Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
April,  1919.  ) 
Digitalis  Purpurea. 
nine  days.  Three  weeks  after  this  period,  they  will  be  ready  to 
transplant  into  pots  or  in  flats.  He  states  further,  that  after  they 
have  attained  the  height  of  about  6  inches,  they  will  be  ready  for 
planting  in  the  permanent  bed.  He  recommends  planting  the  plants 
24  inches  apart  in  the  rows,  and  the  rows  three  feet  apart.  Xew- 
comb  (11)  after  germinating  the  seeds,  transplanted  the  plantlet  in 
flats.  They  were  grown  until  they  were  large  enough  to  transplant 
into  2  to  2J/2  inch  pots.    Later,  they  were  planted  in  the  field. 
With  the  high  cost  of  labor  in  the  United  States,  it  is  very 
evident  that  commercially,  by  employing  the  above  method,  we  could 
not  be  very  successful,  unless  a  high  price  was  received  for  dry 
digitalis  leaves.  To  reduce  the  cost  of  production  as  much  as  pos- 
sible, an  idea  of  growing  the  plants  directly  in  small  pots  was  tried. 
One  hundred  1^4  inch  pots  were  filled  with  a  light  compact  soil  and 
then  seeded  with  digitalis  seeds.  The  seeds  were  covered  with  a 
light  layer  of  sand.  The  pots  were  kept  moist  by  watering  care- 
fully twice  a  day  and  to  prevent  excessive  evaporation,  were  covered 
with  burlap  until  the  seed  had  germinated.  The  seed  was  sown  on 
May  10,  and  on  June  13  the  plants  were  in  fine  condition.  As  there 
were  from  6  to  15  plants  in  each  pot,  they  were  thinned  out  so  that 
but  3  or  4  remained  in  each  pot.  This  was  a  very  easy  task  and 
required  but  little  time  as  the  whole  mass  of  plants  and  soil  were 
removed  from  the  pot  and  this  was  divided  into  from  2  to  4  parts, 
depending  upon  the  number  of  plants  present.  Two  weeks  after 
thinning  out,  the  plants  were  large  enough  to  plant  in  the  field.  At 
this  period,  they  were  about  2  inches  high  and  planting  the  soil  from 
the  pot  with  the  roots,  left  the  roots  intact  and  the  plants  grew  at 
once  when  transplanted  in  the  field.  Hence,  it  will  be  seen  that  by 
the  above  method,  three  steps  were  required  until  the  digitalis  plants 
were  finally  in  the  field.  This  method  having  proved  successful,  it, 
with  a  few  modifications,  was  employed  in  growing  the  commercial 
material.  If  a  planter,  such  as  a  tobacco  planter,  is  employed  in  1 
transplanting  the  plants  in  the  field,  it  is  desirable  to  have  the  plants 
slightly  larger  than  2  inches.  In  4  to  6  weeks  after  thinning  out, 
such  plants  could  be  obtained. 
Is  it  possible  to  secure  a  satisfactory  crop  by  seeding  digitalis 
seeds  in  the  field  directly?  Experiments  were  made  covering  this 
factor.  It  was  found  that  ordinarily  the  weed  seeds  germinated 
so  readily  that  the  digitalis  plantlets  were  hard  to  find  among  the 
weeds.    Were  it  possible  to  keep  the  plant  beds  entirely  free  from 
