SYMPHYTUM caucasicum.
Caucasian ComfrcAj.
Linnean Class and Order. PEN TA N D R IA MONOGYNIA.
Natu ra l Order. B 0R A G 1N EÆ . Juss. gen. p . \ 2 8 . .noo
Trib. 2. S Y M P B Y T E Æ , D. Don in edinb. phiL jou rn . Uctober, 1»32.
S Y M P H Y T U M . Calyx 5-divisns. Corolla infundibuliformis, fauce ventri-
cosa : limbo subcoarctato, 5-dentato. Apijendices 5, subulatæ, conniventes,
staminibus alternæ.
Herbæ (europææ) perennes, robusta. Folia basi plerumque decurrentia.
Racemi dichotomi, multifiori, ebracteati, demum diffusi, subcorymbosi,
terminales v. axillares.
S. caucasicum, foliis ovato-lanceolatis^ acutis basi decurrentibus, calycibus tubulosis
5-dentatis pedicellorum longitudine.
Symphytum caucasicum. Marsch. à Bieb. f l . taur. c a u c .l. P - P '
128. Poem. et S chult. syst. A .p .6 i. Spreng. sy st. p . 563. Graham
in hot. mag. t. 3188.
Stems erect, angular, branched, scarcely 2 feet high,
and clothed like the rest of the plant with recumbent bristly
hairs. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute, wrinkled, entire,
from 3 to 7 inches long ; the radical ones on long, simple,
channelled footstalksthose of the stem sessile, and unequally
decurrent at the base. Racemes forked, many flowered,
furnished at the base with a single leafy bracte. Pedicels an-
gular, bristly, about 3 lines long. (7aZ?/a; tubular, five-ang e ,
ribbed, as long as the pedicels, with 5, ovate, blunt, conm-
vent teeth. Corolla funnel-shaped_, twice longer than ^ e
calyx, before expansion of a rich pink, afterwards changing
to an azure blue, the mouth ventricose, with 5, shallow,
rounded, revolute lobes. Filaments glabrous, slightly compressed,
blue. Anthers cream-coloured, as long as the
filaments, composed of two distinct parallel cells, opening
lengthways. Appendages ligulate, blunt, papillose, forger
than the stamens. Style longer than the corolla, btigma
small, capitate.