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HELLEBORE

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 236 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HELLEBORE (Gr. iXXi8opos: mod. Gr. also crrcb.4xrf : Ger. Nieswurz, Christwurz; Fr. hellebore, and in the See also:

district of Avranche, herbe enragee), a genus (Helleborus) of See also:plants of the natural See also:order See also:Ranunculaceae, natives of See also:Europe and western See also:Asia. They are coarse perennial herbs with palmately or pedately lobed leaves. The See also:flowers have five persistent petaloid sepals, within the circle of which are placed the See also:minute See also:honey-containing tubular petals of the See also:form of a See also:horn with an irregular opening. The stamens are very numerous, and are spirally arranged; and the carpels are variable in number, sessile or stipitate and slightly See also:united at the See also:base and dehisce by ventral suture. Helleborus See also:niger, See also:black hellebore, or, as from blooming in See also:mid-See also:winter it is termed the See also:Christmas See also:rose (Ger. Schwarze Nieswurz; Fr., rose de See also:Noel or rose .i'hiver), is found in See also:southern and central Europe; and with other See also:species was cultivated in the See also:time of See also:Gerard (see Herball, p. 977, ed. See also:Johnson, 1633) in See also:English gardens. Its knotty See also:root-stock is blackish-See also:brown externally, and, as with other species, gives origin to numerous straight roots. The leaves See also:spring from the See also:top of the root-stock, and are smooth, distinctly pedate, dark-See also:green above, and lighter below, with 7 to 9 segments and See also:long petioles.

The scapes, which end the branches of the rhizome, have a loose entire bract at the base, and terminate in a single See also:

flower, with two bracts, from the See also:axis of one of which a second flower may be See also:developed. The flowers have 5 See also:white or See also:pale-rose, eventually greenish sepals, 15 to 18 lines in breadth; 8 to 13 tubular green petals containing honey; and 5 to to See also:free carpels. There are several forms, the best being See also:maximus. The Christmas rose is extensively grown in many See also:market gardens to provide white flowers forced in See also:gentle See also:heat about Christmas time for decorations, emblems, &c. H. orientalis, the Lenten rose, has given rise to several See also:fine hybrids with H. niger, some of the best forms being clear in See also:colour and distinctly spotted. H. foetidus, stinking hellebore, is a native of See also:England, where like H. viridis, it is confined chiefly to See also:limestone districts; it is See also:common in See also:France and the See also:south of Europe. Its leaves have 7- to 1r-toothed divisions, and the flowers are in panicles, numerous, See also:cup-shaped and drooping,with many bracts, and green sepals tinged with See also:purple, alternating with the five petals. H. viridis, or green hellebore proper, is probably indigenous in some of the southern and eastern counties of England, and occurs also in central and southern Europe. It has See also:bright yellowish-green flowers, 2 to 4 on a See also:stem, with large See also:leaf-like bracts. O. Brunfels and H. Bock (16th See also:century) regarded the plant as the black hellebore of the Greeks.

H. lividus, See also:

holly-leaved hellebore, found in the Balearic Islands, and in See also:Corsica and See also:Sardinia, is remarkable for the handsomeness of its foliage. White hellebore is See also:Veratrum See also:album (see VERATRUM), a liliaceous plant. Hellebores may be grown in any See also:ordinary See also:light See also:garden See also:mould, but thrive best in a See also:soil of about equal parts of turfy See also:loam and Helleborus niger. 1, See also:Vertical See also:section of flower; 2, Nectary, See also:side and front view. well-rotted manure, with See also:half a See also:part each of fibrous See also:peat and coarse See also:sand, and in moist but thoroughly-drained situations, more especially where, as at the margins of shrubberies, the plants can receive partial shade in summer. For See also:propagation cuttings of the rhizome may be taken in See also:August, and placed in pans of light soil, with a bottom heat of 6o° to 70° Fahr.; hellebores can also be grown from See also:seed, which must be sown as soon as ripe, since it quickly loses its vitality. The seedlings usually blossom in their third See also:year. The exclusion of See also:frost favours the See also:production of flowers; but the plants, if forced, must be gradually inured to a warm See also:atmosphere, and a free See also:supply of See also:air must be afforded, without which they are See also:apt to become much affected by greenfly. For potting, H. niger and its varieties, and H. orientalis, atrorubens and olympicus have been found well suited. After lifting, preferably in See also:September, the plants should receive plenty of light, with abundance of See also:water, and once a See also:week liquid manure, not over-strong. The flowers are improved in delicacy of See also:hue, and are brought well up among the leaves, by preventing See also:access of light except to the upper part of the plants. Of the numerous species of hellebore now grown, the deep-purple-flowered H. colchicus is one of the handsomest; by See also:crossing with H. guttatus and other species several valuable garden forms have been produced, having variously coloured spreading or See also:bell-shaped flowers, spotted with See also:crimson, red,or purple.

