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P U L M O N A R I A officinalis.
Common Lungwort.
P E N T A1SID R. I A Monogynia.
G en. C har. Corolla funnel-fhaped, pervious. Calyx
prifmatic, five-lided.
Spec. C har. Calyx nearly as long as the tube. Upper
leaves ovate, acute, rough.
Syn . Pulmonaria officinalis. Linn. Sp. PI. 194. HudJ.
FI. An. 81. W ith.Bot. Arr. 193.
P. foliis Echii. Rail Syn. 226. Ger. em. 808.
H o w e v e r common in every garden, the Pulmonaria
is of very unfrequent occurrence with us in a wild Hate, info-
much that authors are not agreed about the identity of our
Britifh fpecies (fee Withering). We have fortunately obtained,
by the favour of Mr. E. Rohfon, a wild fpecimen from near
Darlington, which being compared with the Linnean herbarium,
decides the P. officinalis, at leaft, to be a Britilh
plant. Mr. Goodyer’s plant from the New Foreft is molt probably
the fame. How far the real P. anguftifolia ( Herb. Linn.)
may be fpecifically diftindf, we dare not determine. The P.
maculpfa, Ger. em. 808. f . 1. fhouldfeem to be a broad-leaved
variety of ours, from whence the fpecific character of Linnseus
was taken, which we have ventured to alter that it may better
accord with our fpecimens, -and indeed with his own, which
exhibit the ufual appearance of the wild plant throughout
Europe. In Italy nothing is more common in groves and
thickets.
The root is perennial; ftems Ample, eredl, near a foot high,
angular, and rough. Lower leaves much lengthened out at the
bafe, of a light green; the upper ones only, which are ovate,
and rather broad, being fpeckled with white on the upper fide.
This however is a variable circumftance. The flowers appear
in April or May. The plant loves (hade. Every part is muic-
laginous ; but its reputation as a cure for coughs, arofe not from
that circumftance, but from its fpeckled appearance, refembling
the lungs!
Much conformity is obfervable between the ftrufture of this
flower and that of Lithofpermum purpuro-coeruleum, t. 117.
Indeed the genera of many of the Afperifolite are fomewhat too
nearly allied.