264 BORAGINE^ 



veined leaves, which run down into winged appendages to the stem. From 

 May to August clusters of white, purple, pinkish, or greenish drooping bells 

 may be seen upon the plant, but they are not to be gathered unwarily, on 

 account of the bristles which beset both stem and foliage. The plant is often 

 abundant on the river's brink, for its brittle root extends itself widely, and is 

 very tenacious of life, every little remnant of it sending up a young shoot 

 above the soil. This circumstance renders the plant very troublesome in a 

 garden. It is now chiefly to be found in the cottage garden, but it was very 

 generally cultivated in former days, on account of its supposed vulnerary 

 qualities, a property to which we find an allusion in several of its Continental 

 names, as well as in our old one of Great Consound. The French call it 

 Consoude ; the Italians, Consolida ; the Spanish, Consuelda major ; the 

 Germans, Beinivell ; and the Dutch, Smeerwortel. All parts of the plant, 

 especially the roots, contain a large quantity of mucilage, so that the Comfrey 

 is fitted for all the purposes to which we should apply the marsh mallow ; 

 every part, too, is nutritive, and the roots have a sweetish flavour. The 

 decoction of this herb was formerly used not only for " grief es of the lungs," 

 but for various other maladies, and it has also been used by dyers to extract 

 the colouring matter from gum lac. The leaves are said by Dr. George John- 

 ston to give a grateful flavour to cakes and panada, and to be, when boiled, 

 an excellent vegetable ; they should be gathered while young, when they form 

 a substitute for spinach ; the young shoots, blanched by being forced through 

 heaps of earth, may be eaten like asparagus, which they resemble in flavour, 

 though they are not so delicate as that vegetable. 



Professor James Buckman, who made many valuable observations on 

 grasses and other plants, especially serviceable to the farmer, observes that 

 some years since the Prickly Comfrey of the Caucasus {Symphytum asperrimum) 

 was greatly recommended for cultivation as the green food of cattle, and that 

 it soon grows to a great height in the garden. He adds, that while this plant 

 was growing, he used sometimes to amuse himself by taking branches of it 

 into the meadows to the cows, and that it was highly curious to see how 

 immediately they surrounded him, and how eagerly they ate the plants ; and 

 Dr. Voelcker, who analysed this Comfrey, both in its fresh and dried states, 

 declared it to be his opinion that it was very nutintious to these animals. 



Professor Buckman says : "On introducing the S. aspierrimiim to my 

 botanical garden, it struck me that, notwithstanding the latter is known as a 

 Caucasian species, which was introduced as a garden plant on account of the 

 beautiful colour of its flower-bells, yet that the former scarcely presented 

 those marked diff"erences which should belong to species. I therefore deter- 

 mined to plant some specimens of S. officinale, concluding that if I could get 

 a plant from the waterside to grow in an upland district, remote from water, 

 so great a change of circumstance would, at least, exert great influence upon 

 its growth. Accordingly, a plant with white bells was introduced into the 

 Botanic garden, which at once grew al)undantly, and the following year was 

 subdivided into several sets, which flowered ; but this season the flowers 

 became stained with a dull reddish-blue tinge, and each season great changes 

 have gone on in this plant; so that, in fact, in the summer of 1853, it was 

 scarcely distinguishable from the Prickly Comfrey." Subsequent observations 



