BORAGE FAMILY. 243 



not only in reference to this, but to all pernicious weeds. It would save 

 a vast deal of vexatious labor at a future day. 



2. SYM'PHYTUM, Tournef. COMFREY. 



[Greek, Symphyo, to join ; from its supposed healing virtues.] 



Corolla tubular with 5 short spreading teeth ; the throat inflated and 

 closed by 5 linear-awl-shaped scales. Stamens included ; anthers elongated. 

 Nutlets smooth, ovate, fixed by a large hollowed base. Coarse peren- 

 nials with mucilaginous roots and yellowish white flowers in nodding 

 hispid racemes. 



1. S. officina'le, L. Stem winged above by the decurrence of the sessile 

 leaves ; lower leaves ovate-lanceolate, tapering to a petiole, the upper 

 narrower. 



OFFICINAL SYMPHYTUM. Comfrey. 



Stem 2-3 feet high, branched, grooved or angular, and hispidly pilose. Leaves 6-12 

 inches long, rugose ; petioles of the lower ones 3-5 inches in length. Racemes without 

 bracts, the flowers rather crowded. Corolla rarely purplish ; scales of the throat gland- 

 ular dentate. 



Gardens, and naturalized in some places. Native of Europe. June. 



Obs . Formerly used as a remedy for " internal wounds," and still has 

 some reputation in diseases of the lungs and bowels. The root is the 

 part used ; it imparts a strong mucilage to water and has a slight 

 astringency, and is at least harmless if not efficacious. 



3. LITHOSPER'MUM, Tournef. GROMWELL. 



[Greek, Lithos, a stone, and Sperma, seed ; from the stony hardness of its seeds.] 



Corolla funnel-form or salver-form ; limb 5-lobed ; throat naked, or with 

 5 small gibbous projections. Anthers oblong, subsessile, included. Akenes 

 bony, smooth or rugose, fixed by the base. 



1. L arven'se, L. Hispidly pilose; leaves lance-linear, rather acute, 

 entire, nerveless ; akenes rugose-pitted. 



FIELD LITHOSPERMUM. Stone-weed. Gromwell. 

 Fr. Gremil des champs. Germ. Acker Steinsame. 



Roots annual. Stem 12-18 inches high, generally much branched from the root, and 

 often branched near the summit. Leaves 1-2 inches long, the lower ones often oblan- 

 ceolate and obtuse. Flowers axillary, solitary, subsessile. Corolla ochroleucous, small, 

 destitute of folds or appendages. Akenes ovoid, acuminate, rugose, brown when mature. 



Grain-fields and pastures : introduced. Native of Europe. Fl. May. Fr. June. 



06s. A worthless little foreigner, more noticeable for its frequency in 

 our fields, than for any intrinsic importance, even as a weed. According 

 to the doctrine of signatures a fanciful theory of the early days of 

 medical science, which assumed that all iredicinal substances indicated 

 by some external character the diseases to which they were adapted, or 

 the part of the body which they were supposed to affect this, and other 

 species, were formerly a reputed cure for the stone in the bladder, from the 

 stony-like appearance of its seeds ; whence one of the popular names. 



