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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HEG-HIG |
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HELLEBORE (Gr. iXXi8opos: mod. Gr. also crrcb.4xrf : Ger. Nieswurz, Christwurz; Fr. hellebore, and in the district of Avranche, herbe enragee), a genus (Helleborus) of plants of the natural order Ranunculaceae
flowers
Helleborus niger, black hellebore, or, as from blooming in mid-winter it is termed the Christmas rose (Ger. Schwarze Nieswurz; Fr., rose de Noel or rose .i'hiver), is found in southern and central Europe; and with other species was cultivated in the time of Gerard (see Herball, p. 977, ed. Johnson, 1633) in English gardens. Its knotty root-stock is blackish-brown externally, and, as with other species, gives origin to numerous straight roots. The leaves spring from the top of the root-stock, and are smooth, distinctly pedate, dark-green above, and lighter below, with 7 to 9 segments and long petioles. The scapes, which end the branches of the rhizome, have a loose entire bract at the base, and terminate in a single flower, with two bracts, from the axis of one of which a second flower may be developed. The flowers
H. orientalis, the Lenten rose, has given rise to several fine hybrids with H. niger, some of the best forms being clear in colour and distinctly spotted. H. foetidus, stinking hellebore, is a native of England, where like H. viridis, it is confined chiefly to limestone districts; it is common in France and the south of Europe. Its leaves have 7- to 1r-toothed divisions, and the flowers are in panicles, numerous, cup-shaped and drooping,with many bracts, and green sepals tinged with purple, alternating with the five petals. H. viridis, or green hellebore proper, is probably indigenous in some of the southern and eastern counties of England, and occurs also in central and southern Europe. It has bright yellowish-green flowers, 2 to 4 on a stem, with large leaf-like bracts. O. Brunfels and H. Bock (16th century) regarded the plant as the black hellebore of the Greeks.H. lividus, holly-leaved hellebore, found in the Balearic Islands, and in Corsica and Sardinia, is remarkable for the handsomeness of its foliage. White hellebore is Veratrum album (see VERATRUM), a liliaceous plant. Hellebores may be grown in any ordinary light garden mould, but thrive best in a soil of about equal parts of turfy loam andHelleborus niger. 1, Vertical section of flower; 2, Nectary, side and front view. well-rotted manure, with half a part each of fibrous peat and coarse sand, and in moist but thoroughly-drained situations, more especially where, as at the margins of shrubberies, the plants can receive partial shade in summer. For propagation cuttings of the rhizome may be taken in August, and placed in pans of light soil, with a bottom heat of 6o to 70 Fahr.; hellebores can also be grown from seed, which must be sown as soon as ripe, since it quickly loses its vitality. The seedlings usually blossom in their third year. The exclusion of frost favours the production of flowers; but the plants, if forced, must be gradually inured to a warm atmosphere, and a free supply of air must be afforded, without which they are apt to become much affected by greenfly. For potting, H. niger and its varieties, and H. orientalis, atrorubens and olympicus have been found well suited. After lifting, preferably in September, the plants should receive plenty of light, with abundance of water, and once a week liquid manure, not over-strong. The flowers are improved in delicacy of hue, and are brought well up among the leaves, by preventing access of light except to the upper part of the plants. Of the numerous species of hellebore now grown, the deep-purple-flowered H. colchicus is one of the handsomest; by crossing with H. guttatus and other species several valuable garden forms have been produced, having variously coloured spreading or bell-shaped flowers, spotted with crimson, red,or purple.The rhizome of H. niger occurs in commerce in irregular and nodular pieces, from about z to 3 in. in length, white and of a horny texture within. Cut transversely it presents internally a circle of 8 to 12 cuneiform ligneous bundles, surrounded by a thick bark. It. emits a faint odour when cut or broken, and has a bitter and slightly acrid taste. The drug is sometimes. adulterated with the rhizome of baneberry
cut across, and by its decoction giving the chemical reactions for tannin.' The rhizome is darker in colour in proportion to its degree of dryness, age and richness in oil. A specimen dried by Schroff lost in eleven days 65% of water. H. niger, orientalis, viridis, foetidus, and several other species of hellebore contain the glucosides helleborin, C36H4206, and helleborein, C,3H44015, the former yielding glucose and helleboresin, C30H;3804, and the latter glucose and a violet-coloured substance helleboretin, C14H2003. Helleborin is most abundant in H. viridis. A third and volatile principle is probably present in H. foetidus. Both helleborin and helleborein act poisonously on animals, but their decomposition-products helleboresin and helleboretin seem to be devoid of any injurious qualities. Helleborin produces excitement and restlessness, followed by paralysis of the lower extremities or whole body
Where it killed not the patient, it would certainly kill the worms; but the worst of it is, it will sometimes kill both." This plant, of old termed by farriers ox-heel, setter-wort and setter-grass, as well as H. viridis (Fr. Herbe a seton), is employed in veterinary surgery, to which also the use of H. niger is now chiefly confined in Britain. In the early days of medicine two kinds of hellebore were recognized, the white or Veratrum album (see VERATRUM), and the black, including the various species of Helleborus. The former, according to Codronchius (Comm.... de elleb., 161o), Castellus (De helleb. epist., 1622), and others, is the drug usually signified in the writings of Hippocrates. Among the hellebores indigenous to Greece and Asia Minor, H. orientalis, the rhizome of which differs from that of H. niger and of H. viridis in the bark being readily separable from the woody axis, is the species found by Schroff to answer best to the descriptions given by the ancients of black hellebore, the XXifiopos picas of Dioscorides. The rhizome of this plant, if identical, as would appear, with that obtained by Tournefort at Prusa in Asia Minor (Rel. d'un voy. du Levant, ii. 189, 1718), must be a remedy of no small toxic properties. According to an early tradition, black hellebore administered by the soothsayer and physician Melampus (whence its name Melampodium), was the means of curing the madness of the daughters of Proetus, king of Argos. The drug was used by the ancients in paralysis, gout and other diseases, more particularly in insanity, a fact frequently alluded to by classical writers, e.g. Horace (Sat. ii. 3. 8o-83, Ep. ad Pis. 300). Various superstitions were in olden times connected with the cutting of black hellebore. The best is said by Pliny (Nat. hist. xxv. 21) to grow on Mt Helicon. Of the three Anticyras that in Phocis was the most famed for its hellebore, which, being there used combined with " sesamoides," was, according to Pliny, taken with more safety than elsewhere.The British Pharmaceutical Conference has recommended the preparation which it terms the linctura veratri viridis, as the best form in which to administer this drug. It may be given in doses of 5-15 minims. The tincture is prepared from the dried rhizome and rootlets of green hellebore, containing the alkaloids jervine, veratrine and veratroidine. It is recommended as a cardiac and nervous sedative in cerebral haemorrhage and puerperal eclampsia. Black hellebore is a purgative and uterine stimulant.End of Article: HELLEBORE If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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