20 FLORA HISTORICA. 



Notwithstanding the great reverence with which 

 the ancients regarded this plant, it was considered 

 by most of their writers as a rough medicine"; and 

 as many country people are in the habit of giving 

 the powder of Hellebore to their children for the 

 ■worms, we shall show how dangerous an herb it is, 

 by extracting an anecdote out of Martyn's Tour- 

 nefort. 



i( Some years ago, when the ground was covered 

 "with a very deep snow, a flock of sheep, in Ox- 

 mead, near Fulborn, in Cambridgeshire, finding 

 nothing but this herb above the snow, ate plentifully 

 of it. They soon appeared terribly out of order, 

 and most of them died, a few being saved, by timely 

 giving them some oil, which made them cast up 

 this herb. Some of those which died, being opened, 

 "were found to have their stomachs greatly inflamed. 

 This account I had from the man who attended 

 them. He went with me to the very spot, and as 

 he pointed out the herb which poisoned them, I 

 found it to be the species of Hellebore called Niger 

 foctidiis." 



Formerly the Gauls never went to the chase 

 without rubbing the points of their arrows with this 

 herb, believing that it rendered all the game killed 

 with them the more tender. 



This reputed specific for the cure of melancholy 

 and madness, was an inmate of our gardens prior 



