96 APPENDIX. 
virtue for thirty years, and once was thought so formidable, had 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- 
ates 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 on Mount Helicon and Moun 
(Eta? We ought to be able to answer this, because Edmond Boissier 
has told us, in the preface to Flora Orientalis, 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, andthe neighbouring country is one 
to which E. Boissier gives the name of H. cyclophyllus, It is inter- 
mediate between H, viridis and H. orientalis, 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 
resembling 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 
with Veratrum album, which is figured in Gerard’s ‘‘ Herbal” as the 
white hellebore ; but perhaps the best evidence is that of Heldreich, 
who explored Mount ita in 1879, and found V’. album growing there 
in 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 likely ever to be known of the famous hellebores of the 
ancients. (C, Wolley-Dod, Pharm. Journ., Jan. 30, 1892.) 
