242 WILD FLOWERS. 



underground for forty days, and then apply them 

 as an ointment" in cases of the king's evil. Others, 

 mixing two handsful of the leaves with four ounces 

 of the oak fern (polopddium dryopteris), stew the 

 whole in beer, and drink it for various complaints ; 

 hence the old Italian proverb : 



"Aralda 

 Tutte le piaghe salda." 



At present its use is almost confined to cases of 

 mental excitement, or of pulmonary consumption, 

 in which, however, it is not often administered, 

 though its re-introduction, not many years ago, into 

 regular practice by Dr. Withering, rendered it for a 

 time, a too fashionable medicine. 



The Welsh peasant dyers use an infusion of the 

 foxglove-root as a preparation before dyeing woollen 

 yarn, thus enabling it to take the colour desired, 

 with better effect. 



In nearly all places where the plant occurs, it is 

 known by some name referring to its finger-like, 

 glove-like, or thimble-like blossom, that 



* * " rears its pyramid of bells, 

 Gloriously freckled, purpled, aiid white :" 



and nothing can be more absurd than the statement, 

 copied with a fidelity worthy of a better cause, 

 from book to book, that its English name of fox- 

 glove, is derived from the name bestowed upon it 

 by the German botanist, Fuchs, Digitalis Fuchsii,* 



* Fuchs bestowed the botanical name of digitalis, perhaps 

 from digitabulum, a sort of finger-glove, or cap, used in 

 gathering olives, in order to accord with the popular names 



