Symphytum officinale. Nat. ord., Boraginaceae.

Fig. - Engl. Bot., t. 817.

Common Comfrey. For. name: German, Gebrauchlicher Beinwell.

Habitat. - Moist banks and borders of meadows in Europe and Western Asia: frequent in England and Ireland.

Flowering time. - Spring and summer.

Part, employed. - The fresh root-stock.

Characters. - Root-stock thick, with stout, erect, branching annual stems 2 or 3 feet high. Leaves broadly lanceolate, often 8 to 10 inches long or more, tapering into a long point and rough, with short stiff hairs; the lower ones stalked, the upper ones sessile and decurrent along the stem. Flower-cymes stalked about the last leaf, once or seldom twice forked; the branches forming short one-sided racemes. Flowers all pedicellate, 3 lines long, either pale yellow or a dark dingy purple.

Time for collecting. - Before flowering and in the autumn.

Preparation. - Tincture (proof spirit).

This has not been proved, and has hitherto been used as an external remedy only.

Average loss of moisture, 75 per cent