BOEAGE 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. STM'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 yello^^ish white flowers in nodding 

 hispid racemes. 



1. S. officinale, 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, branclied, grooved or angular, and hispidly pilose. Leaves 6-12 

 inches long, rugose ; j>dioZes of the lower ones 3-5 inches in length. jRacmes without 

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

 ular dentate. 



Gardens, and naturahzed 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. 



/?oofe 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. Flmvers 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. 



Ohs. 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 n edicinal 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. 



