464 THE FIGWORT FAMILY. 



have naturally it seems had the name of foxgloves bestowed on them — one 

 which has provoked considerable discussion. By many it is believed to 

 be a corruption of folk's-glove ; while fairies'-gloves, thimbles, petticoats or 

 caps and many other fantastic names are used interchangeably. Again the 

 name is believed to be derived from foxes-glew, Anglo-Saxon gliew, mean- 

 ing music and thought to be in allusion to the flowers hung as bells on an 

 arched support, as Vvcre those of a favourite, old-time instrument. 



D. IcBvigcita, smooth or entire-leaved false foxglove, grows tall and slender 

 and travels not further northward than Pennsylvania or Michigan. As its 

 common name implies, its leaves are entire, with perhaps the exception of 

 the lower ones which are somewhat incised, or dentate. 



D.fidva, downy false foxglove, we saw abundantly through the mountain- 

 ous districts of the south where it grew luxuriantly and appeared unusually 

 handsome as its pale yellow flowers gleamed from many a wooded, ferny 

 bank. Often its leaves are pinnatifid,— that is the lower ones, while the 

 upper ones are entire, or sparingly dentate. The plant is very leafy and 

 about four feet tall, while the corollas are large, with broad, expanded limbs, 

 and the lobes of the calyxes about as long as their tubes. From Georgia 

 the plant extends to Eastern Massachusetts. 



GERARDIA. 



Gerdrdia fill if alia. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Figwort. Purple. Scentless. Florida and Georgia. Se/>te)itl'er, October. 



Flmvers : growing on slender axillary pedicels, usually longer than the leaves. 

 Calyx : campanulate ; with five minute teeth. Corolla : funnel-form, expanded 

 towards the summit, the five rounded lobes slightly ciliate on their edges. 

 Leaves: abundant; clustered; alternate; thread-like, narrowed at the base, 

 fleshy, smooth. Slems : erect ; one to two feet high, much branched from near the 

 base, wiry, smooth. 



This one of the gerardias, a graceful beauty, we saw growing most 

 abundantly in the sandy soil of Florida. In fact in one place it fairly 

 covered fields and long strips of land along the St. John's banks, transform- 

 ing the scene into a purple haze with its innumerable blossoms. It there 

 shared the soil with a rayless species of golden-rod, and so closely did their 

 leaves and stems intermingle that sometimes it appeared as though their 

 very dissimilar flowers crowned the same stalks. About them flitted the 

 most beautiful butterflies. Some were solidly yellow like the golden-rods, 

 and others were brilliantly marked and spotted. 



It is thus in the late season that the gerardias play their part in beautify- 

 ing the earth. Some of them are parasites, as has been said, on the roots of 



