N. ORD.—RANUNCULACEZ. 3} 
Tribe.—HELLEBORINEA. 
GENUS.—HELLEBORUS,* LINN. 
SEX. SYST.—POLYGAMIA POLYGNIA. 
HELLEBORUS VIRIDIS. 
GREEN HELLEBORE. 
SYN.—HELLEBORUS VIRIDIS, LINN. 
e , 
COM. NAMES.—GREEN HELLEBORE; (FR.) ELLEBORE VERT; (GER.) 
GRUNE NIESSWURZ. 
A TINCTURE OF THE ROOT OF HELLEBORUS VIRIDIS, LINN. 
Description —This perennial herb usually attains a growth of from 1 to 2 
feet. Rhizome thick and woody. Stem smooth, usually a little inclined to 
branch above. eaves alternate, compound, the leaflets sharply serrate; those 
of the stem nearly sessile and palmately parted; those of the root glabrous, 
long petioled and pedately divided into from 7 to 15 lanceolate, acute lobes. 
Inflorescence on axillary, solitary, nodding, sometimes geminate peduncles ; flowers 
regular, an inch or more in diameter. Calyx persistent; sepals 5, roundish- 
ovate, veiny, petaloid, imbricated in the bud. /eéals 8 to 10, very small, cyathi- 
form, irregularly 2-lipped, all shorter than the stamens.  S/amens indefinite. 
Pistils 3 to 10, sessile; stigmas orbicular. Fruit a cluster of sessile, coriaceous 
pods, all cohering at their bases; seeds numerous. 
History and Habitat—This European immigrant is now pretty thoroughly 
naturalized on Long Island and in a few counties of Eastern Pennsylvania, 
where it grows in the opens, and flowers in April. 
On account of its general rarity, this species has had but little use in 
medicine, its place being supplied by either /7. niger or FH. fetidus ; it is, how- 
ever, much more active than either of these species, and ranks next in energy 
to H. orientalis, which is considered the most highly poisonous species of the 
genus. Green Hellebore has, however, been somewhat used as a drastic and 
hydragogue cathartic in dropsies; an emmenagogue in amenorrhcea; a vermi- 
fuge in children afflicted with lumbricoids; as a nervine in mania and melan- 
cholia; and an anti-spasmodic in epilepsy. Its principal field, however, has been 
in veterinary medication, for animals afflicted with lice or lumbrici. For the rea- 
son given above, the root is no longer officinal in the pharmacopceias. 
'EXetv, helein, to injure ; ppd, bora, food. 
