18 FAMILIAR GARDEN- FLOWERS. 



lUijifahiilam, meaning "thimble;'''' and the flo'U'er may- 

 be Hkened to the simple household appliance for the 

 comfort o£ a wounded digit known as a " thumb-stall/' 

 or soft thimble. But what does the fox want with 

 such a thing ? The assumption with which we ojoen this 

 paper, that as a footpad he would like to follow his trade 

 quietly, seems not to help us much, even in the region 

 of fancy ; for, to put the case in another way, the fox 

 does not want a glove or a thumb-stall, he wants four 

 seven-league silent boots ! In Norway the plant is not the 

 fox's glove, but the fox's bell, to provide him with music 

 in the gloaming. In the Anglo-Saxon there is no such 

 name as foxglove, but foxes-glieiv, for it happens that the 

 flowers, as they hang from the slightly arching stem, 

 resemble the ancient musical instrument, consisting of 

 bells attached to a rod, that was called gliew, and used 

 for the production of bell-music. It may occur to the 

 inquiring reader, whether the men who likened the flower 

 of this plant to a tintinnabulum might not have done 

 better, in the gratification of their fancy, to select a Ciini- 

 pannla, or "bell-flower.'" Another view of ' the subject 

 makes this the folk's glove, or fairies' glove ; but we may 

 suppose it large enough for a fairies' house — that is, for 

 some sorts of fairies. We now make a conjecture which 

 is at all events original. This is a spotted flower ; a 

 spotted picture or book is called "foxy," and bv parallel, a 

 spotted thimble may be a foxy glove. If the adjective 

 "foxy" is of respectable antiquity, the proposal acquires 

 respectability ; but we suspect it is of modern orio-in and 

 of poor lineage. 



The distribution of the plant and its geographical cha- 

 racters are matters of some interest. It is, in one sense 



