I love foxgloves and love to watch the bees feed on the sweet nectar of the flower. That poem was so lovely too! Hope to see you back next week as this was a joy to read and the photos were beautiful. Thank you and I am glad you like it and hopefully I will be linking next week too. Great linky idea! Such an interesting post! I've always loved foxgloves. My mum used to plant them in the garden, so I grew up around the beautiful flowers.
I loved the poem as well! We are so lucky to have so many foxgloves around our local Normandy paths. Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. Thursday, 23 June How the foxglove got its name. Well the long and the short of it is, no-one knows! There is a child's story that tells how a wily fox placed the bells of a foxglove flower on his pads like gloves so he could sneak up on his chicken prey silently. But this is simply that, a fairy tail born from the name foxglove rather than being the reason it was thus named.
And apparently no etymologist has managed to find why the Anglo-Saxon's first named this plant, foxglove but it would appear that Christina Rossetti knew it was all just a story. The Peacock The peacock has a score of eyes, With which he cannot see; The cod-fish has a silent sound, However that may be; No dandelions tell the time, Although they turn to clocks; Cat's-cradle does not hold the cat, Nor foxglove fit the fox.
In June and July the woodland edges and shady paths around our gite in Normandy Eco-Gites of Lenault are full of magnificent foxgloves, towering tall as they stretch up for the light. Legend goes that the devil was angry at its medicinal properties so chomped down on the roots. Special subscription offer. Discover some of the most glorious gardens from around the world. Find out more. Already have an account with us? Sign in to manage your newsletter preferences.
By entering your details, you are agreeing to Gardens Illustrated terms and conditions. You can unsubscribe at any time. For details on how we use your data, please see our privacy policy.
Sign up to receive our newsletter! By entering your details, you are agreeing to Gardens Illustrated terms and conditions and privacy policy.
Home Plants Where do plant names come from? More on… Crab Apples Foxglove trees Wildflowers. Subscribe to Gardens Illustrated. Gardens of the Globe Discover some of the most glorious gardens from around the world. This is not the way to understand the workings of the human mind, on which true etymology often throws much unexpected light.
It may have gained popularity after the publication of the book English Etymologies by William Henry Fox! Talbot It is worthy of remark, [note the comma! Beware of etymologists who pepper their explanations with no doubt , undoubtedly , obviously , and the like. Talbot, the inventor of photography, to whom I have once referred in this blog, was a well-read and talented man, but it would have been better if he had not written a book on word origins.
The flower fuchsia , whose pronunciation is a torture to foreigners, and the color fuchsia the color of digitalis purpurea! Fox Talbot, and foxglove. Glew , or rather gliew Modern Engl. One wonders again what the fox has to do with our flower, but first a correction and a warning.
Prior may have found bielde in some dictionary or he may have copied the word with two mistakes. The moral: one should never copy foreign words without looking them up in good contemporary sources. Old Engl. Thus, a few wrong etymologies have been debunked, but what the sly fox has to do with the foxglove remains a mystery.
An echo of the once well-known tale, North Germanic or Classical? To my regret, no Scandinavian dictionary I have consulted discusses the Norwegian word.
There is a kind of grass called fox grass. Does anyone know why it is called this? In sum, foxglove means foxglove , and this disturbing fact has to be accepted. Featured image: Foxglove.
0コメント