[OE. foxes glófa (? pl.): see FOX sb. and GLOVE.

1

  The reason for the second part of the name is obvious, as the flower resembles a finger-stall in shape; cf. the Lat. name. Why the plant was associated with the fox is not so clear; but cf. Norw. revbjelde = ‘fox bell.’]

2

  1.  The popular name of Digitalis purpurea, a common ornamental flowering plant.

3

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., I. 54. Herba tricnos manicos þæt is foxes clofe [v.r. glofa].

4

c. 1265.  Names Plants, in Wr.-Wülcker, 556/6. Saluinca … foxesgloue.

5

a. 1387.  Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.), 15. Ceroterica, Ceroteca vulpis, foxglove.

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1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, II. xxiv. 175. Foxe gloue floureth chiefly in July and August.

7

1664.  Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 214. You may sow their Seeds, as also those of Larks-heel, Candy-tufts, Columbines, Iron-colour’d Fox-gloves, Holly-hocks, and such Plants as endure Winter, and the approaching Seasons.

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1810.  Scott, Lady of L., I. xii.

        Fox-glove and nightshade, side by side,
Emblems of punishment and pride.

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  b.  Used in medicine: see DIGITALIS.

10

1801.  Med. Jrnl., V. 209. The Fox-glove of which the tincture is made, is commonly procured from the Hall.

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1861.  Geo. Eliot, Silas Marner, 13. The inherited delight he had in wandering in the fields in search of foxglove and dandelion and coltsfoot, began to wear to him the character of a temptation. Ibid., 29. Recalling the relief his mother had found from a simple preparation of foxglove, he promised Sally Oates to bring her something that would ease her, since the doctor did her no good.

12

  2.  Applied to various plants of other genera; e.g., formerly to the Mullein (Verbascum Thapsus).

13

1587.  L. Mascall, Govt. Cattel (1600), 242. The iuyce of hegtaper, called Foxe gloue, put it into the eare.

14

  3.  attrib. and Comb., as foxglove bell, -leaf, -spire; foxglove-shaped a. (see quot.).

15

a. 1821.  Keats, Sonn., iii.

                  Let me thy vigils keep
  ’Mongst boughs pavilion’d where the deer’s swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the *foxglove bell.

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1811.  A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 610. Take of *foxglove leaves dried, a drachm.

17

1856.  Henslow, Dict. Bot. Terms, *Foxglove-shaped, a nearly cylindrical but somewhat irregular and inflated tube, formed like the corolla of a Digitalis.

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1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., lxxxiii.

        Bring orchis, bring the *foxglove spire,
    The little speedwell’s darling blue,
    Deep tulips dash’d with fiery dew,
Laburnums, dropping-wells of fire.

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