How did foxes use these gloves?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
November 1, 2002
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Suggested Reading—>Click here.
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The foxgloves (Genus: Digitalis Linnaeus) are native to Europe, northwestern Africa, and eastern and central Asia. The botanical name, Digitalis, is related to the Latin words digitus, finger, and digitabulum, glove. This name was in use in old herbals long before Linnaeus made it official.
The flowers of foxglove are campanulate—bell-shaped, or elongate like the fingers of a glove. The common name, foxglove, came from its Old English name, foxes glofa. In Germany, the plant was called fingerhut or thimble.
The plant was associated with beliefs in supernatural beings. Mrs. Grieve (A Modern Herbal, 1931, reprinted 1996) offered this legend, "It was originally Folksglove—the glove of the 'good folk' or fairies, whose favourite haunts were supposed to be in the deep hollows and woody dells, where the Foxglove delights to grow. Folksglove is one of its oldest names, and is mentioned in a list of plants in the time of Edward III [1327-1377]."
Mrs. Grieve wrote of another legend which suggests the darker side of foxglove. "Its Norwegian name, Revbielde (Foxbell) is the only foreign one that alludes to the Fox, though there is a northern legend that bad fairies gave these blossoms to the fox that he might put them on his toes to soften his tread when he prowled among the roosts.
"The mottlings of the blossoms...were said to mark where the elves had placed their fingers, and one legend ran that the marks on the Foxglove were a warning sign of the baneful juices secreted by the plant." Many common names alluded to foxglove's toxicity—'dead-men's bells', 'bloody fingers', and 'dead-man's thimbles'.
Series: | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | | 5 |
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
Did the queen of darkness cure dropsy? Herbal Folklore - June 23, 2003
What is digoxin? What's in a Name? - November 8, 2002
Who taught doctors how to cure dropsy? Plants that Changed History - October 29, 2002
How did we learn how to use digitalis? Plants that Changed History - November 5, 2002
What plant commemorates the death of a dragon? Herbal Folklore - March 11, 2002
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