After the
flower-heads wither, the stems are cut about eight inches long,
stripped of prickles, to provide a handle, and after drying, the
natural tool is ready for use.
Bristling with armor, the teasel is not often attacked by
browsing cattle. Occasionally even the upper leaf surfaces are
dotted over with prickles enough to tear a tender tongue. This is
a curious feature, for prickles usually grow out of veins. In the
receptacle formed where the bases of the upper leaves grow
together, rain and dew are found collected - a certain cure for
warts, country people say. Venus' Cup, Bath, or Basin, and Water
Thistle, are a few of the teasel's folk names earned by its
curious little tank. In it many small insects are drowned, and
these are supposed to contribute nourishment to the plant; for
Mr. Francis Darwin has noted that protoplasmic filaments reach
out into the liquid.
Owing to the stiff spines which radiate from the flower cluster,
the bumblebees, which principally fertilize it, can reach the
florets only with their heads, and not pollenize them by merely
crawling over them as in the true compositae.
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