Spec. Plant. Willd. iv. 895.

Cl. 23. Ord. 1. Polygamia Moncecia. Nat. ord. Melanthaceae.

G. 1859. Hermaphrodite. Calyx none. Corolla six-petalled.

Stamens six. Pistils three. Capsules three, many-sided.

------------Male the same. Rudiment of a pistil.

Species 1. V. album.2 White Hellebore. Med. Pot. 3d edit. 753.

t. 257. Officinal. Veratrum, Lond. Veratri albi radix, Edin. Dub.

White Hellebore root.

Syn. Hellebore blanc (F.), Wiesse Niesswurzel ( G.), Zwartbloemige nies-wortel (Dutch), Hevit Prustrot (Swed.), Elliboro bianco (I.), Veratro bianco (S.), Helliboro (Port.), Tschemeriza (Buss.).

Veratrum is a native of the mountainous parts of Greece, Italy, Switzerland, and Russia. Those specimens which are cultivated in our gardens flower in July. The root is perennial, fleshy, and fusiform, beset with strong fibres, gathered into a head; the stem is thick, round, hairy, erect, three or four feet in height, and branching. The leaves are oblong-ovate, about ten inches long, and five broad in the middle; plaited longitudinally, embracing the stem at the base, and of a yellowish-green colour. The flowers are in long, terminal spikes, composed of small alternate spikelets, each accompanied with a lanceolate bracte; the flower consists of six persistent petals, of a pale-green colour; three of them oblong and lanceolate, with a membranous edge; and three caly-cynal, which enclose the other three in the bud, one half shorter and heart-shaped, with a small point at the top: the filaments closely surround the germen, diverge and bend down at the summit, and are terminated by yellow, quadrangular anthers: the germens are three in each hermaphrodite flower1, oblong, with erect, bifid, hairy styles, crowned with flat, spreading stigmas: the capsules contain many compressed, membranous seeds.

1 Annates de Chimie, lxx. 95. Thomson's Chymistry, 5th edit. iv. 225.

Dioscoridis.

Although the root only is officinal, yet every part of the plant is extremely acrid and poisonous.

Qualities. - The recent root has a strong, disagreeable odour, and a bitterish, very acrid, permanent taste; but the odour is lost by drying. The dry root, as found in the shops, is sliced, the thick part transversely, and the fibrous longitudinally. The pieces have a dry, corrugated, yellowish-grey appearance, and break with a short, starchy fracture. They are inodorous, and have a slightly bitter taste. When very light and spongy, they must be rejected. The experiments of MM. Pelletier and Caventou have proved that white hellebore owes its medicinal properties to veratria, the same alkaline principle which has already been described as the active ingredient in colchicum. The following are the components of white hellebore, according to their analysis: - A fatty matter composed of elaine, stearine, and ammonia, acidulous gallate of veratria, a yellow, colouring matter, starch, gum, and lignin.2

Medical properties and uses. - White hellebore is a violent cathartic, emetic, and sternutatory. When taken internally, even in moderate doses, its operation is violent and dangerous; producing, besides hypercatharsis, with bloody stools and excessive vomiting, great anxiety, tremors, vertigo, syncope, sinking of the pulse, cold sweats, and convulsions, terminating, if the dose be large, in death. Its external application to an ulcerated surface also produces griping and purging. Notwithstanding these effects, veratrum has been exhibited internally, and with advantage, in mania, epilepsy, scabies, lepra, and obstinate herpetic eruptions.3 But the most ordinary use of white hellebore is as a local stimulant; either as an adjunct to errhine powders in lethargic cases and gutta serena, or in the form of decoction as a wash, or mixed with lard as an ointment, in scabies and herpetic eruptions. In every form, however, it requires to be used with caution; and even as an errhine, its acrimony should always be obtunded by mixing it with some mild powder, as that of liquorice root or of starch.

The dose of the powdered root should not exceed grs. ij.; and for errhine purposes grs.ij. or iij. should be diluted with grs. xij. of liquorice powder, and a pinch of it snuffed up the nose for several successive evenings. When taken internally as a poison, the best antidote is a strong infusion of nut-galls.

1 The hermaphrodite flowers are generally on the upper, erect spike.

2 Journ. de Pharm. Aout, 1820. 3 Medical Communications, i. 297.

Officinal preparations. - Decoctum Veratri, L. Tinctura Ve-ratri albi, E. Unguentum Veratri, L. Unguentum Sulphur is com-positum, L.