454 



D I G 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL 



D I G 



chaffy, many-leaved. These plants may be propagated both 

 from seeds and cuttings, must have the protection of a dry- 

 Stove or a glass-case, and may be managed like other Cape 

 plants. The species are, 



1. Didelta Carnosa; Succulent-leaved Didelta. Leaves 

 alternate, lanceolate-oblong, fleshy. Stem herbaceous, very 

 much branched, erect, round, eighteen inches in height ; 

 branches alternate, diffused, fleshy, smooth, green, the thick- 

 ness of a quill, the extreme branchlets woolly ; leaves from 

 an inch to two inches long, thick and juicy, entire, obtuse, 

 somewhat downy beneath ; flowers solitary, terminating, on 

 long peduncles, scarcely nodding, yellow. It is an annual ; 

 hut, like some other annuals, will last several years in the 

 stove, and become somewhat shrubby. It flowers in July ; 

 and is a native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



2. Didelta Spinosa ; Opposite-leaved Didelta. Leaves 

 opposite, somewhat stem-clasping, ovate. Stem shrubby, 

 erect ; leaves broad-ovate, somewhat heart-shaped, smooth, 

 with prickles above their insertion ; calix entire, the outer 

 of five leaves or segments. This plant is very smooth. It 

 flowers in June and July ; and is a native of the Cape. 



Didymodon, one of Hedwig's genera of Mosses. 



Dier's-broom, or Dier's-weecl. See Genista. 



Dier's-weed. See Reseda. 



Digitalis ; a genus of the class Didynamia, order Angio- 

 ipermia. GENERIC CHARACTKR. Calix : perianth five- 

 parted ; divisions roundish, sharp, permanent ; the superior 

 longer than the rest. Corolla : one- petalled, bell-form ; 

 tube large, expanding, bellied downward ; cylindric, and 

 close at the base ; border small, four-cleft ; upper division 

 more expanding, emarginate, inferior division larger. Sta- 

 mina: filamenta four, subulate, inserted into the base of 

 the corolla, bent downwards, of which two are longer ; 

 anthers two-parted, acuminate on one side. Pistil .- germen 

 acuminate ; style simple, in the situation of the stamina ; 

 Stigma sharp. Pericarp : capsule ovate, length of the calix, 

 acuminate, two-celled, two-valved ; valves bursting in two 

 directions ; according to Gaertner, partition double from the 

 inflex edges of the valves. Seeds : very many, small ; Gaertner 

 says, subprismatic. ESSENTIAL, CHARACTKR. Calix : five- 

 parted. Corolla : bell-form, five-cleft, bellying. Capsule .- 

 ovate, two celled. The species are. 



1. Digitalis Purpurea ; Purple Foxgloce. Calicine leaflets 

 ovate, acute ; corollas obtuse, upper lip entire, according 

 to Withering very slightly notched. Root biennial ; stem 

 three to six feet high, simple, upright, leafy, round, pubes- 

 cent ; leaves alternate, ovate-acute, serrate, veiny, wrinkled 

 underneath, whitish with pubescence, gradually lessening to 

 both ends ; petioles short, winged ; flowers in a long spike, 

 nodding, imbricato, all directed the same way ; peduncles 

 one-flowered, pubescent, thickest at top ; calix also pubes- 

 cent ; corolla purple ; the bellying part sprinkled in the 

 inside with spots like little eyes, or elegantly mottled; upper 

 segment entire and truncate ; lower bent in, obtusely lobed 

 above, and four-cleft, the lower segment somewhat longer : 

