ON FOXGLOVES 173 



glove in order to protect an injured digit and it is a 

 somewhat curious fact that the botanical name Digitalis 

 comes from the Latin digitabulum, which means a finger- 

 protector. The connection between finger-stall and 

 glove is obvious, and so we begin to see things. We see 

 that the flower is either a glove or part of a glove (and it 

 is all the same thing for the purposes of a flower name) ; 

 we see that the fairies could legitimately claim the gloves 

 as theirs, whether they put them on or hid in them ; and, 

 after all, it is not for us to dictate what the fairies shall 

 do. So the Foxglove is really the Fairy's glove beyond 

 all doubt or question. 



As everybody knows, it is just when a fact has been 

 established finally that somebody or other questions it. 

 Accordingly, somebody questioned this. He was not 

 satisfied that fairies ever got into Foxgloves, or had any 

 other connection with them whatever. He dragged out 

 the fact that there was an old musical instrument called 

 zgliew, which was composed of a number of bells sus- 

 pended on a pole, and invited us to believe that the 

 Foxglove got its name from the resemblance of the 

 flowers on their arching stems to the gliew. I should be 

 disposed to accept this more readily if I could see 

 where the first part of the name came in. Is the " Fox " 

 again a corruption of folks, and are we to understand 

 that the fairies made bell-music out of the flower ? It 

 is a rather pretty idea if it goes so far as this, but I do not 

 know that it does. 



The Foxglove is a grand old plant, and, wilding or 

 not, we are glad to grow it in our gardens. It generally 

 bears its inflorescence at intervals on a long stem, the 

 flowers opening from below upwards, the topmost occu- 

 pant being a small bud. Occasionally, however, it bears 

 a large expanded flower at the top. It loves cool, moist 



