TEASEL, Dipsacus, a genus of plants of the natural order Dipsacea or Dipsacacem. This order consists of herbaceous and half-shrubby exogenous plants, with opposite or whorled leaves, and flowers in heads or whorls, surrounded by a many-leaved involucre. About 150 species are known, natives of the temperate parts of the Old World. In the genus Dipsacus, the flowers are separated from each other by long, stiff, prickle-pointed bracts. The only valuable species of the order is the FULLER'S TEASEL, or CLOTHIER'S TEASEL (D. fullonum), a native of the s. of Europe, naturalized is some parts of Eng land. It is a biennial, several feet high, with sessile serrated leaves, the stem and leaves prickly; and with cylindrical heads of pale or white flowers, between which are oblong, acuminated, rigid bracts, hooked at the point. The heads are cut off when the plant is in flower, and are used in woolen factories, and by fullers and stockingmakers, for raising the nap on cloth. No mechanical contrivance has yet been found to equal teasel
for this purpose; to which the hooked points, the rigidity, and the elasticity of the bracts are admirably adapted. The heads of teasel are fixed on the circumference of a wheel or cylinder, which is made to revolve against the surface of the cloth. Teasel is cultivated in many parts of Europe, and is imported into Britain from Holland and France. It is cultivated to some extent in England, particularly in Somersetshire and Yorkshire. The seed is sown in March, on well-prepared strong rich land, and the plants thinned out to a foot apart. In August of the second year, the heads are ready to be cut. They are packed in bundles of 25 each, and about 160 such bundles are the usual produce of an acre. The flowers of teasel abound in honey, and the seeds are used for feeding poultry. The root was formerly in use as a diuretic and sudorific.