 filamenta a little broader at top, crooked at bottom ; antherae 

 at first large, turgid, ovate, cloven almost to the base, yel- 

 lowish, and often spotted, afterwards changing both their 

 form and situation in a singular manner ; germen rather 

 conical, very hairy ; stigma bifid ; nectary a gland surround- 

 ing the base of the germina ; the lowermost valve of the 

 capsule splits in two ; seeds dark -brown, truncate at both 

 ends. The corolla is generally of a fine purple ; but it varies 

 into different shades of that colour, and is frequently white 

 or cream-coloured. Some, says Parkinson, thinking Fox- 

 glove to be a foolish name, do call them Finger-flowers^ 



because they resemble the fingers of a glove with the end* 

 cut oft". It flowers from June to August, and is a native of 

 Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and Britain. It is found 

 in sandy and gravelly soils, and grows plentifully about 

 Charlton-wood, and Norwood, near London. The Digitalis 

 Purpurea, or common Purple Foxglove, has long been con- 

 sidered as a plant possessed of very powerful virtues. A 

 drachm of the powdered leaves, taken inwardly, excites 

 violent vomitings. It is certainly a very active medicine, 

 and merits great attention ; and it is singular that a plant, so 

 powerful in its operations, should not sooner have been intro- 

 duced into the modern materia medica. The country people 

 in Somersetshire are said to have been long in the habit of 

 using it, in decoction, for fevers, to purge and vomit, which 

 it often brings on in too violent a degree. The Italians call 

 this plant aralda, and have a proverb concerning it, aralda 

 tutte piaghe saltia, " Foxglove cures all sores." Parkinson 

 declares it to be effectual in the falling sickness, if two 

 handfuls of it be boiled in ale with four ounces of Polypody 

 of the Oak, and the decoction drank by the patient ; and 

 that they who had laboured under that disease twenty-six 

 years, falling down twice or thrice every month, were per- 

 fectly restored by the use of this decoction, and did not fall 

 into a fit for the space of fourteen or fifteen months after. 

 Thedried leaves applied, or the juice made into an ointment, 

 has been highly commended in ulcers, king's evil, &c. as 

 well as the bruised flowers made into an ointment with fresh 

 or May butter. The diuretic effects of Foxglove, for which 

 it is now so deservedly celebrated, and on which account, 

 as well as for its other powers, it is so much used in drop- 

 sical cases, seem to have been first ascertained by Dr. Wither- 

 ing; yet he observes, that it seldom succeeds in men of great 

 natural strength, tense fibre, warm skin, and florid com- 

 plexion, or in -a tight cordy pulse. If the belly in ascites be 

 tense, hard, and circumscribed, or the limbs in anasarca be 

 solid and resisting, we have but little hope. On the con- 

 trary, if the pulse be feeble or intermitting, the countenance 

 pale, the lips livid, the skin cold, the swollen belly soft and 

 fluctuating, the anasarcous limbs readily pitting under pres- 

 sure of the finger, we may expect the diuretic effects to follow 

 in a kindly manner. In hydrothorax, or water in the chest, 

 striking proofs are said to have been afforded of the efficacy 

 of Foxglove. The dose of the dried leaves in powder is 

 from one to three grains a day; but if a liquid medicine be 

 preferred, a drachm of the dried leaves is to be infused for 

 four hours in half a pint of boiling water, adding to the 

 strained liquor an ounce of any spirituous water. The first 

 dose of this infusion for an adult may be about half an ounce 

 three times a day, increased by about a drachm daily till the 

 desired effect follows, unless the reduction of the pulse, and 

 other symptoms, arise to an alarming degree. If the seeds 

 of this plant be permitted to scatter, the young plants will 

 come up in the spring, and require only to be weeded out 

 where they are too numerous. The seeds of this, and of the 

 other sorts, should be sown in autumn ; for those which are 

 sown in the spring seldom succeed, or at least lie a year in 

 the ground before they grow. 



2. Digitalis Minor ; Small Foxglove. Corollas obtuse ; 

 upper lip slightly two-lobed ; leaves entire, according to 

 Withering very slightly notched ; stem even, shorter by half 

 than that of the first species ; peduncles villose ; flowers very 

 like those of first species in form, size, and colour, but 

 the dots of the palate are more copious and without the pale 

 iris ; the upper lip is more deeply two-lobed, the lower \ ery 

 obtuse, and the lateral segments reflex. Native of Spain ; 

 perennial. 



