164 
ON BLACK HELLEBORE. 
A year ago my attention, as well as that of the Messrs. 
Ellis, of Philadelphia, was directed to a lot of roots which 
had been sent to them for black hellebore ; it was obtained 
from a German importer. We were at orxe struck with 
the general dissimilarity to the genuine drug. Upon further 
examination, I found that in many of the drug-houses of 
the city similar roots were mixed with the drug kept as 
black hellebore ; and further, that in an old specimen in the 
cabinet of the College of Pharmacy, the same admixture 
was apparent. The research thus prompted, has led to the 
opinion that the article met with is the root of the A. spi- 
catUy and for the information of those interested, I shall 
now fully describe it. 
Each root is constituted of the caudex and fibres, 
with the remains of numerous stalks or stems attached 
to the caudex. This latter portion is knobby or jointed, 
horizontal and contorted. The knobs or tubercles are two 
or three inches long, about the third of an inch in thick- 
ness. Their surface is marked by thin annulations, regularly 
at two lines distance from each other: it is smooth, and of a 
deep brown colour. The caudex resembles more a subterra- 
nean stem than a rhizome. On one side of the caudex and at 
the extremity are prolongations, the remains of footstalks, 
half an inch to an inch long, woody and fistulous; on the oppo- 
site side are numerous fibres irregularly placed, several inches 
long, and of a lighter brown or reddish brown colour; each 
fibre is full, very little corrugated, composed of a cortical 
substance sometimes cracked transversely and smooth, with 
a central woody medutillium, presenting, when the fibre is 
cut transversely, the form of a star or cross with five points. 
The cortical substance can be separated, and the central cord 
then exhibits an angulated form. When dry, the fibres 
are very brittle, the odour is faint but disagreeable, and the 
taste is bitter. 
The points of distinction which we would depend upon 
