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VERATRUM ALBUM. ORD. XLVI. Liliacee. 755 
tions. This will evidently appear upon comparing the plant here 
figured with the description given by Dioscorides:* and yet 
Geoffroy says, “ Apud Dibstorideri hellebori albi descriptio, 
veratro albo nostro satis apte convenit.”* 
The EAAsfages pthas, OF famous Anticyran Hellebore,* is likewise 
thought to be the Helleborus niger of Linnaeus, an account of 
which has been given at page 473; but the descriptions of the 
former by the ancients are so vague that their identity is equally 
doubtful ;* the application therefore of what has formerly been said 
of the Hellebores of the Greeks to those known of us, can only be 
admitted as a matter of probability. 
Hippocrates frequently mentions Hellebore simply, or gene- 
rically; by which we are told the white is to be understood, as he 
adds the words black or purging when the other species is meant; 
and as the purgative powers of Veratrum are known to be weaker 
than those of helleborus niger, the distinction is so far applicable 
to the effects now experienced of the roots of our Hellebores. 
- « " Helleborus albus folia fert Plantaginis ant Bete sylvestris similia, sed 
nigriora, & dorso rubescentia : caulem palmi altitudine, concavum ;, qui 
ces sub- 
‘quidem teneas quibes Sr abdicat cum arescere incipit. 
, tenues ac fibrate, 
jacent ‘ab exiguo & oblongo capitulo, ceu capa, 
exeuntes, ‘cide annexe. Nascitur in montosis & asperis.’’ Déoscorid. M. M. 
emque 
'L. iz. c. 150, This description of the plant, though imperfect, is the only one 
given by the ancients. — 
= Mat. Med, vols #. p- 68. 
» <¢ Naviget Anticyram.”— 
Danda est hellebori muito pars maxima avaris: 
Necio, an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem, 
: Hor. Sar. Lib, ii. v. 82. 
It is said that both the white and black hellebore grew at Anticyra, but the 
latter was accounted safer, and therefore more commonly aay se Pausanias, 
Lib. x. p. 623. 
“© Though Tournefort says, ‘“‘ Nous conntimes deux Herbostites & Pruse, Pun 
Emir: & Vautre Armenien, qui passoient pour de grands Docieurs. Tis nous 
fournirent des racines du veritable Ellebore noir des anciens, autant que nous 
youlumes pour en faire Pextrait. C’est la méme espece que celle des Anticyres & 
des cdtes dela Mer Noir.” See his account of Mount Olympus. Voyage du Levant. 
But his description of the plant differs widely from that of our Helleborus niger. 
