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SYMPHYTUM officinale.
Common Comfrey.
P ENT AND RI A Monogynia,
G e n . C h a r . Limb of the corolla tubular, fwelling;.
its orifice clofed with awl-fhaped rays. Cal. in 5.
deep fegments. Seeds 4, naked.
Spec. C ha.r . Leayes ovato-lanceolate, decurrent.
Syn. Symphytum officinale. Linn. Sp. PI. 195. Sm.
FI. B rit. % 18. Hudf. 81. With. 230. Hull. 47.
Relh. 78. Sibth. 70. Abbot. 42. Curt. Lend. fafc. 4,
t. 18. Woodv. Suppl, t. 215.
S. magnum. Rail Syn. 239.
A F R E Q U E N T native of watery places, banks of rivers,
and about ditches, flowering from the end of May to September.
Root perennial, fletby, externally black. Stem two or three
feet high, upright, leafy, winged, branched at the top, clothed
with fhort briftly hairs that point rather downward, Leaves,
decurrent, ovato-lanceolate, waved, pointed, veiny, rough;
the radical ones on footftalks, and broa'der than the reft.
Clufters of flowers in pairs on a common ftalk, with an odd.
flower between them, recurved, denfe, hairy. Corolla yel-
lowifti-white, fometimes purple, the rays downy at each edge.
Dr. Sibthorp has made a new fpecies of the red or
purple-flowered variety, diftinguifhing it by . a' fhorter and
fpreading calyx, a mark which we and feveral of our friend*
have in vain tried to difco,ver.
The Comfrey root abounds in a pure taftelefs mucilage, like
that of the Marfh-mallow; and being (as Dr. Woodville
obferves) more eafily obtained, it ought not to be omitted in
lifts of medicinal plants. Such medicines are ufeful in irrita*.
tipns.of the throat, inteftines, and above all the bladder..