Bible Encyclopedias
Teasel

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Search for…

Enter query below:

or

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Prev Entry
Tear

Next Entry
Teate Marrucinorum

Resource Toolbox

Print Article

Additional Links

Dictionaries
Webster Dictionary
• Teaselling
• Teaselled
• Teaseling
•   (only first 3 shown)
Encyclopedias
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Teasel

Wild teasel is a common plant of the English copses and hedges, with a tall, stout, rigid, prickly stem, bearing large spreading opposite leaves, the midrib of which is prickly, and conspicuous oblong heads, the purplish flowers in which are subtended by very long, narrow, stiff, upright bracts. The plant is known botanically as Dipsacus sylvestris. Fuller's teasel, D. Fullonum, in which the bracts are hooked, is probably a cultivated form of the wild species; the dry heads are used to comb up the nap on cloth. The genus Dipsacus gives its name to the family Dipsaceae, to which also belongs the Scabious (Scabiosa), represented in Britain by several species.