SYM'PHYTUM ASPER'RIMUM. 
ROUGHEST COMFREY. 
Class. 
PENTANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
BORA GIN AC 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Native of Height. Flowers in Duration. Introduced 
Caucasus. 6 feet. May to Sep. Perennial, in 1799. 
No. 1119. 
The name Symphytum, is compounded of two 
Greek words, symphyo, to unite, and phyton, a 
plant; in allusion to the healing qualities which 
the ancients attributed to their Symphytum. 
This plant is a native of that fertile district of 
botanical riches, Caucasus, which comprises the 
loftiest range of mountains in the north of Asia, 
extending nearly four hundred miles, from the 
Euxine to the Caspian, a great portion of which 
has been annexed to the Russian Empire. The 
celebrated Russian naturalist, Bieberstein, was 
long in these regions, and explored them success- 
fully. To him is the botanical world indebted for 
a knowledge of the Symphytun asperrimum, which 
has proved the handsomest and most robust of the 
whole genus, growing as it does, to the height of 
six feet, or even taller, when cultivated under very 
favourable circumstances. It has been recom- 
mended as an agricultural plant, but with what 
degree of propriety we have no information. 
If the fleshy roots of this hardy plant, which run 
deeply into the earth, be cut in pieces, in the spring, 
and planted, they will then give abundant increase. 
