94, APPENDIX. 
In the Diet. Econ. Prod, of India, iii., 70, it is stated that in Multan 
the flowers are used along with Akalbér (Datisca cannabina) and alum 
to dye silk, giving a aalnioe- yellow colour known as gandhak1, and 
that they are also used in calico-printing, Their pricein the Punjab 
is said to be Rs.27°5 percwt. This dye is alluded to by Mr. Leotard, 
Dr, McCann, and Mr. Wardle, but under the name of D. A/acis, 
The Hellebores of the Ancients.* 
Drugs prepared from hellebore were so famous amongst the an- 
cients as a remedy for madness, and, indeed, for many other ailments, 
that the plant has acquired for itself a literary as well as a botanical 
interest. Pliny gives a list of them quite worth the notice of adver- 
tisers of patent medicines. We know that different species have 
been used in different countries for their medicinal properties, which 
are, perhaps, essentially the same in all of them, though varying in 
strength. e hellebore of the modern English Pharmacopeeia is the 
root of Helleborus niger, the common Christmas Rose. In Germany, 
Hl, viridis, the green hellebore, is said to be preferred, and from its 
frequent occurrence in England in the neighbourhood of old ruins, 
we may infer that it was formerly used here. At Constantinople a 
popular drug, called Zoptane, is made from H. orientalis, which is 
common on the mountains of Hastern Turkey. In Gerard’s time, our 
native H, fetidus, the rankest of all the genus, was employed medi- 
cinally, though known to require great caution in using, and it is 
still retained in veterinary practice for outward application. 
The physicians of ancient Greece, who for some centuries before 
and after the Christian era were famous throughout the civilized 
world for their skill, were very fanciful about the locality from which 
the herbs used by them were collected. The kind of herb might be 
the same, but when gathered on a particular mountain or in a parti- 
cular forest it was thought to have additional virtue. Drugs of the 
same name were classified as first, second, third or fourth quality, 
according to the source from which they came, and were priced an 
trusted accordingly. Hellebore was of two kinds, distinguished as 
black and white. The best black came from Mount Helicon, and the 
best white from Mount Cita. The town most famous for its prepara- 
tion was called Anticyra, but this name was ambiguous. 
_ * From the Gardeners’ Chronicle, January 2. 
