334 
H E L 
IIEL'LEBERG, a town of Sweden, in the province 
of Smaland : twenty-three miles north-weft of Calmar. 
HELLEBOR-AS'TER, HELLEBORAS'TRUM,and 
HEL'LEBORE. See Helleborus. 
. FiEL'LEBORE (White). See Veratrum; 
MELLEB'ORINE. See Arethusa, Cypripedi- 
um, Limodorum, Satyrium, and Serapias. 
HRLLEB'ORUS, f. [EAXs£opo; of Diofcorides : srapa 
to iKhv tyi ( 3 opa, becaufe it deltroys thofewho eat it. Ray. 
From uteu, to bind, and./S?opa, food; a conftringing, fuf- 
fbcating, or poifonous, food. Morifon and Linnaeus. From 
the river Elleborus. Bergman.'] Hellebore. In botany, 
a genus of the clafs polyandria, order polygynia,\natu- 
ral order of imiltifiliquar, (ranunculacete, JvJf.) The 
generic characters are—Calyx : none, unlels the corol¬ 
la, which in fome fpecies is permanent, be confidered as 
Inch. Corolla: petals five, roundilh, blunt, large; 
nectaries feveral, very fiiort, placed in a ring, one-leafed, 
tubular, narrower at bottom; mouth two-lipped, up¬ 
right, emarginate, the inner lip fiiorteft. .Stamina: fila¬ 
ments numerous, tabulate; antherae comprelfed, nar¬ 
rower at bottom, upright. Piftillum : germs about fix, 
comprelfed ; ftyles tabulate ; (tigmas thickilh ; (piltilla 
five or more, permanent, Gartner.) Pericarpium : cap- 
lules (leguminous, beaked, G.) comprelfed, two-keeled, 
the lower keel Ihorter, the upper convex, gaping. Seeds: 
feveral, round, fixed to the future. H. hyernalis drops 
its petals; the other forts retain them, and they become 
green. The number of piftils varies much.— EJfential 
Ckara&er. Calyx none ; petals five, or more, (or calyx 
five-leaved, corolla none;) neCtary two-lipped, tubu¬ 
lar; capfule many-feeded. 
The hellebores ar^ all hardy herbaceous perennials, 
with compound leaves, digitate, pedate, palmate, or 
termite. The flowers have only a Angle cover, which 
is called a corolla by Linnaeus, by others a calyx ; they 
grow either feveral together at the ends of the ftalk 
and its fubdivilions with a fingle bracte to each pedicel; 
or fingle on a fcape, naked or with a leaf for an invo¬ 
lucre. They, appear very early in the fpring, and fome 
of them even in the winter. 
Species, i. Helleborus hyernalis, winter hellebore or 
aconite : flowers folitary, fitting in the upper leaf. Root 
tuberous, tranfverfe, with many dependent fibres, put¬ 
ting up feveral naked Items or fcapes, Ample, fmooth, 
round, from an inch or two to four, inches in height, 
terminated by a fingle leaf, fpt;eading out horizontally 
in a circle, divided into five parts almofi: to the bafe, 
and the parts Ample, or divided into two, three, or four, 
lobes. In the bofom of this fits one large, upright, 
yellow, flower; the petals ovate, marked with lines, 
converging a little, deciduous, ufinally fix in number, 
(fix to eight,;) piltils four to fix, and ftamens about 
thirty. Native of Lombardy, and other parts of Italy; 
Aultria, Silefia, Swilferland; in mountainous fituations. 
I t flowers with us from January to March ; and was cul¬ 
tivated by Gerarde in 1596. In his Herbal, publilhed 
the year following, he informs 11s, that we had then 
great quantities of it in our London gardens; and there¬ 
fore it is probable that it was known among us much 
earlier than 1596. He calls it winter wolf’s-bane, or Jmail 
yellow wolf’s-bane. According to Parkinibn, mod herba- 
rifls called it winter wolf’s-bane ; but fome yellow aconite. 
The name of winter aconite has now generally obtained. 
2. Helleborus ranuncuiinus, or ranunculus-leaved hel¬ 
lebore; flowers folitary, peduncled; leaves digitate- 
' .multifid, galhecf. Stem a hand in height, upright, round, 
Imooth, leafy at top, fiuftaining one or two flowers. It 
is very nearly related to the foregoing fpecies,, but hand- 
fomer : it differs alfo in haying the leaves more com¬ 
pound and galhed; the flowers peduncled; the petals 
broader and more fpreading. Tournefort firft brought 
us acquainted with it from Cappadocia. 
