FOX-GLOVE. 179 



FOX-GLOVE. Dlcjltalis. 



Natural Order Lvridre. Perso?ie(c, Juss. A Genus of 

 the Didynamia Angiospermia Class. 



Explore tlie Fox-Glove's freckled bell. 



Charlotte Smith. 



This beautiful but deleterious plant, which so 

 highly ornaments the banks of our hedge-rows and 

 the borders of our woods, has been admitted into 

 the pleasure-grounds to embellish the shrubbery by 

 its noble spikes of pendant flowers, which hang 

 with such peculiar grace from the spiral branches 

 that they may be compared to a tower of Chinese 

 bells, balanced for the pleasure of the zephyrs. 

 When these flowers advance from the calyx, they 

 are securely closed at the end by the four clefts of 

 the corolla, which meet so exactly as to prevent the 

 admission of air until the parts of fructification have 

 arrived at their maturity, at which period the lips 

 of the flower bui*st open in a bell or trumpet shape, 

 displaying the beautiful leopard spots of the inte- 

 rior of the flower. In this state the corolla remains 

 for some days until the anthers have discharged 

 their farina, when the mask drops ofl', that the sun 



