DIGITALIS PURPUREA. 245 
power of diminishing the rapidity of the circulation cannot be 
doubted; but this effect is, as Dr. Holland justly remarks, “ of 
less real moment than is generally supposed” (Pereira, op. 
cit., vol. ii. p. 845). In palpitation of the heart (Otto, 
Joret, Heisinger). Organic diseases of the heart, with hydro- 
thorax (Kreysig). Inflammation of the heart (Davis). In 
hypertrophy, with dilatation (Schdnlein). In aneurism of 
the aorta, by lessening the force of the circulation, and allow- 
ing the coagulation of the blood in the sac, etc. etc. In insanity 
and melancholia (Jones, Cox, Currie, Huas, Halloran, etc.) In 
epilepsy (Scott). Amaurosis (Horn), etc. etc. (Vide Noack and 
Trinks, op. cit., p. 688). 
“ We have few indigenous plants, not one perhaps, which 
we have so often summoned to aid us in our distresses as the 
Foxglove ; no plant, not even the colchicum, has been more the 
object of our fears, our hopes, our trust, and disappointment 
than this; we have been grateful for the relief it has afforded, 
and we have mourned the insufficiency of its powers. Could 
we rely upon its yielding the virtues it is considered to possess, 
or could we regulate or control its influence, it would exist un- 
rivalled for beauty and worth amidst our island plants” (Anapp, 
Journ. of a Nat., 2nd edit., p. 90). 
Description —This elegant and beautiful plant is a biennial, 
and flowers from June to August. The root is composed of nume- 
Stem from three to five, and even 
rous long and slender fibres. 
» with 
six feet high, upright, mostly simple, leafy, roundis 
several slight angles, pubescent, or downy. Leaves alternate, 
between egg-shaped and spear-shaped, crenate, downy, rugged, 
and veiny, of a dull green above, whitish underneath, 
tapering at the base into winged footstalks ; root-leaves largest. 
Flowers large and handsome, in long terminal spikes or clusters, 
pendulous, and leaning all one way. Bracteas spear-shaped. — 
Flower-stalks pubescent, thickest at the top, one-flowered ; after 
the flower drops off becoming nearly upright ; segments of the 
calyx egg-shaped, pointed, the upper segment narrower than 
