MARJORAM 83 
flowster being to flourish, flutter in showy colours. Foxglove is folk 
(fairies) glove. 
The plant was called Witches’ Bells because witches were sup- 
posed to wear the flowers on their fingers. So, too, fairies’ petticoats 
were formed of the corolla, and glove and caps also. Fairies used 
it as a thimble to mend their clothes. The plant was used as a cure 
for hydrophobia. 
This plant is poisonous, acting strongly upon the heart, and is used 
in medicine, the leaves being used as a sedative and diuretic. The 
pulse can be regulated by a careful administration of this drug. Taken 
in excess it causes vomiting, purging, delirium, sweating, convulsion, 
and death. It is emetic and purgative, and has been used for epilepsy, 
and as an ointment for scrofula, tumours, and ulcers. 
EssenTIAL Speciric CHARACTERS :— 
233. Digitalis purpurea, L.—Stem tall, erect, leaves ovate, veined, 
downy below, lower petioled, flowers purple, spotted, drooping, in 
terminal raceme, campanulate. 
Marjoram (Origanum vuigare, L.) 
As a woodland species of Northern and Arctic regions one would 
almost expect to find evidence that this plant is an ancient one, but so 
far it has not been forthcoming. It is found throughout Arctic Europe, 
N. Africa, Siberia, Dahuria, W. Asia, as far east as the Himalayas, 
and it has been introduced into North America. 
In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, 
Anglia, and Severn provinces, and occurs in S. Wales generally, except 
in Radnor, N. Wales; in the Trent province except in S. Lincs; West- 
morland; W. Lowlands, but not in Dumfries; in E. Highlands, not in 
Stirling, N. Aberdeen, Easterness; in W. Highlands, only in S. 
Ebudes; N. Highlands, Caithness. It is rare in Scotland. In York- 
shire it grows at 1300 ft. It is local in Ireland. 
Marjoram is one of those sweet-smelling plants which lend such 
charm to the woodlands when all the flowers are in bloom. It is found 
in upland districts in woods, copses, and plantations, as well as along 
the hedgerows, where the soil is dry, or perhaps the surface covered 
with a small rubble of stones. Marjoram is an erect plant with a slender, 
tetragonal stem, purple, downy, branched, with opposite ascending 
branches more slender too. The leaves are opposite, egg-shaped, 
stalked and toothed, downy beneath. 
The flowers are in dense, corymbose cymes, with egg-shaped 
