S. officinale, which latter is said to be often planted for 
forage. This may be so, but there is no evidence of its 
hybridity, and Ledebour gives a habitat for the indigenous 
S. peregrinum, namely, Sawunt in the Talysch province 
of the Caucasus, at a height of 4000 feet above the sea; 
and I have seen excellent dried specimens in the Kew 
Herbarium, collected by Besser (under the erroneous name of 
S. caucasicum, Bieb.), and by Wilhelms, collected in Iberia 
in 1824, and sent under the name of S. asperrimum to the 
late J. Gay, who has attached to the specimen the note, 
“Je crois que c’est le Symphytwm caucasicum M. B. et 
nullement le S. asperrimum.”’ Boissier in his Flora Orientalis 
(vol. iii. p. 175) indeed says of 8. peregrinum and another, 
“‘formz hortenses forsan hybrid.’ Lastly, for my own 
part, I see very little reason to regard it as other than a 
very large form of S. officinale, with the stem fistular below, 
probably originating from cultivation, and not from hy- 
bridization. 
The specimen here figured flowered in the Royal Gardens 
from plants of “ Prickly Comfrey,” presented by Mr. T. 
Christy, who has been the means of widely diffusing the 
culture of this Symphytum as a fodder plant, under the 
above name. For some notes of its use as a cattle food I 
must refer to the “ Report of the Progress and Condition 
: pas Royal Gardens during the year 1878,” p. 12.— 
Fig. 1, portion of stem with decurrent petioles—of the natural size ; 2, calyx; 
3, corolla—enlarged. 
