58 POLYANDRIA— POLYGYNIA. Helleborus. 



Veratrum nigrum secundum. Dod.Pempt. 385./. 



In woods and thickets, on a chalky soil. 



In Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, and other chalk countries, 

 indubitably wild, though not common. Gathered by Miss Jane 

 Baynes, near Harefield, Middlesex ; about Great Marlow and 

 High M-'ickham, Bucks, by Mr. Jacob Rayer, and in the north- 

 west part of Norfolk, by Mr. Wm. Humphrey. 



Perennial. Jpril, May. 



Root fleshy, black, with numerous long stout fibres, very acrid and 

 purgative. Herbage altogether annual, of a deep but bright 

 green, smooth. S^em erect, round, forked, li foot high. Outer 

 lobes of the leaves often combined, assuming a pedate aspect, 

 but they are truly digitate. Fl. few, terminal and axillary, stalk- 

 ed, mostly solitary, drooping, green in every part. Pet. ex- 

 panded. Caps 3 or 4, short, wrinkled. Haller reckons up all 

 the reputed virtues of Hellebore under this species ; which in- 

 deed seems to be what German practitioners have substituted 

 for the true plant of the antients, H. officinalis, Sibth. in Fl. 

 Grcec. t. 523, 



2. H./beiidus. Stinking Hellebore. Bear's-foot, or 

 Setter-wort. 



Stem many-flowered, leafy. Leaves pedate. Petals con- 

 verging. 



H. foetidus. Linn. Sp. PL 784. fVilld. v. 2. 1337. Fl. Br. 598. 

 Engl. Bot. V.9. t.6\3. Woodv. t.\9. Hook. Scot. 176. DeCand. 

 Syst.v. 1. 320. Bull. Fr. t.7\. Ehrh. PL Off. 275. 



H. n. II 93. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 87. 



H. niger fcetidus. Bauh. Pin. IS.*). Robert Ic. t.lO. 



Helleboraster maximus. RaiiSyn.27l. Ger. Em.976.f. Lob. 

 Ic. 679./. 



Elleborus niger adulterinus sylvestris. Fuchs. Hist. 275./. Ic. 

 156./. 



Veratrum nigrum tertium. Dod. Pernpt. 386./. 



In thickets and waste ground, on a chalky soil. 



More common than the last in chalk countries. On the castle hill, 

 at Castle-Acre, Norfolk, abundantly. 



Perennial. March, April. 



Taller and more branched than the foregoing. Heibage perennial, 

 smooth, of a more lurid green. Fl. numerous, panicled, droop- 

 ing, smaller and more closed, tinged about the edges with pur- 

 ple. Ned. notched. Leaves stalked, truly pedate, of 7 or 9 

 lanceolate, serrated leaflets ; upper ones, or rather their /ooU 

 stalks, gradually becoming pale, lanceolate, entire bracteas. 

 Caps. 3 or 4. The whole herb is fetid, acrid, violently cathartic, 

 though it has in England been more frequently used than the 

 H. viridis, on the credit of the Greek Hellebore, 



