I36 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
5°°-55° N., an altitude of 300-600 feet (although it may descend to 
sea- level where the soil is calcareous, as in Lancashire, especially 
where the drainage is good and the necessary amount of shade is 
found). The range of temperature is 5o°-47° F. Young seedling 
plants, unless protected by dead leaves during the winter, often 
perish. It is therefore a plant that cannot be successfully grown in 
every small garden. 
With respect to Digitalis (Foxglove), there is an enormous quantity 
growing wild in damp hilly woods in this country. I have seen on 
the banks of the Dart, in Devonshire, a whole hillside purple with 
the flowers, where the coppice wood had been cut. But unfortunately 
large landowners object, as a rule (or perhaps it is only the game- 
keepers) to people collecting the leaves until after June 15, or indeed 
at any period of the year, for fear of disturbing the game. It is a 
biennial plant, and seems to exhaust the soil, for it will often disappear 
entirely from places where in previous years it had been abundant, 
although this may be due partly to the attacks of a small pug moth 
(Eupithecia pulchellata) , the larvae of which feed on the flowers. It 
seems to require a fair amount of moisture and plenty of humus, but 
also good drainage, and is rarely found on calcareous soils, preferring 
siliceous and slaty or sandy ground. But I will venture to say that 
if large landowners, whose soil is siliceous, will give instructions to 
their head gardeners to plant out the young plants, or scatter the seed 
in autumn, in fresh localities to which access is possible without 
disturbing the game, there would be no necessity to import Digitalis 
from the Continent. It is, perhaps, the most important remedy for 
strengthening the action of the heart, but is very liable to lose its 
strength if not properly dried and preserved. I have, however, been 
able to dry the leaves so that they retained their colour and their 
activity for eleven years. Foxglove leaves, properly prepared, might 
become a national export. Indeed, one firm does export to the 
United States large quantities, which are physiologically tested after 
drying and before being exported. 
There is another way in which landowners and large farmers who 
are patriotic enough to wish to help the industry might render a 
considerable service. A very large quantity of herbs are used in 
this country in the manufacturing districts in the Midland counties, 
where a decoction of herbs, sometimes fermented with sugar, is drunk 
under the name of Herb Beer or Botanic Beer, especially by those 
working in the great heat of iron manufactories and potteries, and 
it is necessary that the herbs used should be cheap. Hence they are 
largely imported from the Continent. This is so much the case that 
last year English Melilot and Woodruff were not procurable, and this 
year even the largest wholesale herbalists could not supply even a 
few pounds of Agrimony, which is quite a common English herb, 
and is one of the herbs used in making the beer. This scarcity is due 
to the fact that the thorough organization of the herb industry that 
prevails in Germany does not exist in this country. The way in 
