NAT. ORDER. 
Boraginece. 
SYMPHYTUM ORIENTALE. COMMON COMFREY. 
Class V. Pentandria, Order I. Monogynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, five-parted. Corolla, cylindrically campanulate , 
Throat, furnished with five subulate, vaulted processes, which 
connive into a cone. Nuts, four, one-celled, ovate, fixed to the 
bottom of the calyx, imperforated at the base. 
Spc. Char. Stem, branched, hairy. Leaves, ovate-oblong - , acumi- 
nated, petioled, hairy above, and villous beneath ; upper ones nar- 
rowed at the base : floral ones opposite, sessile. Calyx, five-cleft, 
tubular at the base. Segments, of the corolla, ovate, acute. 
The root is perennial, large, branched, on the outside blackish, 
and within whitish ; the stalk is about two feet high ; erect, branched, 
somewhat angular, and covered with short ridged hairs ; the leaves 
are larg-e, alternate, and those below stand upon footstalks, those above 
sessile, decurrent, ovate, pointed, entire, rough, and fringed with short 
hairs ; the flowers are tubular, of a yellowish white, and placed in 
spikes, which turn inward in a spiral manner ; the calyx is divided into 
five segments, which are rough, erect, and pointed ; the corolla is fun- 
nel-shaped, consisting- of a short thick tube, and a limb slig-htly cut at 
the edg-es into five short obtuse reflexed segments ; the mouth of the 
tube closed by five narrow-pointed nectarious teeth ; the filaments are 
five, short, and terminated by yellow erect bifid anthers ; the germen 
is divided into four parts ; the style is tapering, long-er than the corolla, 
and furnished with a small blunt stigma ; the seeds are four, angular, 
blackish, shining, and lodged in the bottom of the calyx. This is a com- 
Vol. m.— 159. 
