OF THE GENUS SYMPHYTUM. 495 
may be mentioned. This was found on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, 
near Constantinople, and must be, when growing, a distinct-looking plant. 
But it was only recognised as a species in 1892, although S. orientale had 
been known near that city since the time of Tournefort. 
History. 
The earliest species of Symphytum on record are naturally those which are 
most common and widely distributed in western Europe, viz. S. officinale, 
Linn., and S. tuberosum, Linn. 
S. officinale is recorded in Turner's * Libellus" (1538) as “Symphytum 
herbarii vocant consolidain majorem vulgus Comfrey,” and in L’Obel’s 
* Historia ’ (1576) as Consolida major. 
S. tuberosum still retains the name under which it was known before the 
time of L'Obel, but is described without a name in Gerard's * Негр” (1597) 
as follows :— There is another kinde of Comfrey that hath leaves like the 
former (S. officinale) saving that they be lesser; the stalks are rough and 
tender ; the flowers are like the former, but that they be of an overworne 
yellow colour ; the roots are thicke, short, blacke without and tuberous.” 
The S. tuberosum minus of Clusius (Stirp. Pann. Hist. p. 671 (1582)) is 
said to be the plant now known as S. bulbosum, Schimp., but the figure, 
found also in the * Historia’ of 1601, shows neither the characteristic root 
nor the exserted corolla-seales of that species. The plant was described by 
Schimper as S. bulbosum in 1826. 
During Tournefort’s travels in the East in 1700-1702 he discovered two 
species which were recorded in his * Corollarium ^ in 1703. One of these, 
“S. Constantinopolitanum .... flore albo " was figured and fully described 
in the ‘Voyage du Levant’ (1717), and is S. orientale, Linn., as now 
understood. The other, “S. orientale .... flore caeruleo" may include 
two or more species. One of these is represented by a specimen in Ferb. 
Mus. Brit., marked on the back of the sheet ©“ Cappadocia, Tournefort." 
This has been named “S. orientale," but it is the common plant of the 
Caucasus described as S. asperum by Lepechin in 1798, and by Donn as 
S. asperrimum (Bot. Mag. t. 929) in 1806. [t was introduced into England 
in 1801, and there is a specimen in Merb. Mus. Brit. grown at Kew 
in 1803. 
I have lately found amongst Sherard’s plants in the Fielding Herbarium 
a plant labelled “Symphytum Cappadocicum folio subrotundo aspero flore 
cæruleo, Cor. I. R. H. 7.” This was probably collected by Sherard, who 
was a pupil of Tournefort, if not by Tournefort himself, and is identical 
with a plant discovered in the neighbourhood of Trebizond by Balansa 
in 1866. This was named S. sepulerale by Boissier, and was described in 
the * Flora Orientalis" in 1879. 
