96 APPENDIX. 



virtue for tliirty yearSj and once was tliouglit so formidable, liad now 

 become so ^' promiscuous" in its use that students often took a dose 

 of it to sharpen their intellect when they were puzzled by difficult 

 passages in their reading—a valuable hint, by the way, for can- 

 didates before a competitive examination ! I recollect a virtuous 

 freshman at Cambridge, who, with a similar object, laid in a large 

 stock of *^ Reading biscuits,'^ which he saw advertised in a window! 



The next question is, what were the kinds of hellebore called black 

 .and white, and found respectively ou Mount Helicon and Mount 

 QLta ? We ought to be able to answer this, because Edmond Boissier 

 has told ns, in the preface to Flora Orienialis^ that, thanks to the 

 labours of the botanists, Orphanides and Heldreich, the flora of Greece 

 is now better known than that of any other country within the scope 

 of his work. The hellebore which is found to prevail on Mount 

 Helicon, Mount Parnassus, and the neighbouring country is one 

 to which E. Boissier gives the name of TI, cyclophyllus. It is inter- 

 mediate between H, viridis and H, orieyilalis^ having been confused 

 with the latter both by Sibthorp and by Heldreich. Perhaps it is 

 not in cultivation in England, but it is described as being taller and 

 having larger flowers and broader segments to the leaves than the 

 green hellebore, which in other characters it resembles. 



As for the white hellebore, it is evident from the vague descriptions 

 of Theophrastus and Pliny, that neither of them knew a living 

 hellebore by sight, but Pliny says that he had been told that the leaf 

 of the black hellebore was of the shape of a plane leaf, but divided 

 into several segments, and that the white hellebore had leaves 

 i-esembling those of the beet, and deeply channelled at the back. 

 He attributes to it a bulbous root like that of an onion, with fibrous 

 tunics. Ancient and modern botanists have generally identified this 

 wuth Veratnim album, which is figured in Gerard's '^ Herbal" as the 

 white hellebore; but perhaps the best evidence is that of Heldreich, 

 who explored Mount ffita in 1879, and found F. album growing tliere 

 m abundance, confirming his previous opinion that this was the white 

 hellebore of Theophrastus, The different effects of the two kinds of 

 hellebore taken medicinally, as recorded by ancient authorities, cor- 

 respond with modern experience ; the black is a powerful cathartic, 

 and the white a strong emetic. This is a summary of all that is 



known or liLJy ever to be known of the famous hellebores of the 

 aucieuts. (C\ Wolleij-Dod, Pharm. Journ., Jan. 30, 1892.) 



