2 HELLEBORUS NIGER 



the hollow receptacle in many rows ; filaments slender, white. 

 Carpels 5 8, free, elevated on the centre of the receptacle ; 

 ovaries ovoid- oblong, smooth ; styles long, projecting beyond the 

 stamens ; stigmas terminal. Fruit follicular, sessile ; pericarp 

 leathery, dehiscing along the ventral suture. Seeds several, in two 

 rows, oval, black, shining ; embryo small, at the base of plentiful 

 horny endosperm. 



Habitat. A native of Central and Southern Europe, not reach- 

 ing Britain or North Germany, but extending eastward to South 

 Poland, and westward to Dauphiny and Provence. From its 

 flowering in midwinter December to March it is a favourite in 

 our gardens, where it has been cultivated for centuries, and is 

 found under several varieties, and where its large and handsome 

 flowers are very welcome at a time when there is scarcely any- 

 thing else in bloom in the open air. The fruit ripens in April 

 and May, and the leaves remain for some months afterwards. 



DC. Syst. Veg., i, p. 316; Gren. & Godr., Flore de France; 

 Koch, Synopsis Fl. Germ., ed. 2, p. 21 ; Lindley, Fl. Medica, 

 p. 6. 



Official Part and Name. HELLEBORUS; the root (U. S. P.). 

 Not official in the British Pharmacopoeia, or the Pharmacopoeia of 

 India. 



General Characters and Composition. Black Hellebore is 

 usually imported from Germany. As met with in commerce, it is 

 commonly known as black hellebore root ; but in reality it consists 

 of two parts, the rhizome, and the rootlets or roots which spring 

 from it. In commercial black hellebore, the roots are more or less 

 detached from the rhizome, and mixed with it. The rhizome 

 presents a very irregular, knotted, twisted appearance, and occurs 

 in pieces which vary in length from 1 to 2 or 3 inches, and in 

 thickness from about J to \ an inch ; it is marked externally with 

 transverse ridges and slight longitudinal furrows. A transverse 

 section exhibits a thick bark, surrounding an internal woody 

 portion (meditullium] of a whitish colour, and divided to some 



