FOXGLOVE 79 
Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea, L.) 
The Foxglove is distributed throughout West Europe in the N. 
Temperate Zone. It is unknown in early deposits. In Great Britain 
it is absent in Cambridge, Hunts, Northants, E. Gloucs, S. Lincs, 
Mid Lancs, E. Sutherland, Shetlands, ascending to 2000 ft. in the 
Highlands. It occurs in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 
The Foxglove is a plant that frequents upland wooded tracts, stony 
hillsides with scattered clumps of trees. In such places it is common. 
Elsewhere it is a casual, a few seeds cast adventitiously on sandy 
ground propagating and spreading in an astonishingly short period of 
time. It does not frequent as a rule low-lying ground. 
The stem is tall and handsome, simple, leafy, downy, with spreading 
hairs, rounded. The lower leaves are stalked, between egg-shaped and 
lance-shaped, scalloped, toothed, deeply veined, with a marked midrib, 
downy both sides. The upper stem-leaves are stalkless. 
The flowers are borne upon a long raceme with flowers all turned 
one side, on 1-flowered flower-stalks, thickened and suberect. The 
sepals are between egg-shaped and lance-shaped, with nerves, the 
posterior one small. The corolla is bell-shaped, monopetalous or 
tubular, purple, with spots within the mouth, gaping behind, and the 
upper lip is somewhat cloven, the lower one has rounded segments. 
The erect capsule is 2-valved, the seeds numerous, small, round, and 
black or reddish-brown, and flattened lengthwise. 
The stately stem reaches a height of 4 ft. The Foxglove is in 
flower from June to September. The plant is biennial, reproduced by 
seeds. It is largely cultivated. 
The flower is a big clapper-like bell hanging downwards, protecting 
the honey in a ring at the base of the ovary. It is visited only by 
humble bees. The anthers mature before the stigma. If insects do not 
visit it, it pollinates itself. An annular or ring-like ridge at the base of 
the ovary, which is quite smooth and hairy above, secretes the honey, 
serving to give a foothold, or to exclude flies, &c. “The anthers and 
stigma near the upper wall of the corolla point downwards. The lower 
stamens mature before the upper and before the stigma, and the longer 
first become vertical, then the shorter ones. The 4 anthers open 
before the lobes of the stigma separate. The pistil lies between the 
anthers. Insects touch the latter on entering, and may remove all the 
pollen before the stigma is ripe. If insects do not visit them the 
anthers are covered with pollen till the lobes of the stigma have spread 
