112 WILD nowEits OF SUMMER. 



As the summer advances, one of the most beautiful 

 of old English wild flowers begins to bloom. The 

 large, hoary, green, woolly leaves of the Foxglove 

 (Digitalis purpurea) have remained all winter in shel- 

 tered spots ; and when midsummer is past the flower- 

 stalks arise, generally .solitary, but bearing the lovely 

 bell-like purplish flowers one above the other, their 

 heads all turned one way, to the height of three or 

 four feet. The foxglove is one of the plants which 

 mark the geological strata. It flourishes best when 

 it can nod its handsome head over the earlier forma- 

 tions. In Devon, Cornwall, Wales, and the south of 

 Ireland, it is especially handsome. In the Midland 

 districts, away from the carboniferous system, it 

 becomes dwarfed and scarce. Its common name is a 

 corruption of Folk's (i. e., Fairy) glove ; and it has. 

 besides, the common names of fairy thimbles and fairy 

 bells in Munster, where it is more than common. 

 "When it is transplanted to a garden, its flowers 

 become pale, often white, and lose their speckled 

 appearance, by which you recognize it as 



" the foxglove that Tom stays to pop, 

 Though his mother has sent him for bread to the shop." 



The popping is produced by closing the opening of 



