bear the flowers will appear. In the autumn after it has flowered the
Foxglove generally dies, though sometimes it may live for another year,
or even two. Foxgloves, of course, will reproduce themselves by seed, as
annuals and perennials do.

[Illustration: FOXGLOVE.]

The Foxglove is something different from anything that we have seen as
yet. The flowers grow on short flower stalks and hang down from the
tall stems, a great many on each stem. Here there are no petals, but
what we see and admire so much is the bell-shaped corolla, purple-red in
colour. This purple bell is spotted with white inside. Bell-shaped is
perhaps not a very good description; the flower is more like a large
thimble or the finger of a glove.

"A glove for a fox--that is the meaning of the name," you perhaps say.
No, it has nothing to do with a fox. Many years ago nearly everyone
believed in Fairies, and the Fairies were often called the Good Folk or
Good People. It is they, and not the fox, who were supposed to use the
purple blossoms as a glove. If you say "Folk's Glove" quickly, you will
see how easily it comes to sound Foxglove. So our last thought among the
flowers is of the Fairies, in whose existence hardly anyone believes
to-day.