THE FRITILLARY 435 



as a medicinal plant, being applied externally 

 to ulcers and scrofulous tumours, and internally 

 as a sedative, narcotic, and diuretic, in diseases of 

 the heart and dropsy.' Another authority states 

 that the use of this plant is highly valued in 

 Paris, and that the flower is often painted upon 

 the doorposts of an apothecary's house. 



It is from the leaf of the foxglove that the 

 medicine known as digitalis is procured. In 

 some parts of the country it is known by the 

 name of ' finger-flower,' hence the derivation of 

 the name of digitalis (digitus, a finger). 



It is impossible to pass by the graceful fritillary 

 without some few remarks, although there is 

 apparently neither special legendary interest nor 

 virtue attached to it. It is one of our rarer 

 British wild-flowers, though in some districts in 

 which it is to be found it was formerly plentiful, 

 and doubtless would be so at the present time 

 were it not for the ruthless greed of the wholesale 

 collectors of botanical specimens and the swarms 

 of excursionists, who have done their best to 

 exterminate it. It is more commonly in the 

 Eastern and South-Eastern counties of England 

 that the fritillary thrives best, and although 

 when transplanted it will at times live and 

 flower annually, I have observed that it does not 

 increase in numbers, as is the case when it is 

 left to flourish in its native water-meadows. I 

 have made some five or six attempts to trans- 

 plant this flower, but without success. It has 



