Digitalis "D. grandiflora", "D. lutea" and "D. parviflora". Larvae of the foxglove pug, a moth, consume the flowers of the common foxglove for food. Other species of Lepidoptera eat the leaves, including the lesser yellow underwing. The term "digitalis" is also used for drug preparations that contain cardiac glycosides, particularly one called digoxin, extracted from various plants of this genus. The name "foxglove" was first recorded in the year 1542 by Leonhard Fuchs, whose family name, Fuchs, is the German word for "fox" (the plant genus "Fuchsia" is also named for him). The genus "digitalis" is from the Latin "digitus" (finger),
Orazio Comes Orazio Comes Orazio Comes (11 November 1848 – 13 October 1917) was an Italian botanist. From 1906 to 1917 he directed the Agricultural Higher Institute of Portici, in which, thanks to Vincenzo de Cesati, he begun teaching since 1877 as assistant of Nicola Pedicino for the chair of botany, to whom he succeeded in 1880. In his works he studied the physiology and plant pathology of Neapolitan mushrooms and agricultural plants, such as beans and tobacco. From 1881, Comes began to deal with the cultivation of tobacco to improve industrial production and, starting from 1891, he emphasized the study and