78 POPULAR GARDEN FLOWERS 



and " pure as the driven snow " in relation to it, and we 

 do not relish the idea of parting with our choicest 

 figures of speech. The truth is that the Helleborus, 

 which came to us from Austria in 1596, is pink exter- 

 nally, but it is white within, and that is enough for us. 



It is a poisonous plant, yet not a dangerous one. 

 The very name Helleborus points to poisonous qualities, 

 as it comes from heleim, to kill, and bora, food. Both 

 the leaves and roots are poisonous, and half a drachm 

 of an infusion of the leaves has been known to kill an 

 elderly man ; but no one is likely to prepare and 

 drink an infusion, or to make a supper off the roots. 

 There is no berry for children to pick and eat. The 

 only circumstances in which the Christmas Rose is at 

 all likely to do injury are when flower stems are put in 

 the mouth, and when the plant is used as a drug by 

 incompetent practitioners. Growers may be warned 

 against the former, and, as to the latter, the plant has 

 been discarded from the Pharmacopoeia. 



Some confusion arises at times owing to another 

 poisonous plant, Veratum album, being called the White 

 Hellebore. The Hellebore powder used for destroying 

 Gooseberry caterpillars is prepared from this plant. 



The case is an illustration of the muddle which may 

 easily arise from a careless use of popular names. We 

 hear of the White Hellebore, and we have a plant that 

 we know to be a white Helleborus ; what more natural 

 than that we should conclude them to be the same ? 

 They are really quite different. 



The coiner of popular names who minted "Christ- 

 mas Rose" deserves more approbation than coiners 

 in general. It is true that the flower is not in the least 

 like most of the Roses which we grow in our beds 

 our Mrs. John Laings, our Frau Karl Druschkis, our 



