A74 ORD. XXVI. Multisiliquee. HELLEBORUS NIGER. 
towards the bottom reddish; the bracteal leaves supply the place 
of the calyx, and are oval, concave, and generally indented at the 
top; the petals are five, large, roundish, spreading, at first ofa 
white colour, succeeded by reddish tints, but finally putting on 
a greenish appearance; the nectaria are about eight in number, 
tubulated, somewhat compressed, bilabiated, and of a greenish 
yellow colour; the filaments are white, the antherz yellow; the 
germina vary, commonly from four to eight, and the capsules, or 
pods, contain many oval shining blackish seeds; the leaves are 
compound, divided in a peculiar manner, or pedated, and stand 
upon long radical footstalks ; the simple leaf is elliptical, smooth, 
» thick, and serrated towards the top. This plant is a native of 
Austria and Italy, and was unknown to the gardens in this country 
till cultivated by Mr. John Gerard in 1596. If the weather be 
sufficiently mild, it flowers in January, and hence the name of 
Christmas Flower. 
If any arguments were required to evince the necessity of 
botanical accuracy in discriminating medicinal plants, the Helle- 
borus Niger would furnish us with many facts from which such 
arguments might be deduced. .For many instances are recorded 
of the effects of this plant, by which it since appears that other 
plants were mistaken for it, and actually employed; of these we 
may enumerate the Helleborus viridis, Adonis vernalis, Trollius 
europeus, Actaa spicata, Astrantia major, and Aconitum Napel- 
lus ;> ‘and as the roots of these plants possess very different powers, 
we cannot be surprised that the medical history of this root is not 
only confused and contradictory, but calculated to produce very 
mischievous and even fatal consequences. 
The taste of the fresh root is bitterish, and somewhat acrid, and 
according to Grew, “ being chewed, and for some time retained 
upon the tongue, after a few minutes it seemeth to be benumbed, 
and affected with a kind of paralytic stupor, or as when it has been 
n Probably art, ‘as well as ignorance, had some share in these substitutions ; for 
the particulars of which sce Murray’s Ap. Med, vol. 3, from p. 44. to p, 50. 
acts a Pinkie 