3. Helleborus niger, black, hellebore, or Chriffmas 
H E L 
rofe: ffem almofi naked, with one or two flowers; 
leaves pedate. Scapes'from fix inches to near a foot in 
length, round, upright, variegated with red, riling front 
a Iheatb, and terminated ufuaily with one flower, fome- 
times two, and very rarely three. Corolla very large, 
generally white at firft, but frequently with a tint of red 
growing deeper with age, but finally becoming green ; 
nedtaries (eight or ten to twelve or thirteen) greenilh 
yellow,- the upper lip longed and nightly emarginate, 
the lower finely notched. Each flower has a bracted 
leaf or two, fupplying the place of the calyx. Leaves 
only from the root, deep and dark green, on long pe¬ 
tioles ; leaflets (five to eight or nine) ovate-lanceolate, 
fmooth, flefhy, the upper half ferrate. Native of Italy, 
Germany, Auftria, Jdria, Silefia, in mountainous fitua¬ 
tions ; flowering from Deceriiber to March. It has the 
name of black hclleboYe from the colour of the root ; and 
of Chriftmas rofe from the time of flowering and the co¬ 
lour of the corolla. This is fuppofed to have been the 
plant fo celebrated amongft the ancients in the cure of 
madnefs: the taffe of the root,When frefli, is bitterifli, 
and according to Dr. Grew, “ being chewed, and for 
fome time retained upon the tongue, after a few minutes 
it feemeth to be benumbed, and aftedted with a kind of 
paralytic ftupor, or as when it hath’ been burnt with 
eating or flipping any thing too hot.” It alfo emits a 
natifeous acrid fmell; but, being long kept, both its fen- 
fible qualities and medicinal activity fuller very confi- • 
derable diminution. Bergius has very properly attended 
to this circumftance, for in defining its virtues he confi- 
ders it under three different degrees of drynefs: “ Virtus 
recentis venenata, rubefaciens, veficans; recenter ficcata 
emetica, purgans; emmenagoga, antiphthiriaea, iternu- 
tatoria ; diu confervatee vix purgans, alterans, diuretica.” 
Although many writers confider this root as a perfectly 
innocent.and fafe medicine, yet we find feveral examples 
of its poifonous eftefts; it fliould therefore be ufed with 
caution. It feems to have been principally from its 
purgative quality that the ancients efteemed this root 
Inch a powerful remedy in maniacal diforders, with a 
view to evacuate the atra bills , from which thefe mental 
difeafeswere fuppofed to proceed: but, though evacua¬ 
tions be often found neceffary in various cafes of aliena¬ 
tion of mind, yet, as they can.be produced with more 
certainty and fafety by other medicines, this catholicon 
of antiquity feems now almoft entirely abandoned : it is 
however ftiil ufed in filial! doles for attenuating vifeid 
humours, promoting the uterine and urinary difeharges,. 
and opening inveterate obftrudtions of the remoter glands: 
it often proves a powerful emmenagogue in plethoric 
habits, where fteel is confidered as improper: it is alfo 
ufed in dropfies ; and in fome cutaneous difeafes. 
4. Helleborus viridis, or green hellebore : item bifid ; 
branches leafy, two-flowered; leaves digitate. Stem 
round, a little branched at top, but not near fo much as 
in the next fort; leafy, reddiih at the bafe, upright, 
Imooth, a foot or eighteen inches in height. Leaves not 
of a ftiff leathery conliftence, as in the next fpecies, but 
foft, and of a lighter green. Native of France, Italy, 
Aultria, Carniola, Silefia, Swilferland, and Great Bri¬ 
tain; as in feveral places near Cambridge ; Yorkfhire, 
near Leeds; in Suflex, near Aaindel-caftle ; Kent ; Ox. 
fordfliire ; Northamptonfliire ; ^ Worcefterftiire ; Hanip- 
fliire, Parkinfon mentions his having,feen it in fome of 
the Northamptonlhire Woods.-Ray, in his Fiiftory, gives 
no hint of this or the next-fpecies being natives of Eng¬ 
land ; and feems, in his Synopfis, to think that they are 
not aboriginals here. Bubart fpeaks of this as growing 
wild abundantly in Sfokenchurch-woods,.and many oilier 
rocky and hilly fituations. It flowers -in March and 
April. 
5. Helleborus feetidus, ft inking, hellebore, or bear’s- 
foot : Item many-flowered, leafy ; leaves pedate. Root 
fnullj but bent with a prodigious number of /lender 
i dark- 
