CXTIf KPES'8 COMPLETR HEBBAL. 181 



HELLEBORE {BLACK.y-( Eelleborut Niger,) 



Callxs alao Setter-wort, Setter-graaa, Bear's-foot, 

 Christmas herb, aod Christmas- flower. 



Detcrip. — It has sundry fair green leaves rising from 

 the root, each of them standing alx>ut a handful high 

 from the earth ; each leaf is divided into seven, eight, or 

 nine parts, dented in the middle of the leaf to the point 

 ■ides, abiding ^een all the winter ; about Christmas- time, 

 if the weather De any thing temperate, the flowers appear 

 upon foot-stalks, also consisting of five lar^e, round, white 

 leaves a- piece, which sometimes are purplish towards the 

 edges, with many pale yellow thrumos in the middle ; the 

 •eeds are black, and in form long and round. The root 

 consists of numberless blackish strings all united into one 

 head. There \a another species, which grows in the woods 

 very like this, but only tne leaves are smaller and narrow- 

 er, and perish in the winter, which this does not. 



Place. — The first grows in f^ardens. The second is com- 

 monly found in the woods in Northamptonshire. 



T'im*.— The first flowers in December or January ; the 

 second in February or March. 



Government ana Virttcet. — It is an herb of Saturn, and 

 therefore no marvel if it has some sullen conditions with 

 it, and would be far safer, being purified by the alchymist 

 than given raw. Goat's milk is an antidote for it, if any 

 one suffers from taking too much. The roots are very ef- 

 fective in quartan agues and madness, they help falling sick- 

 neea, the leprosy, Iwth the yellow and black jaundice, th« 

 gout, sciatica, and convulsions. Used as a pessary, the 

 roots provoke the terms exceedingly ; also being beaten to 

 powder, and strewed upon foul ulcers, it eats away the 

 dead flesh, and instantly heals them : nay, it helps gan- 

 grenes in the beginning. Twenty grains taken inwardly 

 IS a siiflicient dose for one time, and let that be corrected 

 with half as much cinnamon. 



HELLEBORE (WHITE,) or INDIAN POKE.— (^ Ftfro. 

 trum Viride.) 



Descrip. — The roots are thick at the head, white on the 

 inside, and very full of fibres all round, of a hot nauseous 

 taste. The stalks a»e numerous, about a foot high ; they 

 are round, green, firm, and upright. l*he lower leaves are 

 large, of a deep green, divided into several parte, sharp 



