DISTRIBUTION OF THE COMFREYS IN ESSEX 289
from most of the 10 Km. squares in the Midland Valley and
Buchan Plateau of Scotland and ranges widely if not continuously
from Spain through Germany to Russia; an indigenous location in
S.E. England would be consistent with this distribution, and it
would be most interesting if stations were discovered deep within
some of the Essex woods.
The Comfrey Symphytum officinale L. The cream-flowered
forms of this large and not unattractive Comfrey grow abundantly
along the banks of many Essex rivers, notably along the Wid at
Margaretting (60), the Roding at Loughton (49), and the Chelmer
at Ulting (80). They are readily recognised when pure-bred but
the great majority of the coloured forms appear to be the result
of crossing with S. x uplandicum (Wade, 1958). The creamy-
flowered plants are undoubtedly native and were mentioned by
the old herbalists like Gerarde. Gerarde, however, also referred to
a variety with purple flowers and this was long before the intro-
duction of S. asperum and S. x uplandicum which appears to
have taken place not before 1799 (Wade, 1958), while on the
Continent coloured flowers become commoner than the cream as
one approaches Russia (Tutin, 1956). Thus it would seem to be
wise to identify with certainty as S. officinale only those plants
that have creamy corollas.
Gibson (1862) recorded this Comfrey, correctly or otherwise,
from each of the eight districts into which he divided Essex, and
the recent records of S. T. Jermyn (1965) show its continued
presence in each of them. It would not, however, be proper to
assume that there has been no change in numbers or distribution,
for even if Gibson's records are for the pure S. officinale, some of
the recent ones are suspect. The abundance of S. x uplandicum
in the county, its ready hybridisation with S. officinale, and its
present neglect by gardeners, as well as the cultural changes in the
landscape, would lead one to anticipate a decline and more
accurate recording might well show this to be true. Similarly, the
paucity of records prevents an evaluation of the significance of
their absence from some of the 10 Km squares facing the North
Sea and their general presence in those squares that lie along the
Thames.
Of all the Comfreys, this has been the most generally useful.
The roots have been used as poultices to heal wounds (Nicholson
et al., 1960), a use suggested by both the generic and common
names, while the leaves have been used to make cool drinks or
"cups" (Lindley & Moore, 1876). Grigson (1962) gives a recipe
for a Bavarian dish. The leaves are dipped in batter and fried,
preferably in olive oil. "They emerge from the frying-pan veridian
and gold and tasting as well as they look". It would be interesting
to know whether the Comfrey was so used in this country; Johns
(1908) refers to it being "an esculent vegetable" but gives no
details. To what degree it was grown for these purposes, rather
then being gathered wild, is not known, for coloured forms seem