FOXGLOVE. >i'S3 



feet high, cylindrical, simple, clothed with fine down, leafy 

 below, and terminated by the long spike of flowers. The radi- 

 cal leaves are large, ovate, spreading, with decurrent petioles ; 

 the cauline ones are somewhat decurrent, nearly sessile, and of 

 an ovate-lanceolate or elliptical figure : the whole are alternate, 

 wrinkled, veiny, crenate at tlie margin, of a dull cinereous, 

 blueish-green above, lighter, downy, and reticulated beneath. 

 The flowers are arranged towards the summit of the stem, in a 

 long, pyramidal, elegant, spike, turned in one direction ; each 

 flower pendulous, supported on a downy peduncle, subtended 

 at tlie base by a small lanceolate leaf or bractea. The calyx 

 is divided into five deep, ovate, ribbed, pointed segments, of 

 unequal size ; the uppermost smaller than the rest. The 

 corolla is of a roseate-purple colour, silky, hairy and mottled 

 \vithin, ample, campanvdate, inflated beneath, contracted at 

 the base of the tube, divided at the limb into four or five 

 shallow, oblique lobes, or into two lips, the upper of which 

 is obtuse, slightly emarginate, and the lower with three project- 

 ing lobes. The stamens are didynamous, with declinate, thick, 

 compressed filaments, the two longest crooked below, and 

 inserted into the base of the tube ; anthers large, yellow, with 

 two deeply cleft, ovate lobes. The germen is sujjerior, ovate, 

 tapering, seated on a glandular ring or disk, surmounted by a 

 slender style, with a bifid stigma, which is at first appressed, 

 subsequently spreading. The capsule is ovate, acuminate, sub- 

 tended by the persistent calyx, and tipped with the permanent 

 style, with two cells and two valves, containing numerous 

 small, sub-angular, dark brown seeds. Plate 20, fig. 2, (a) 

 section of corolla opened to show the stamens; (6) germen, 

 style, and stigma ; (c) capsule cut transversely. 



This beautiful and stately plant, which may vie in eleo-ance 

 with many choice exotics, flourishes on dry banks, hilly pas- 

 tures, and the borders of woods, especially in sub-alpine and 

 rocky countries, hence it is almost unknown in the extreme 

 eastern counties of England. It flowers in June and July. 



The term Digitalis, from digitate, the finger of a glove, was 

 applied to this plant by Fuchs, the first writer who mentions its 

 medicinal qualities. This appellation was suggested by its 

 German name, fingerkut, fingerstall, and beyond the idea of a 

 glove no European nation appears to have ventured. In France 



