Ranunculaceæ.

HELLEBORUS NIGER.

Class XIII. POLYANDRIA. Order VI.

BLACK HELLEBORE.

POLYGYNIA.

Gen. Char. Calyx, wanting. Petals, five, or more. Nectaries, bilabiate, tubular. Capsules, many-seeded, nearly erect.

Spe. Char. Scape, one or two-flowered, nearly naked. Leaves, pedate.

The root is perennial, transverse, rough, knotted, externally black, internally whitish, and sends off many strong, round, long, depending fibres; the flower stalks are erect, round, tapering, and towards the bottom of a redish color; the leaves are of a deep green color, compound, and of a peculiar shape, generally divided into five leaflets, and spring directly from the root by long footstalks; the leaflets are eliptical, smooth. coriaceous, and the upper half serrated; the floral leaves, which are oval and concave, supply the place of the calyx; the petals are five, large, round, concave, and spreading, at first of a redish tint, but by age they turn green; the nectaries are about eight in number, tubulated, somewhat compressed, bilabiated, and of a greenish yellow color; the filaments are numerous, and white; the anthers are yellow: the germens vary in number, usually from four to eight: the capsules or pods. contain many oval, shining, blackish, seeds.

This plant is a native of Austria and Italy, but is found growing wild in Germany and many parts of Switzerland. It was unknown. to the gardners in England, until cultivated by Mr. John Gerard in 1596, where, if the weather be sufficiently mild, it flowers in

January, from which circumstance it is sometimes called, Christmas Flower. If any arguments were required to evince the necessity of botanical accuracy in discriminating medical plants, the Helleborus Niger would furnish us with many facts, from which such arguments might be deduced. Many instances are recorded of the fatal effects of this plant, by which it since appears, that other plants were mistaken for it, and actually employed; of these we can enumerate the Helleborus viridis, Adonis vernalis, Trollius europaus, Acæa spicata, Astrantia major, and Aconitum napellus; and as the roots of these plants possess altogether different powers, we cannot be surprised that the medical history of this root is not only confused and contradictory, but calculated to produce very mischievous and even fatal consequences. Mellampus is said to have observed its purging quality in the goats which feed on it, and introduced it into the Materia Medica, from whence it was styled Malampodium.

Medical Properties and Uses. Black Hellebore when taken into the stomach, or applied externally to wounds, its effects are very sudden and violent: although many writers consider this root to be perfectly innocent and safe; yet we find many proofs of its poisonous effects; the symptoms of which are most distressing. It occasions violent vomiting and purging, attended with griping and cold. sweats, great derangement of the nervous system, and if it continue long in the alimentary canal, it becomes inflamed, which symptoms may in a measure be prevented at the commencement by giving active emetics and laxatives. It often proves a very powerful emmenagogue in plethoric habits, where steel is ineffectual or improper. It is very drastic in its operation, therefore while we have possession remedies of equal efficacy. and harmless, and such as can be depended on, we would recommend its use only in extreme cases. A single leaf powdered is said to be three doses for a child.