2a Y
' [ 1297 ]
DIGITALIS purpur ea.
Purple Foxglove.
DIDYNAMIA Angiospermia.
Gen. Char. Cal. in 5 segments. Cor. bell-shaped,
five-cleft, inflated. Caps, ovate, of 2 cells, with
many seeds.
Spec. Char. Segments of the calyx ovate, acute.
Corolla obtuse; its upper lip undivided. Leaves
downy.
Syn. Digitalis purpurea. Linn. Sp. PI. 866. Sm. FI.
Brit. 665. Huds. 275. With. 555. Hull. 138.
Sibth. 197. Abbot. 139. Curt. Lond. fasc. 1. t. 48.
Woodv. Med. Bot. t. 24. Raii Syn. * 283.
T h e “ stately and elegant ” Foxglove, as Mr. Curtis, with
his usual taste for the genuine beauties of Nature, denominates
it, is most abundant in the northern and rather hilly
parts of Great Britain, growing about hedges and thickets, on
a dry chalky, loamy, or gravelly soil, flowering in June and
July. In Norfolk and Suffolk it rarely, if ever, occurs; but
is found about Charlton and other parts of Kent. In gardens
it is often cultivated, especially the white variety, which, however,
is less handsome than the red one.
Root biennial, fibrous. Stem upright and wand-like, leafy,
roundish, downy, 3 or 4 feet high. Leaves alternate, on footstalks
which are often winged; the leaf itself is ovate, crenate,
downy, rugged and veiny; the radical ones largest. Spike
terminal, erect, simple, formed of a great number (sometimes
60) of large, pendulous, scentless flowers, each on a short
round stalk accompanied by a bractea. The calyx is soft and
downy. Corolla an inch and half long, tubular, or rather
bell-shaped, of a rich purplish crimson, elegantly speckled,
and somewhat hairy, within; its margin slightly lobed. Stamina
springing from the tube, bent, with large, smooth, 2-
lobed incumbent antherse. Stigma cloven. Capsule superior,
ovate, 2-celled, full of innumerable small seeds.
Foxglove has of late been much used in medicine to allay
irritability and retard the pulse, from which properties it is
useful in incipient consumptions. It has for some years been
celebrated in dropsies, and Dr. Withering’s book on the subject
is well known.
How extraordinary is it that no old original English flame
should be known for so striking a plant! That in present use
is derived from Digitalis Fuchsii, Fuchs’s Glove; Fuchs or
Fuchsius having first named it Digitalis. In Yorkshire it is
called Foxes’ Gloves.