foxglove
(ˈfɒksglʌv)
[OE. foxes glófa (? pl.) see fox n. and glove.
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’.]
1. The popular name of Digitalis purpurea, a common ornamental flowering plant.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 54 Herba tricnos manicos þæt is foxes clofe [v.r. glofa]. c 1265 Names Plants in Wr.-Wülcker 556/6 Saluinca..foxesgloue. a 1387 Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.) 15 Ceroterica, Ceroteca vulpis, foxglove. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. xxiv. 175 Foxe gloue floureth chiefly in July and August. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 214 Columbines, Iron-colour'd Fox-gloves, Holly-hocks. 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. xii, Fox-glove and nightshade, side by side, Emblems of punishment and pride. |
b. Used in medicine: see
digitalis.
| 1801 Med. Jrnl. V. 209 The Fox-glove of which the tincture is made, is commonly procured from the Hall. 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. 13 Recalling the relief his mother had found from a simple preparation of foxglove. |
2. Applied to various plants of other genera;
e.g. formerly to the Mullein (
Verbascum Thapsus).
| 1587 L. Mascall Govt. Cattle (1600) 242 The iuyce of heg⁓taper, called Foxegloue. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
foxglove-bell,
foxglove-leaf,
foxglove-spire;
foxglove-shaped a. (see
quot.).
| a 1821 Keats Sonn. iii, Where the deer's swift leap Startles the wild bee from the *foxglove bell. |
| 1811 A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1818) 610 Take of *foxglove leaves dried, a drachm. |
| 1856 Henslow Dict. Bot. Terms, *Foxglove-shaped, a nearly cylindrical but somewhat irregular and inflated tube, formed like the corolla of a Digitalis. |
| 1850 Tennyson In Mem. lxxxiii, The *foxglove-spire. |