The BRITISH HERBAL. 
33 
DIVISION IL F O 
True black Hellebore. 
- Helkborus niger fiore rofeo. ■ 
The root, confifts of a vaft quantity of thick, 
tough, long, and black fibres ; fometimts faftened 
tea fmall head, fometimes without any. 
The leaves rife in a cluftcr, and are large and 
beautiful : they are of the fingered kind, and of a 
pale green colour, and flefliy texture. They ftand 
on footftalks three or four inches long, thick, 
flelliy, redifh, but feldom quite ereft ■, and each 
leaf is compofed of about feven parts, fometimes 
lefs : thefe are broad, fhort, ferrated at the edges, 
and pointed at the ends. 
Among thefe rife the ftalks which fupport the 
flowers. 
Thefe are fhorter than the footflalks of the 
leaves, and, like them, thick, flefhy, and often 
redifh : each fuftains a Tingle flower, and each 
has a kind of little leaf on it placed about its 
middle, and altogether unlike the others. 
The flower is very large, and very beautiful ; 
it is white, with a blufii of redifli, and is as big 
as a fmall fingle rofe: there are numerous threads 
in the centre, vvith white buttons. 
The feed-veffels are numerous, flatted, and 
full of a roundifh feed. 
It is a native of Germany, and is frequent on 
REIGN SPECIES. 
the Apenine mountains. It flowers in the dead 
ol' winter; whence it has obtained among our 
gardeners the name of Chrijimas fiower. 
C. Bauhine calls it Helkborus niger flare rofeo ; 
others, Hdkhorus niger^verus^ 
This is the black hellebore fo celebrated among 
the antients for its virtues. It was efteemed a fo- 
vereign cure for madnefs. 
It is an excellent deobflruent, and is good in 
nervous and hyflerick cafes. The principal vir- 
tue is in the outer bark of the root, the reft being 
infipid. 
It may be given in powder, or in tinfture -, 
but the bell method is the latter. It is a coarfe, 
rough medicine; and there fliould always be gi- 
ven with it cloves, cardamoms, or feme other 
fpice. 
It operates as a cathartick, but very uncer- 
tainly. Its bell ufe is in obft:inate obftruftions. 
I have known inveterate complaints in the head 
cured by a continued ufe of a tincture hellebore 
and cloves, thirty drops tor a dole. 
The tin(5lure for this purpofe fliould be made 
with an ounce of hellebore-root, a dram and a half 
of cloves, and a quart of proof fpirit, v/ithout heat. 
Great care muft be taken that the root be frefh, 
for it is often damaged by keeping. 
GENUS II. 
GLOBE-FLOWER. 
T R 0 L L I U S. 
THE leaves are fingered; the Bower conRas of numerous petals; the outer ones arc (horter s 
and the inner, which are larger, bend toward one another fo that the flower is globular : the 
capfules of feeds are numerous. 
LinoKus, in his Genera Phnterum, makes this a fpecics ofhelkbore; from which it differs in that 
effential and obvious charafter, the number, form, and difpoficion of the petals which compofc the 
flower. He was not ignorant of this p'ain diftinftion : but the fondnefs for his fyftem would not then 
let him feparate a plant he faw fo jjerfedly diflinft. He acknowledges that the number and figure of 
the feveral parts of the flower vary ; but he fays the effential charafter of the genus confifts in the nec. 
tarium. This is the fliift to which we have feen this great author before reduced in the crow- 
foot kind. Nature difclaims that fyflem, which will force, under one imaginary genus plants the 
form, number, and fituation of the feveral parts of whole flowers are unlike ; becaulc in each 
there is a little glandule in the lower part of the petal, that is, fomewhat alike in one and in the other. 
In his Species Plantarum this author has given them as feparate genera. 
DIVISION I. BRITISH SPECIES. 
Common Globe-flower. 
Tro/lius vulgaris. 
The root is a tuft of long thick fibres, con- 
nefted to a very fmall head. 
The leaves rife in a clufter, and each is fup- 
ported on a long and moderately thick footftalk : 
they are in the whole of a roundilh circumference, 
but aie divided down to the ftalk into five, fe- 
ven, or more parts i and each of thefe is alfo to- 
ward its extremity divided more flightly into fe- 
veral others, and all the way notched at the 
edges. 
The ftalk is round, thick, upright, two feet 
N^IV. 
high of a pale green, and fcarce at all divided 
into branches. 
Its leaves are few, and placed irregularly: there 
are one or two towards the bottom, and one only 
near the top •, the lower ones have fhort foot- 
ftalks, the upper none : they refemble thofe which 
rife from the root in their divifion and colour, 
which is a dufliy and unpleafant green. 
The flower is large, yellow, Angular, and 
beautiful : it never perfeftly opens. The outer 
petals or leaves are fliort, the inner much larger; 
and they nearly clofe at their points, leaving only 
a very fmall opening into the body of the flower: 
the fliape of which is therefore globular. There 
K ftand 
