58 POLYANDRIA— POLYGYNIA. Helleborus. 



Veratrum nigrum secundum. Dod. Pempt. 385./. 



In woods and thickets, on a chalky soil. 



In Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, and other chalk countries, 

 indubitably wild, though not common. Gathered by Miss Jane 

 Baynes, near Harefield, Middlesex j about Great Marlow and 

 High Wickham, Bucks, by Mr. Jacob Rayer, and in the north- 

 west part of Norfolk, by Mr. Wm. Humphrey. 



Perennial. Jpril, May. 



Root fleshy, black, with numerous long stout fibres, very acrid and 

 purgative. Herbage altogether annual, of a deep but bright 

 green, smooth. Stem erect, round, forked, 1^- foot high. Outer 

 lobes of the leaves often combined, assuming a pedate aspect, 

 but they are truly digitate. Ft. few, terminal and axillary, stalk- 

 ed, mostly solitary, drooping, green in every part. Pet. ex- 

 panded. Caps 3 or 4, short, wrinkled. Haller reckons up all 

 the reputed virtues of Hellebore under this species ; which in- 

 deed seems to be what German practitioners have substituted 

 for the true plant of the antients, H. officinalis j Sibth. in FL 



• GrcEc. t. 523. 



2. H.Jhelidus, Stinking Hellebore. Bear's-foot, or 

 Setter-wort. 



Stem many-flowered, leafy. Leaves pedate. Petals con- 

 verging. 



H. fcetidus. Linn. Sp. PL 784. Willd. v. 2. 1337. Fl. Br. 598. 

 Engl. Bot. V. 9. /. 613. IVoodv. t.\9. Hook. Scot. \76, DeCand. 

 Syst. V. 1 . 320. Bull. Fr. t.7\. Ehrh. PL Off. 275. 



H.n. 1193. HalLHist.v.2.S7. 



H. niger foetidus. Bauh. Pin, 185. Robert Ic. 1. 10. 



Helleboraster maximus. RaiiSyn.27l. Ger. Em.976,f. Lob. 

 Ic. 679./. 



Elleborus niger adulterinus sylvestris. Fuchs. Hist. 275. f. Ic. 

 156./. 



Veratrum nigrum tertium. Dod. Pempt. 3S6.f. 



In thickets and waste ground, on a chalky soil. 



More common than the last in chalk countries. On the castle hill^ 

 at Castle-Acre, Norfolk, abundantly. 



Perennial. March, April. 



Taller and more branched than the foregoing. Herbage perennial, 

 smooth, of a more lurid green. Fl. numerous, panicled, droop- 

 ing, smaller and more closed, tinged about the edges with pur- 

 ple. Nect. notched. Leaves stalked, truly pedate, of 7 or 9 

 lanceolate, serrated leaflets j upper ones, or rather their foot- 

 stalks, gradually becoming pale, lanceolate, entire bracteas. 

 Caps. 3 or 4. The whole herb is fetid, acrid, violently cathartic, 

 though it has in England been more frequently used than the 

 H. viridis, on the credit of the Greek Hellebore. 



