498 MR. €. BUCKNALL : A REVISION 
their length. They sometimes show a tendeney to become furcate at the 
apex. The margin bears several rows of papillate cells which, in the 
unexpanded flower, interlace with those of the contiguous scales and so form 
a cone closing the throat of the corolla. 
The stamens are included, the anthers oblong with the cells either obtuse 
or apiculate at one or both ends. The relative length of the anther and 
filament is sometimes a good specific character, and it is customary to 
estimate this, not from the entire length of the filament, but from that part 
which is not concealed by the anther. 
The style is filiform with a minute capitate stigma, and in ihe mature 
flower is shortly exserted. It is sometimes bent about one millimetre below 
the stigma, and this has been given as a specific character of S. peregrinum, 
in which it is frequently but not invariably present. This peculiarity some- 
times occurs in other species, and appears to be caused by the elongation of 
the style while the flower-bud is still tightly closed. 
The nutlets are ovate or oblong, more or less curved, in two pairs, with the 
contiguous sides of each pair slightly fattened so that the nutlet is obliquely 
keeled. The surface is more or less distinctly marked with a few large 
facets or areole and is smooth and shining or granulated and opaque. The 
base is annular and tumid, and furnished with teeth which clasp the torus 
while the nutlet is still attached, but are generally inflexed in the dried state. 
The strophiole is white, oblong and protrudes through the excavated base 
of the nutlet. In certain species some plants produce abundance of fruit 
while others are completely sterile. In one species, S. floribundum, Shuttlw., 
the fruit appears to be always undeveloped. 
All the species flower in the spring and early summer, but in some cases 
they continue flowering throughout the summer and autumn. 
CLASSIFICATION OF THE SPECIES. 
In De Candolle's * Prodromus, the first work in which all the known species 
of Symphytum were brought together, no attempt was made to divide the 
genus into groups or to classify the species. 
The first author to do this was Boissier, whose arrangement in the * Flora 
Orientalis? is given below. 
I. Corolla-seales included. 
1. Root fusiform or branched: S. officinale, Linn., orientale, Linn., cauca- 
sicum, Bieb., tauricum, Willd., sylvaticum, Boiss., anatolicum, Boiss., 
brachycaly.e, Boiss., palwstinum, Boiss., kurdicum, Boiss. & Hausskn., 
asperrimum, Bieb., sepulcrale Boiss. & Bal. 
2. Root tuberous: S. tuberosum, Linn., grandiflorum, DC. 
II. Corolla-scales exserted : S. bulbosum, Schimp., ottomanum, Friv. 
