all the ends of the wool are drawn out (so as to 
bring a regular pile or nap) by the fine hooks with which the terminating points of the 
chaffy substance of the teasel are furnished. To accomplish the proper dressing of a 
piece of fine cloth consumes from 500 to 2000 heads. Vid. also PI. ii. 4, of that work. 
Country people are still said to cure agues in various parts of England by a singular 
remedy obtained from this plant, which can only be supposed to operate on an excited 
imagination. If the heads be opened longitudinally in the autumn, one small worm 
may frequently be found in each head, whence naturalists have named it the Vermis 
solitarius Dipsaci. Of these, three, five, or seven, (always an odd number,) must be 
collected, sealed up in a quill, and wmrn, with good faith, as an amulet which will prevail 
against the ague. E.) 
* This species affords a fine exemplar of what is termed the connate leaf. An inge¬ 
nious author remarks, “The reservoirs formed by the united leaves collect the rain; 
sometimes containing half a pint or more, Avhich sustains the plant during long drought. 
In desert countries, the weary and fevered traveller would often exchange the whole of 
his properly for the luxury of a draught from one of these water-lodging plants ; but in 
this country the moisture is of more use to the plant, itself than to the passenger or to the 
possessor.” Indeed this curious structure would appear, in the present instance, to be 
rather destructive than preservative of animal life, for in the basins formed by these con¬ 
nate leaves many insects are drowned,- so that Dipsacus may rank among the vegetable 
Muscicapie. E.)* 
