L
[ I03 2 ]
DIPSACUS fylveftris.
W ild Teafel.
T E TR AN D R IA Monogynia.
G en. C har. General calyx of many leaves; partial
fuperior, of one leaf. Receptacle chaffy. Seed-
crown cup-fhaped.
Spec. C har. Leaves oppofite, ferrated. Scales of
the receptacle ftraight. General calyx indexed,
longer than the head of flowers.
Sy n . Dipfacus fylveftris. Linn. Syjl. Veg. ed. 14.
14 3. Sm. FI. Brit. 168. Hudf. ed. 1 . 49.
With. 182. Hull. 33. Relb. 58. Sibtb. 54.
Abbot. 2,9. Curt. Lond.fafc. 3. t. 9. Raii Syn. 192.
D. fullonum u. Linn. Sp. PI. 14°" Hudf. 61.
F r e q u e n t by road-fides, and on the banks of ditches,
flowering in July.
Root biennial. Stem about 4 feet high, ftraight, branched,
hollow, angular and prickly. Leaves oppofite, often joined
at the bafe, oblong, ferrated, bright green, veiny, prickly but
not hairy; the radical ones blunter, crenate, deprefled. Heads
of flowers terminal, folitary, ovate, ereft, encompafled with
a many-leaved linear prickly inflexed involucrum, or outer
calyx, riling generally above the yppermoft flowers, fometimes
dilated at the ends. Flowers very numerous, denfe, palilh
purple, downy, tubular, 4-cleft, each accompanied by a long,
prominent, ftraight, pungent, linear-lanceolate fcale of the
receptacle. Seeds angular, crowned with the inner calyx.
We know of no ufe to which this plant can be applied. Its
heads are fometimes mixed by accident or fraud among parcels
of the manured Teafel, but, for want of the hooked feales which
characterize that fpecies, are entirely ufelefs for drefling cloth.
1032.