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 Pharmacopoeia 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 SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



12. 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. Lines, S.E. Yorks. In Scotland it is found in Dumfries 

 and Kirkcudbright, 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. 



