THE FOXGLOVE. 155 



garden in a thoroughly rural district, and yet that in the 

 hedgerows around they should be so entirely absent. 



The foxglove is the Digitalis purpurea of the botanist. 

 The genus contains but this one indigenous species in our 

 flora, though several other species are found abroad, and 

 some of these occasionally find their way into our gardens. 

 The generic name is a Latin word, and signifies that which 

 pertains to the digitus, or finger ; and in some parts of the 

 country the plant is called finger-flower. The specific title 

 indicates its colour, though, like most purple flowers, it 

 occasionally varies to white. It is a plant of many names; 

 but as these are mostly of local and provincial bestowal, 

 we need scarcely stop to mention them, nor attempt to 

 analyse their meaning. Thimbles, fairy's dresses, the 

 mouths of tigers, lions, and dragons, and many other 

 objects, have been pressed into the service, from the rustic 

 desire to find some appropriate similitude. 



The foxglove ordinarily throws up one or more flowering 

 stems ; these are, on an average, from three to four feet 

 high, though even this may at times be exceeded. These 

 flowering stems give off a few leaves, that gradually 

 diminish in size from below upwards; these are on the 

 lower portion of the stem, the upper being occupied by the 

 long line of graceful bell-like flowers. The radical leaves 

 spread out like a large rosette ; they are on long stalks, 

 and of considerable size. The veins are a very prominent 

 feature in all the leaves. The plant is ordinarily a 

 biennial ; in the first year, therefore, it forms the large 

 tuft of broad and rugged radical leaves, and in the second 

 year, at the appropriate season, the flower-stem is formed. 

 It will sometimes continue to blossom for two or three 

 years. It flowers from May to August. The blossom is 



