﻿Perennial. — Flowers from May to September. 



Root black on the outside, white within, large, branched, fleshy, 

 abounding with a slimy juice. Stems 2 or 3 feet high, upright, 

 branched, hairy, winged, especially above, with the decurrent bases 

 of the leaves. Root-leaves on long footstalks, rough. Stem-leaves, 

 lower ones between egg-shaped and spear-shaped ; upper ones 

 spear-shaped, sessile, somewhat stem-clasping, very decurrent, 

 and more or less waved at the margin. Clusters growing in pairs, 

 stalked, hairy, forked at the base, revolute. Calyx more or less 

 spreading. Corolla usually of a yellowish white, sometimes pur- 

 ple ; this last variety is the S. Patens of Dr. Sibthorp, and is 

 occasionally met with about Oxford ; I have seen it on the bank 

 of a ditch by the side of the towing path between High Bridge and 

 Hayfield’s Hut, and also by the side of the footpath leading across 

 the fields from St. Clement’s to Cowley Marsh. Mr. Curtis has 

 figured a very beautiful red variety of this species in his British 

 Entomology, v. iv. t. 155, which he gathered in the middle of 

 September, upon Sandown Marshes in the Isle of Wight ; and at 

 the same time Mr. Curtis found several specimens with flowers of 

 the richest purple, and others entirely green. 



The root abounds in a pure mucilage, which renders it useful in 

 coughs,’ and all internal irritations ; the leaves give a grateful 

 flavour to cakes and panada, and the young stems and leaves are 

 good when boiled. A decoction of the roots is used by dyers to 

 extract the colouring matter from Gum Lac. — Cows and sheep are 

 said to eat it ; horses, goats, and swine, to refuse it. 



Uredo Sy'mphyti , D C. FI. Fr. v. vi. p. 87, is not uncommon on 

 the under surface of the leaves of the Common Comfrey, in the 

 neighbourhood of Oxford, especially in Long Meadow, going to 

 Iffley ; and on the side of the ditches going to South Hinksey. 



