THE COMFEEY. Ill 



illustrations. The large tubular flowers of the comfrey are 

 generally of a yellowish or creamy white, but they may 

 often be found purple in colour, as represented in our illus- 

 tration. In some districts the one colour, in others the 

 other, is predominant, but very often the two may be found 

 growing- side by side, and it is therefore difficult to assign 

 any satisfactory reason for the variation in colour. It does 

 not arise from greater development or superior advantages 

 of position, nor from geological influences of soil, potent 

 as these often are ; the contiguity of the two plants to each 

 other, and the facility thus afforded for comparison, renders 

 any of these theories untenable. The common comfrey is 

 abundantly met with in England, but is rare in Scotland ; 

 the tuberous comfrey is commonly found in Scotland, but 

 is seldom met with in England; the one is rarely found above 

 Aberdeen, while the northern counties of England are the 

 extreme southern limit of the other. Except in the narrow 

 zone of country common to both there will, therefore, be 

 no possibility of mistaking the one species for the other. 



The southern or common comfrey is the species whose 

 supposed medicinal, or rather surgical, effects have given 

 the name to the genus, and its specific appellation officinale, 

 as the word officinal is a further testimony to the old 

 belief in its powers of healing. 



The comfrey delights in rich moist ground ; it is there- 

 fore often met with in the mass of vegetation fringing the 

 sides of our rivers, or in damp, low-lying meadows. The 

 flowers first appear about the fourth week in April, and 

 the plant may after this date be found in blossom through- 

 out the whole of the summer, and late into the autumn. 

 Except those who have really tested the question for them- 

 selves few persons realise with what regularity all the 



