BORAGINACEAE (BORAGE FAMILY) 337 
pointed lobes. The stiff bristles on the calyx enable it to cling 
to clothing and the coats of animals, particularly sheep, and 
the seeds which it encloses are largely so distributed. These 
are four incurved nutlets, keeled on the back, rough, wrinkled, 
and about a tenth of an inch long. (Fig. 233.) 
Means of control 
When grain is but a few inches high and the soil is moist, the 
weed-seedlings should be raked out of it with a weeding harrow. 
Badly infested meadows should be cleansed by a short rotation 
containing a well-tilled hoed crop. 
COMFREY 
Symphytum officinale, L. 
Other English names: Healing-herb, Knit-back, Backwort, Bruise- 
wort, Slippery-root, Asses’ Ears. 
Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to August. 
Seed-time: August to October. 
Range: Newfoundland to Minnesota, southward to Maryland. 
Habitat: Moist meadows, along ditches, and in waste places. 
Comfrey was brought to this country by the early settlers be- 
cause of its healing virtues, and is an escape from the “Garden of 
Simples.”” The root is spindle-shaped, thick, fleshy, mucilaginous, 
covered with thin, black bark; it is still valued medicinally, and, 
when collected in late autumn, sliced lengthwise, and dried, is 
worth six to eight cents a pound in the drug market. (Fig. 234.) 
Stems one to three feet high, branching, hairy. Lower leaves 
long ovate to lance-shaped, thick, rough, net-veined, hairy on 
both sides, narrowing at base to margined petioles; upper leaves 
decurrent on the stem in long, wedge-shaped wings. Flowers in 
curving terminal racemes, yellowish white, sometimes light purple ; 
corolla a little more than a half-inch long, the tube somewhat 
dilated, the throat crested below the lobes which are very short 
and spreading; five stamens inserted on the tube and included; 
calyx with five lance-shaped segments, acute, rough, hairy. 
Nutlets about one-sixth of an inch long, ovoid, brown, shining, 
nearly smooth, the base concave and toothed. 
Z 
