290
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
to have been preferred (Wade, 1958) and could well have been
hybrids. Old Essex gardens do not seem to yield this Comfrey
in its pure form and it is possible that it has not been much
cultivated for a very long time.
The Rough Comfrey Symphytum asperum Lepech. This vigor-
ous Comfrey is not readily separated from its hybrids but its
flowers when expanded are true blue, not purple.
There has been apparently only one record for the whole of
Essex and that was reported as long ago as 1862 (Gibson, 1862)
as having already died out at its station near Audley End. His
herbarium is now at Saffron Walden and it would be interesting
to see whether it contains a specimen from this locality, for this
plant has often been confused with its hybrids. This confusion
makes it difficult to decide to what extent it was grown for its
flowers and to what extent it was used as a fodder crop following
its introduction in 1799 (Wade, 1958). Possibly the former was
the more important, for the Treasury of Botany (Lindley & Moore,
1876) seems to be referring to the true S. asperum when it tells us
that, "In 1811 S. asperrimum was introduced from the Caucasus;
its graceful pendent light-blue flowers and bold foliage recom-
mended it as an ornamental plant in spacious flower-gardens or
in front of the shrubbery, in which it has to a greater or less extent
kept a place in old gardens. Some few years ago it was recom-
mended as a "soiling" plant, and our trials of it certainly show
that it is capable of producing large crops ....". Even the error
in the date and the incorrect name are consistent with it being the
true S. asperum (see Wade, 1958). However, even the most
thorough search in old gardens is not likely to prove successful as
it is as impersistent as it is rare; half of the records in the Atlas of
the British Flora (1962) are pre-1930.
The Russian Comfrey Symphytum x uplandicum Nyman. This
is the name given to-day to the hybrid swarm of purple-flowered,
sturdy Comfreys that have resulted from the crossing of S.
officinale and S. asperum and which are so common along road-
sides, margins of wood and on waste ground. When our new
records are complete it will probably prove to be much the
commonest Comfrey in Essex though the present records show it
to be a poor second to S. officinale (Jermyn, 1965), which, as has
been pointed out above, appear to include much material more
properly ascribed to the hybrid.
It was introduced into this country by 1827 and possibly as
early as 1799 (Wade, 1958). It has been known, more usually
under the names S. asperrimum or S. peregrinum, as both a garden
and a farm plant but confusion in the naming makes it difficult
to know which was the more important use. On balance it was
probably more a fodder crop than a flower. Certainly in the last
hundred years or so it has been extensively used for this purpose
(Hills, 1954) and Wade (1958) tells us that Doubleday imported