HELLEBO'RUS NI'GER. 



CHRISTMAS ROSE. 

 Class. Order. 



POLYANDRIA. POLYGYNIA. 



Natural Order. 



RANUNCULACE^E. 



No. 8. 



Helleborus, from the Greek, expressive of its 

 poisonous qualities ; or, according to Bergeret, from 

 the river Eleborus. Niger, from the Latin, black, 

 the external colour of its root. 



The flower, at its first opening, is white, after- 

 wards rather pink, and finally becomes green. The 

 tubular nectaries ranged round the germen, merit 

 the attention of the physiologist. 



A tincture of the roots of black hellebore, is em- 

 ployed in medicine ; but as its effects are somewhat 

 uncertain and dangerous, we forbear giving its mode 

 of preparation. It may not be amiss, however, for 

 the information of those who use the roots, to ob- 

 serve that others, and sometimes still more danger- 

 ous ones, are substituted for them. The following 

 description of the genuine is from the Edinburgh 

 Dispensatory. 



" The roots consist of a black furrowed roundish 

 head, about the size of a nutmeg, from which short 

 articulated branches arise, sending out numerous 

 corrugated fibres, about the thickness of a straw, 

 from a span to a foot in length, deep brown on the 

 outside, white or yellowish white within, and of an 



