THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



199 



Sometimes with dancing, when they jump 

 and spring 



Like the young, skipping kids in the Alp 

 grass." 



So we have the unmeaning foxglove at 

 once transformed into the folks' or 

 fairy's glove, which is the Welsh name 

 for oar plant. The Irish have it 

 "fairy bells," and some suppose that 

 our present foxglove has originally 

 been the Anglo-Saxon foxes gliew — 

 gliew being the favourite tintinabulum 

 of the ancients — a row of small bells 

 hung on a curved stick, to be struck 

 or shaken, the flowering stalk of our 

 plant being a strikingly good model of 

 it. We thus arrive at one of the few 

 really poetical popular plant-names in 

 our language. Fairy bells or music 

 would be a beautiful and appropriate 

 name, of which our noble plant is well 

 worthy. The Norwegian names of 

 Revbielde, fox-bell, and Reveleika, fox- 

 music, correspond nearly with the 

 foregoing. Another explanation is 

 that foxesglove means the red or fox- 

 coloured glove— -fuscus, red. The Latin 

 name of Digitalis was conferred about 

 1540, by Fuchs, from DigitahulttM , a 

 thimble; previous to that it had no 

 Latin name, and some say that our 

 foxglove is a corruption of Fuchsglove. 

 The German name isfingerhut, a thim- 

 ble, and we have the English equivalent 

 \ of " finger-flower " in some districts. 

 " W itches' thimbles " is a common 

 Scottish name; one of its Gaelic 



names means "fairy thimble," and 

 another is "dead men's thimbles/' 

 and it is best known in the rural dis- 

 tricts of Scotland by the name of " dead 

 man's bells," possibly through some 

 association in the popular mind of its 

 deadly poisonous properties. More 

 local Scottish names are " Scotch mer- 

 cury " and " wild mercury : " this is 

 evidently applied from some vague 

 idea of its medicinal virtues. Dr. 

 Johnston mentions a very local name, 

 "the king's ellwand," which is both 

 elegant and expressive and aptly de- 

 scriptive of its stateliness. 



" Straight as the foxglove ere her bells 

 disclose." 



The French call it Gants de noire 

 dame, " our lady's gloves." 



THE 



COMMON WARTY NEWT 



(Triton cristatus). 



By W. H. Warner. 



There is scarcely anything more exciting 

 to the out-door naturalist than to watch the 

 various inhabitants of a pool or broad ditch. 

 The casual observer would hardly believe 

 what an infinity of animal life is to be found 

 in and about a small stream or quarry pool. 

 Many of these occur in my country rounds, 

 and they have afforded me hours of peaceful 

 amusement. I would therefore strongly 

 advise the young naturalist to examine these 

 in his own neighbourhood any fine, sunny 

 day, especially during the spring and early 



