34 



HELLEBORUS orientalis. 

 Eastern Hellebore, 



POLYANDRIA PENTAGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. Ranunculace.e. 



HELLEBORUS. Botanical Register, vol. 19. t. 1G43. 



H. orientalis; foliis radicalibus pedatisectis, floralibus sessilibus palmatis, 

 laciniis lanceolatis serratis basi sejunctis integerrimis, pedunciilis bifidis 

 trifidisque, scpalis subrotuiido-ovatis acutis petaloideis candidis purpu- 

 rascentibus. 



II. orientalis. Decand. Syst. 1. 317. 



H, officinalis. Fl. Grceca, t. 583. 



A poison so deadly as that which the ancients called Black 

 ilellebore would naturally attract the attention of the moderns; 

 and accordingly, from a very early period, a plant, occurring 

 plentifully in the middle of Europe, and as far south as 

 Laconia and Mount Athos, has been selected as the classical 

 species. That is what we call the Christmas Rose, or Helle- 

 borus niger, and there is nothing in the brief description 

 given by Dioscorides at variance with it, except that he calls 

 the flowers €fX'jrop(f)vpa or purplish, which can hardly be said 

 of the Christmas Rose, which is white. 



It is however the opinion of Botanists that in reality the 

 Black Hellebore of the ancients was not the Helleborus niirer, 

 but another species, called by some H. orientalis, by others 

 H. officinalis, which we have now the opportunity of figuring. 

 The roots that produced it were gathered on the Bithynian 

 Olympus by Mr. Sandison, H. M. Consul at Brusa, and sent 

 to the Horticultural Society. In its purplish flowers it cor- 

 responds with the description of Dioscorides, and is probably 

 the plant he wrote of. No doubt it is what Tournefort found 

 (Voyage^ p. 474) in that country, and recognized as the 

 poison of the ancients. We do not however find any trace of 



