HELLEBORE, a name applied to two very different genera of plants. The genus to which it more properly belongs, and to which it has belonged, since very ancient times, helle,borus, is of the natural order ranunettlacea, and is characterized by a calyx of 5 persistent sepals, often resembling petals; a corolla of 8 or 10 very short, tubular; honey-secreting petals; numerous stamens and 3-10 pistils; a leathery capsule, and seeds arranged in two rows. The species are perennial herbaceous plants, mostly European, with a short root-stock; the stem mostly leafless, or nearly so, but sometimes very leafy; the leaves more or less evergreen, lobed, the flowers terminal. A familiar example of this genus is the BLACK HELLEBORE—SO called from the color of its roots—or CIERISTMAS ROSE (II. niger), a favorite in our flower-gardens, because its large white flowers are produced in winter. The leaves are all radical; the stalks generally one-flowered ; the flowers white or tinged with red. Black hellebore for merly enjoyed a higher reputation as a medicinal agent than it now- possesses. Melampus is represented as employing it in the treatment of madness centuries before the Christian era. The root is the part used in medicine, and it is imported into this country from Hamburg, and sometimes from Marseilles. It consists of two parts—the rhizome or root-stock, and the fibers arising from it. The former is nearly half an inch thick, several inches long, and knotty, with transverse ridges and slight longitudinal striae; the latter are numerous, cylindrical, brown externally, and whitish internally. The taste is slight at first, then bitter and acrid. The chemical composition of the root is not very accurately known. It is not much employed at the present day, but it has been found of service (1) in mania, melancholia, and epilepsy; (2) as an emmenagogue, (3) in dropsy—its action as a drastic purgative, and its stimulating effect on the vessels of the liver, rendering it useful; (4) in chronic skin diseases; and (5) as an anthelinintic.
Ten or fifteen grains of the powdered root act as a sharp purgative. The tincture, which is obtained by maceration in spirit, is usually given when its action as an emmenagogue is required. In an excessive dose, it acts as a narcotic acrid poison, and causes vomiting, purging, burning pain in the stomach and intestines, faintness, paralysis, and death.—STINKING HELLEBORE (H. fatidus) grows on hills and moun tains in the south and west of Europe, in some of the chalk districts of England, and in several places in Scotland. It has a very disagreeable smell, and green flowers somewhat tinged with purple. The stem is many-flowered and leafy.—GREEN IIELLE BORE H. ViridiS), also found in the chalk districts of England, has a leafy stem, with a few large greenish-yellow flowers. The celebrated hellebore of the ancients was probably a species peculiar to Greece and the Levant, Helleborus orientalis or Helleborus offi einalis; all the species, however, have similar medicinal qualities. From the abundance of the plant around the city .of Anticyra, hypochondriacal persons were said to need a visit to Anticyra.—Closely allied to the genus' belteborus iS eranthi;s, In which the flowers are surrounded with an involucre, and have a deciduous calyx. A well-known species is the WINTER HELLEBORE, or WINTER ACONITE (E. hyemalis), of our gardens, whose yellow flowers, raised only a few inches above the ground, deck the flower-border about the same time with snowdrops. It is a native of the midland parts of Europe, but naturalized in many parts of Britain. It loves shady places.