204 beeck's new book of flowers. 



to the shrubbery with fine effect, as its tall, spire-like 

 spikes, crowned with its large thimble or bell-shaped pur- 

 ple or white flowers, will finely contrast with the green 

 foliage of the shrubs. 



D. ferril^inea, or Iron-colored Foxglove ; a hardy per- 

 ennial, with brown flowers, from July to August ; four 

 feet high. 



D. lutea^ or Small Yellow Foxglove ; a hardy peren- 

 nial, with light yellow flowers, from July to August; 

 two feet high. 



D. OChroleuca. — Great Yellow Foxglove.— A hardy 

 perennial, with large light yellow flowers, from July to 

 August ; four feet high. 



D. lanata* — Woolly-flowered Foxglove, with white and 

 brown flowers, from July to August ; two feet liigh. All 

 the species are poisonous when taken into the system, and 

 the leaves are used medicinally. 



" It is a pity this plant is poisonous, for it is extremely 

 beautiful, particularly those kinds which are of a deep- 

 rose color. They are all speckled within the bell, which 

 adds still more to their richness. Mrs. C. Smith invites 

 the bee to 



" Explore the Foxglove's freckled bell." 



Brown uses a similar epithet when he describes Pan as 

 seeking gloves for his mistress, a curious conceit : 



" To keep her slender fingers from the sunne, 

 Pan through the pastures oftentimes hath runne, 

 To plucke the speckled Fox-Gloves from their stem 

 And on those fingers neatly placed them." 



" The bee apjjears regardless of its poisonous qualities : 



'* Bees that soar for bloom 



High as the highest peak of Furnace Fells, 



Will murmur by the hour in Fox-Glove heUs.''^—Wadswortk''s Sonnet." 

 " The Fox-Glove, in whose drooping bells the bee 

 Makes her sweet music."— B. CornwalL 

 " Let me thy vigils keep 

 'Mongst boughs pavilioned, where the deer's swift leap 

 Startles the wild bee from the Fox-Glove heW."— Keats, 