The rhizome of H. niger occurs in See also:

commerce in irregular and nodular pieces, from about z to 3 in. in length, white and of a horny texture within. Cut transversely it presents internally a circle of 8 to 12 See also:cuneiform ligneous bundles, surrounded by a thick bark. It. emits a faint odour when cut or broken, and has a See also:bitter and slightly acrid See also:taste. The See also:drug is sometimes. adulterated with the rhizome of See also:baneberry, Actaea spicata, which, however, may be recognized by the distinctly cruciate See also:appearance of the central portion of the attached roots when cut across, and by its decoction giving the chemical reactions for See also:tannin.' The rhizome is darker in colour in proportion to its degree of dryness, See also:age and richness in oil. A specimen dried by Schroff lost in eleven days 65% of water. H. niger, orientalis, viridis, foetidus, and several other species of hellebore contain the glucosides helleborin, C36H4206, and helleborein, C,3H44015, the former yielding See also:glucose and helleboresin, C30H;3804, and the latter glucose and a See also:violet-coloured substance helleboretin, C14H2003. Helleborin is most abundant in H. viridis. A third and volatile principle is probably See also:present in H. foetidus. Both helleborin and helleborein See also:act poisonously on animals, but their decomposition-products helleboresin and helleboretin seem to be devoid of any injurious qualities. Helleborin produces excitement and restlessness, followed by See also:paralysis of the See also:lower extremities or whole See also:body, quickened respiration, swelling and injection of the mucous membranes, See also:dilatation of the pupi., and, as with helleborein, salivation, vomiting and See also:diarrhoea. H 'lleborein exercises on the See also:heart an See also:action similar to that of See also:digitalis, but more powerful, accompanied by at first quickened and then slow and laboured respiration; it irritates the conjunctiva, and acts as a sternutatory, but less violently than veratrine. See also:Pliny states that horses, oxen and See also:swine are killed by eating " black hellebore "; and See also:Christison (On Poisons, p.

876, Iith ed., 1845) writes: " I have known severe griping produced by merely tasting the fresh root in See also:

January." Poisonous doses of hellebore occasion in See also:man singing in the ears, vertigo, stupor, thirst, with a feeling of suffocation, swelling of the See also:tongue and See also:fauces, emesis and catharsis, slowing of the See also:pulse, and finally collapse and See also:death from cardiac paralysis. Inspection after death reveals much inflammation of the See also:stomach and intestines, more especially the rectum. The drug has been observed to exercise a cumulative action. Its See also:extract was an ingredient in Bacher's pills, an empirical remedy once in See also:great repute in France. In See also:British See also:medicine the rhizome was formerly See also:official. H. foetidus was in past times much extolled as an anthelmintic, and is recommended by Bisset (Med. See also:Ess., pp. 169 and 195, 1766) as the best vermifuge for See also:children; J. See also:Cook, however, remarks of it (See also:Oxford Mag., See also:March 1769, p. 99) : Where it killed not the patient, it would certainly kill the See also:worms; but the worst of it is, it will sometimes kill both." This plant, of old termed by farriers ox-See also:heel, setter-wort and setter-grass, as well as H. viridis (Fr. Herbe a See also:seton), is employed in veterinary See also:surgery, to which also the use of H. niger is now chiefly confined in See also:Britain. In the See also:early days of medicine two kinds of hellebore were recognized, the white or Veratrum album (see VERATRUM), and the black, including the various species of Helleborus.

The former, according to Codronchius (See also:

Comm.... de elleb., 161o), Castellus (De helleb. epist., 1622), and others, is the drug usually signified in the writings of See also:Hippocrates. Among the hellebores indigenous to See also:Greece and Asia See also:Minor, H. orientalis, the rhizome of which differs from that of H. niger and of H. viridis in the bark being readily separable from the woody axis, is the species found by Schroff to See also:answer best to the descriptions given by the ancients of black hellebore, the XXifiopos picas of Dioscorides. The rhizome of this plant, if identical, as would appear, with that obtained by See also:Tournefort at Prusa in Asia Minor (Rel. d'un voy. du See also:Levant, ii. 189, 1718), must be a remedy of no small toxic properties. According to an early tradition, black hellebore administered by the soothsayer and physician See also:Melampus (whence its name Melampodium), was the means of curing the madness of the daughters of Proetus, See also:king of See also:Argos. The drug was used by the ancients in paralysis, See also:gout and other diseases, more particularly in See also:insanity, a fact frequently alluded to by classical writers, e.g. See also:Horace (Sat. ii. 3. 8o-83, Ep. ad Pis. 300). Various superstitions were in olden times connected with the cutting of black hellebore. The best is said by Pliny (Nat. hist. See also:xxv.

21) to grow on Mt See also:

Helicon. Of the three Anticyras that in See also:Phocis was the most famed for its hellebore, which, being there used combined with " sesamoides," was, according to Pliny, taken with more safety than elsewhere. The British Pharmaceutical See also:Conference has recommended the preparation which it terms the linctura veratri viridis, as the best form in which to administer this drug. It may be given in doses of 5-15 minims. The See also:tincture is prepared from the dried rhizome and rootlets of green hellebore, containing the alkaloids jervine, veratrine and veratroidine. It is recommended as a cardiac and See also:nervous sedative in cerebral See also:haemorrhage and puerperal eclampsia. Black hellebore is a purgative and uterine stimulant.

End of Article: HELLEBORE

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