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BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
THE CORN GROMWELL, OR BASTARD ALKANET. (L. arvense, Lin.) 
This is an annual plant with small white flowers, which is often so abundant in corn fields as to be extremely 
troublesome. It flowers nearly all the summer. The root abounds with a deep-red dye, which, according to 
Linnaeus, is used by the country.girls in Sweden to paint their faces. 
THE CREEPING GROMWELL. (L. purpuro-c^jruleum, Lin.) 
This plant is only found in Kent, in the west of England, and in Wales. Its stems are generally procumbent, 
but its flowers are produced on erect shoots. 'It is a perennial, and it flowers in May. 
THE SEA GROMWELL. (L. maritimum, Lehrn.) 
This very curious plant is found abundantly on the sandy sea-coast of Scotland and the north of England. 
“ The whole plant is succulent and glaucous. The leaves, although not hairy, are sprinkled with minute 
cartilaginous grains, similar to those from which the hairs or bristles spring in other plants of the same natural 
order. When dried, these grains remain white, while the rest of the herb becomes black. The flavour of the 
plant is thought to resemble that of oysters.” (Sowerby’s English Botany, 2nd ed.) The plant is a perennial, 
with a fleshy tapering root, and it flowers in July and August. 
GENUS IY. 
THE COMFREY. (Symphytum, Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Calyx five-cleft. Corolla cylindrical, campanulate ; tube very short; limb ventricose, with five short lobe9. 
Scales of the orifice subulate, converging. ( Lindley.) 
Description, Sec .—There are only two British species in this genus. The name of Symphytum is derived 
from a Greek word signifying to unite, from the juice of the plant being supposed to be exceedingly efficacious 
in curing wounds. 
J.—THE COMMON COMFREY. (Symphytum officinale, Lin.) 
Synonyme.— S. patens, Sibth. I Specific Character. —Leaves ovate-lanceolate, decurrent, finely 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 817 ; 2nd ed., t. 269. I hairy. (Smith.) 
Description, &c. —This plant is only found in moist places. It produces a succession of pale-yellowish 
flowers all the summer. The root abounds in mucilage, like that of the Marsh-Mallow. There is a variety 
with purple flowers. 
2.—THE TUBEROUS-ROOTED COMFREY. (Symphytum tuberosum, Lin.) 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 1502 ; 2nd ed., t. 270; and our fig. 3, in PI. 43. 
Specific Character.— Leaves ovate, slightly decurrent, rather harsh ; upper ones opposite. (Smith.) 
Description, Sec .—This species is also found in moist shady places, but only in the north of England 
and in Scotland. It is a perennial, and it flowers in June and July. 
