]G FLORA HISTORICA. 



The name of this plant is derived from two 

 Greek words, helein, to destroy, and bora, pasture, 

 which indicate its pernicious qualities in such situa- 

 tions. 



The species of this plant called Christmas Rose 

 has been named Black Hellebore, from the black 

 colour of its roots ; and Melampodium, in honour of 

 Melampus, a celebrated physician, who flourished 

 at Pylos, in Peloponnesus, about a hundred years 

 after the time of Moses, or 1530 years, or there- 

 abouts, before the birth of Christ. Melampus tra- 

 velled into Egypt, which was the seat of science at 

 that period, to study medicine. He afterwards 

 cured the daughters of Proetus, king of Argos, of 

 mental derangement with Hellebore, and from this 

 circumstance it became so celebrated a medicine for 

 mad people, that navic/a ad Anticyram was a com- 

 mon proverb used to hypochondriacal persons, 

 •which meant " Sail to Anticyra," an island in the 

 Gulf of Corinth, where the Hellebore flourished in 

 great abundance. 



Melampus, it is said, became acquainted with the 

 cathartic qualities of the Hellebore, by observing 

 the effects it took upon his goats, which had eaten 

 of this vegetable. Pliny mentions that the daugh- 

 ters of Prcetus were restored to their senses by 

 drinking the milk of goats which had fed upon 

 Hellebore; but the earlier writers state that these 



