MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



461 



Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea, Linn.). Scrophula- 

 riacew. (G. F. Klugh.) Fig. 685. 

 Foxglove is a tall biennial herb with fibrous root 

 system, and in the second year a straight stem 

 bearing a long, unbranched raceme of large, two- 

 inch long, showy, bell-shaped to funnel-formed 

 flowers, purplish with darker spots in the throat, 

 or nearly white, and a luxuriant development of 

 alternate, sessile, woolly leaves, with venation con- 

 spicuous on the under side, crenate margins, largest 

 toward the base of the stem, decreasing upwards 

 to the base of the flower-bearing part of the stem. 

 The dry seed-pods contain a multitude of minute 

 seeds. The flowers open in the early summer of the 

 second year. At the end of the first season's growth 

 a strong rosette of radical leaves is seen. Leaves 

 of the second year's growth form an important 

 article in crude drug commerce. The demand of 

 the United States is at present satisfied from Eng- 

 lish, German and Austrian sources chiefly, where 

 the plant is cultivated for 

 the purpose or occurs wild. 

 Since the seeds are very 

 small, they require good 

 conditions of germination 

 to produce a good stand 

 of plants if sown in the 

 field, but they may be 

 grown where they are to 

 stand or in seed-beds and 

 transplanted. The soil 

 most adapted to the 

 growth of foxglove is a 

 good garden loam con- 

 taining a liberal amount 

 of sand and humus, but 

 the plant will do well on 

 heavier soils if 

 transplanted. 

 Good drainage is 

 essential to keep 

 the plants from 

 damping off in 

 hot weather and 

 freezing out in 

 winter. The rows 

 should be three feet 

 apart, the plants be- 

 ing fifteen to eighteen 

 inches apart in the 

 rows., A garden drill 

 may be used to sow 

 the seed, two pounds 

 being required per 

 acre. If planted too 

 deep the seed will re- 

 main in the soil until 

 turned up by subse- 

 quent cultivation. 

 Early spring, as soon 

 as the soil can be worked, is the best time for 

 planting. 



Frequent cultivation is desirable during the 

 growing season of both first and second years until 

 the plant flowers in June of the second year. The 



leaves around the bases of the flowering stalks are 

 then picked and dried in the shade to preserve 

 their green color. The yield of leaves from an acre 

 of good soil well fertilized and cared for will be 

 about five hundred ,or six hundred pounds. The 

 relation of fertilizers to yield and content of active 

 principle is an open question here as with other 

 drugs. 



Fig. 685. Foxglove (DigUalU 

 purpurea). 



Fig. 686. Golden seai (.Hydrastis Canadensis), 



Golden seal {Hydrastis Canadensis, Linn.). Eanun- 

 culacece. (G. F. Klugh.) Fig. 686. 



A low, perennial - rooted herb with a stout, 

 strongly-rooted rhizome of a golden yellow color 

 when broken, sending up a slender stem about a 

 foot high, which bears one or two alternate, flve- 

 to seven-lobed leaves, the leaves with a short 

 petiole, the upper sessile, and a large basal leaf of 

 similar general outline ; the single, whitish, incon- 

 spicuous flower is borne terminally above the upper 

 leaf on a short peduncle; the fruit is somewhat 

 pulpy when ripe and iii general appearance is sug- 

 gestive of a small red raspberry. This plant is a 

 native of the rich woods of the Appalachian region, 

 Ohio valley and northward to southern Wisconsin. 

 It has long been used in medicine and in recent 

 years to an increasing degree. As a result it has 

 become relatively rare in commercial quantities 

 and its cultivation has been made a subject of in- 

 vestigation by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. The culture of golden seal is now 

 widely practiced in small gardens. 



The soil should be loose and loamy, well supplied 

 with humus and shaded to keep it moist and cool. 

 Plastering laths nailed to 2 x 4-inch pieces at the 



