In the long evening of an English summer, in a very English garden, a foxglove. Despite the slow cadences of that sentence, no metaphors here: sometimes a foxglove is just a foxglove.
At which point, of course, I thought I'd better check. Fox gloves - or folks' gloves; fairy gloves. HUH? I always thought that Reynard was meant to slip them on over his russet paws - at least, that's what I imagined when I very first heard the name, and I wish I hadn't just disabused myself of the image. Digitalis: good ingredient for heart medicine. That seems apt. Poisonous if taken in excess. OK, I'll remember not to chew any foxglove bells absentmindedly. According to the Victorian language of flowers: foxgloves mean "insincerity." Oh. I won't be making any bouquets of them.
Sometimes a foxglove is just a foxglove.
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