COLUMBINE 15 
Fellon-grass, Green Hellebore, Bastard Hellebore, Peg-roots, Setter- 
wort. 
It was said to guard the home from ill, and to be a powerful anti- 
dote against madness. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, says: 
“ Borage and hellebore fill two scenes, 
Sovereign plants to purge the veins 
Of melancholy, and cheer the heart 
Of those black fumes, which make it smart. 
To clear the brain of misty fogs, 
Which dull one’s senses and soul clogs, 
The best medicine that e’er God made 
For this malady, if well assay’d.” 
Floors were strewn with it formerly, but instead of being beneficial 
it only introduced evil odours into the house. The plant has been 
used as a cure for worms since Hippocrates’ time (fourth century). 
It was retained in the British Pharmacopeeia up till 1851, but is now 
discarded. It was used in the same way as Black Hellebore, but in 
any form is very dangerous. 
EssenTIAL Spectric CHARACTERS :— 
Helleborus viridis, L.—Stem few-flowered, leaves digitate or 
pedate, veins below prominent, cauline leaves sessile, sepals petaloid, 
spreading, yellowish-green, petals small, shorter than the stamens, 
tubular. 
Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris, L.) 
This beautiful plant has not been found in any early deposits. It 
ranges throughout the Northern Warm Temperate Zone in Europe, 
Morocco, the Canaries, Siberia, and Asia as far as the west part of 
the Himalayas. It is absent from Hunts, Brecon, Radnor, Mont- 
gomery, S. Lincs, S.E. Yorks. In Scotland it is found in Dumfries 
and Kirkeudbright, doubtfully elsewhere. In Yorkshire it is found at 
1000 ft., and is common to the N.E. and W. of Ireland. 
The Wild Columbine is one of those plants which, though con- 
spicuous enough, elude the grasp of all but the more diligent botanists 
and plant-hunters. Such plants, when discovered, serve to mark a red- 
letter day in the annals of the collector. It is fond of rocky knolls in 
woods, where it secures shelter from heat and wind. Nestled amid 
such fastnesses on a small scale it presents one of the most pleasing 
pictures in a woodland scene, standing erect and graceful in a natural 
clearing in the oakwood amid wide patches of bracken or the bluebell, 
relieved by graceful hanging panicles of Millet Grass. 
