THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



so much to give the history of the fox- 

 glove as to call attention to its useful- 

 ness in the herbaceous border of our 

 grounds, or as a foreground of a shrub- 

 bery or margin of a lawn. It will 

 thrive in odd corners. Its own digni- 

 fied bearing when in flower seems to 

 be communicated to all around it. I 

 have grown it for many years in great 

 abundance and in great luxuriance, for 

 it seems to like the sandy soil of my 

 garden. It comes up everywhere. 

 Fig. No. 1458 will give some idea of 

 how they grow when self-soum. This 

 is from a photograph of/ar/of a pacth 

 of fox-gloves which came up where 

 some old seed stems had been thrown 

 down. In a wild state in their native 

 land we seldom find more than two 

 or three flower stems to one plant, but ^^^ j^gQ 

 as I grow them I have sometimes as 

 many as 18 or 20, each with from 100 

 to 125 flowers on each. Fig. No. 1460 

 taken from three plants planted 6 feet 

 apart to break the flatness in a bed of 

 tulips, the one in the foreground had 15 

 spikes of bloom. Some of the spikes 

 shown at Mr. Woolverton's house in June 

 last were cut from this plant. I find that 

 a cedar or spruce hedge forms a fine 

 background to show them to good 

 advantage. They seem to like a partial 

 shade, at least, so as to be spared the 

 glare of the midday sun in this climate. 

 They require no care and no protection 

 in the winter with me. I can see the 

 seedlings by the tens of thousands now 

 in my garden coming up round the old 

 plants. Through the agency of the bees 

 I have every conceivable shade of color 

 from the purest white up to crimson- 

 purple. Seed sown late in the fall or 

 very early in the spring will flower the 

 following summer in June and July. 

 The seed is very fine and evidently 

 needs no covering but a little shade. 

 The seed is produced in great quanti- 

 ties. I made a calculation about a year 

 ago of how many seeds one plant of 



Three plants of Foxglove planted in 

 long bed of bulbs, 100 feet long, containing 1000 

 tulips. 



digitalis produced by counting the seeds 

 in one capsule or seed vessel. I found 

 it contained 250, a second one 310 

 seeds. Taking the average number of 

 capsule on each flower stem of fifteen to 

 be 100 there would be at least 375,000 

 seeds produced by one plant, a wonder- 

 ful illustration of the generous provision 

 made by nature for the propagation 

 and continuance of her " earth-born 

 blossoms." Fig. 1459 is from a photo- 

 graph of a few spikes of a Foxglove 

 at close range. 



All I need add to this already too 

 lengthy and discursive article, is, to say, 

 that in moving the plants from one place 

 to another, say from the seed patch, as 

 much earth as possible should be re- 

 tained about the roots. 



I trust that as a result of the bringing 

 of this plant to the notice of the readers 

 of the Horticulturist, many of them 

 will be induced to give a place in their 

 flower gardens and shrubberies to 

 Digitalis purpurea. 



A. Alexander. 



Hamilton, Ont. 



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