Birth flower for May 8
Foxglove
Meaning: ardent love, a secret heart
Its scientific name, Digitalis, comes from the Latin for 'finger' — each bell slips neatly over a fingertip — and the English name means a fox's glove. In 1785 the English physician William Withering published his work using foxglove to treat dropsy, and drugs derived from it are still used for heart conditions today. The plant itself, though, is seriously poisonous.