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FOXGLOVE

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 771 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FOXGLOVE , a genus of biennial and perennial See also:

plants of the natural See also:order See also:Scrophulariaceae. The See also:common or See also:purple foxglove, Foxglove (See also:Digitalis purpurea), one-third nat. See also:size. 1. Corolla cut open showing the showing the thick axial pia- four stamens; rather more centa bearing numerous small than See also:half nat. size. seeds. 2. Unripe See also:fruit cut lengthwise, 3. Ripe See also:capsule split open. D. purpurea, is common in dry hilly pastures and rocky places and by road-sides in various parts of See also:Europe; it ranges in See also:Great See also:Britain from See also:Cornwall and See also:Kent to See also:Orkney, but it does not It flourishes best in siliceous soils, and is not found in the See also:Jura and Swiss See also:Alps. The characters of the plant are as follows: See also:stem erect, roundish, downy, leafy below, and from 18 in. to 5 ft. or more in height; leaves alternate, crenate, rugose, ovate or elliptic oblong, and of a dull See also:green, witli the under See also:surface downy and paler than the upper; See also:radical leaves together with their stalks often a See also:foot in length; See also:root of numerous, slender, whitish See also:fibres; See also:flowers 14-2J in. See also:long, pendulous, on one See also:side of the stem, purplish See also:crimson, and hairy and marked with See also:eye-like spots within; segments of calyx ovate, acute, cleft to the See also:base; corolla See also:bell-shaped'with a broadly two-lipped obtuse mouth, the upper See also:lip entire or obscurely divided; stamens four, two longer than the other two (didynamous); anthers yellow and bilobed; capsule bivalved, ovate and pointed; and seeds numerous, small, oblong, pitted and of a See also:pale See also:brown. As See also:Parkinson re-marks of the plant, " It flowreth seldome before See also:July, and the See also:seed is ripe in See also:August "; but it may occasionally be found in blossom as See also:late as See also:September. Many varieties of the common foxglove have been raised by cultivation, with flowers varying in See also:colour from See also:white to deep See also:rose and purple; in the variety gloxinioides the flowers are almost See also:regular, suggesting those of the cultivated See also:gloxinia. Other See also:species of foxglove with variously coloured flowers have been introduced into Britain from the See also:continent of Europe.

The plants may be propagated by unflowered off-sets from the roots, but being biennials are best raised from seed. The foxglove, probably from folks'-See also:

glove, that is fairies' glove, is known by a great variety of popular names in Britain. In the See also:south of See also:Scotland it is called bloody fingers; farther See also:north, dead-men's-bells; and on the eastern See also:borders, ladies' thimbles, See also:wild See also:mercury and Scotch mercury. In See also:Ireland it is generally known under the name of See also:fairy See also:thimble. Among its Welsh synonyms are menyg-ellyllon (elves' gloves), menyg y llwynog (See also:fox's gloves), bysedd cochion (redfingers) and bysedd y cwn (See also:dog's fingers). In See also:France its designations are pints de notre See also:dame and doigts de la See also:Vierge. The See also:German name Fingerhut (thimble) suggested to See also:Fuchs, in 1542, the employment of the Latin See also:adjective digitalis as a designation for the plant. Other species of foxglove or Digitalis although found in botanical collections are not generally grown.

End of Article: FOXGLOVE

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