694 MELANTHACEiE. 



as Auvergne, the Pyrenees, Spain, Switzerland, and Austria. In Norway 

 it reaches, according to Schiibeler (1. c. p. 556), the latitude of 71°. It 

 also grows throughout European and Asiatic Russia as far as 61° N. 

 lat., in Amurland, the island of Saghalin, Northern China, and Japan. 



History — The confusion that existed among the ancients between 

 Melampodium, Helleborus, and Veratrumi, makes the identification of 

 the plant under notice extremely unsatisfactory,^ It was perfectly 

 described or figured by Brunfels, Tragus, and other botanists of the 

 16th century, and likewise well known to Gerarde (circa A.D. 1600). 

 Under the names of Elleborus (or Helleborus albus and Veratru7n, it 

 has had a place in all the London Pharmacopoeias. In the British 

 Pharmacopoeia (1867) it has been replaced by the nearly allied American 

 species, Veratrum mrlde Alton. 



Description — White Hellebore has a cylindrical, fleshy, perennial 

 rootstock, 2 to 3 inches in length, and f to 1 inch in diameter, beset 

 with long stout roots. When fresh it has an alliaceous smell. In the 

 dried state, as it occurs in commerce, it is cylindrical or subconical, of a 

 dull earthy black, very rough in its lower half with the pits and scars 

 of old roots ; more or less beset above with the remains of recent roots. 

 The top is crowned with the bases of the leaves, the outer of which are 

 coarsely fibrous. The plant has generally been cut off" close to the 

 summit of the rhizome, which latter is seldom quite entire, being often 

 broken at its lower end, or cut transversely to facilitate drying. Inter- 

 nally it is nearly colourless ; a transverse section shows a broad white 

 ring surrounding a spongy pale bufi" central portion. 



The drug has a sweetish, bitterish acrid taste, leaving on the tongue 

 a sensation of numbness and tingling. In the state of powder, it occa- 

 sions violent sneezing. 



Microscopic Structure — When cut transversely, the rhizome 

 shows at a distance of 2-4 mm. from the thin dark outer bark, a tine 

 brown zigzag line (medullary sheath) surrounding the central part, 

 which exhibits a pith not well defined. The zone between the outer 

 bark and the medullary sheath is pure white, with the exception of 

 some isolated cells containing resin or colouring matter, and those places 

 where the rootlets pass from the interior. The latter is sprinkled as it 

 were, with short, thin somewhat lighter bundles of vessels which run 

 irregularly out in all directions. The parenchyme of the centre rhizome 

 is filled with starch, and contains numerous needles of calcium oxalate. 

 The rootlets, which the collectors usually remove, are living and juicy 

 only in the upper half of the rhizome, the lower part of which is 

 rather woody and porous. 



Chemical Composition — In 1819 Pelletierand Caventou detected 

 in the rhizome of Veratrum a substance which they regarded as identi- 

 cal with veratrine, the existence of which had just been discovered by 

 Meissner in cebadilla seeds. But according to the observations of Maisch 

 (1870) and Dragendorfl",^ the veratrine of cebadiUa cannot be found 

 either in Veratrum album or V. viride. 



Simon (1837) found in the root the alkaloid Jei^ine, Tobien (1877) 



^ Those who wish to study the question, ^ Beitr. zur gerichtl. Chemie, St Petersb., 



can consult Murray's Apparatus Medkami- 1872. 95. 

 num. vol. V, (1790) 142-146. 



