194 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



life history may be thus described : 

 the first season the seedling forms a 

 rosette of large, hairy, spreading leaves, 

 from the centre of which the erect 

 flowering stem emerges the succeeding 

 summer, and then after flowering and 

 fruiting the whole plant dies, to be 

 reproduced from the self-sown seeds. 

 Hence we find it thrives best on 

 sloping banks, roadsides, borders of 

 fields, &c, where the soil is sometimes, . 

 although not too frequently, disturbed, 

 and where the small seeds may germi- 

 nate freely. And thus it runs riot 

 with luxuriant abundance where a 

 partial clearance has been made in a 

 forest, or an old hedge been stubbed 

 up, till it is again overrun and choked 

 by a grosser growth. It is impatient 

 of moisture, but will survive a very 

 considerable degree of drought, and 

 flourishes in dry, sunny, stony habitats 

 where its roots burrow to a great depth. 

 In such situations the stems and leaf- 

 stalks assume a purplish tinge and the 

 whole plant is covered with a dense 

 soft pubesence. The root-leaves are 

 often a foot in length, of a broadly 

 ovate or lanceolate shape, with deeply 

 marked veins, and gradually narrowed 

 at the base into a dilated footstalk. 

 The stem is well covered with leaves 

 of the same shape, becoming more 

 scattered and smaller upwards, the 

 lower ones especially having thick, 

 succulent, winged stalks, which must 

 form a serious impediment to crawling 



insects ascending the stem. The stem 

 itself is remarkably firm, straight and 

 erect, with an average height of about 

 four feet, although giant specimens are 

 often met with six or seven feet high 

 and copiously branched in the lower 

 portion. The raceme of flowers, at 

 first close and compact, continues to 

 lengthen out indefinitely for a long 

 time. As many as 150 blossoms are 

 not uncommon on a well-developed 

 plant, of which thirty may be seen less 

 or more expanded at once. The flow- 

 ers are borne singly on short, slender 

 stalks in the axil of a small leaf or bract ; 

 they occur with great regularity on all 

 sides of the stem ; but as the blossoms 

 are strongly heliotropic, they all turn 

 towards the strongest light, then the 

 peduncles of the blooms on the shady 

 side lengthen so as to bring the flower 

 to the most brightly illuminated 

 quarter. This is well shown in walk- 

 ing along a lane with hedges and 

 foxgloves on either hand, it will then 

 be found that all the flowers hang 

 towards the centre of the roadway, 

 or conversely, the plants on opposite 

 sides of the hedge will point in different 

 directions, so marked is this trait that 

 if a plant has grown under shelter of 

 a low hedge or wall, with the flowers 

 pointing, say to the North, when 

 the stem overtops the obstruction, 

 the upper flowers will all face to- 

 wards the sun. The flower itself is 

 amongst the most highly specialised 



