Helleborus

“ When we see the helleborus fœtidus and helleborus niger blowing at Christmas, the helleborus hyemalis in January, and the helleborus viridis as soon as ever it emerges out of the ground, we do not wonder, because they are kindred plants that we expect should keep pace the one with the other; but other congenerous vegetables differ so widely in their time of flowering, that we cannot but admire. ”

“ It was perfectly described or figured by Brunfels, Tragus, and other botanists of the 16th century, and likewise well known to Gerarde (circa a.d. 1600) . Under the names of Elleborus (or Helleborus albus) and Veratrum, it has had a place in all the London Pharmacopœias. In the British Pharmacopœia (1867) it has been replaced by the nearly allied American species, Veratrum viride Aiton.
Description—White Hellebore has a cylindrical, fleshy, perennial rootstock, 2 to 3 inches in length, and 3⁄4 to 1 inch in diameter, beset with long stout roots. When fresh it has an alliaceous smell. ”

“ The Ranunculaceæ also include the Black Hellebore, or Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) , one of our most splendid winter-garden decorations, whose juice the ancients considered a wonderful remedy for mental disorders. In whiteness it rivals the snow, which often accumulates around it, and the snow-drop, which is frequently bound up in the same wreath. It is called the Black Hellebore, to distinguish it from the two wild species which grow in our woods, its root being covered with a thick black skin. ”

“ But admitting that the medicine of Melampus was really the root of a species of Helleborus, its identity with that of the present plant is extremely improbable. Several other species grow in Greece and Asia Minor, and Schroff [6] has endeavoured to show that of these, H. orientalis Lam. possesses medicinal powers agreeing better with the ancient accounts than those of H. niger L. He has also pointed out that the ancients employed not the entire root but only the bark separated from the woody column ”

“ The calyx is similarly petaloid in the genera Helleborus, Eranthis, Nigella, Delphinium and Aconitum; but the petals are present in these instances in unusual (horn-like) forms, and almost entirely given up to the function of nectaries, a function they already possess in Ranunculus. According to a more recent theory the “honey-leaves” are transformed stamens, which have lost the function of reproduction; the perianth is then single, and most frequently petaloid. ”

“ The hellebores come within our enumeration of the January flora, and of these the bearsfoot or fœtid hellebore (Helleborus fœtidus) is the earliest in flower. It grows to a height oftentimes of two feet. ”

“ Root tuberous—leaves radical, on long channelled petioles, pedate, lobes oblong, margins serrate near the apex—scape radical, simple,—flower terminal—calyx none—bracteas immediately under the flower, two, sessile—corolla white, slightly tinged with pale pink and yellowish green,—petals five, large, orbicular, margins undulate—nectaries green, tubular—stamens numerous—anthers compressed—styles many.
There are few flowers more welcome to us than the Helleborus niger, which enlivens our gardens in the dreary months of December and January. ”

“ 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 and 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 60° to 70° Fahr. ”

“ Many of the species of Hellebore are known to produce flowers varying more or less in colour; and we also know that an individual blossom, during the long period in which the sepals keep good, often changes its tints and colours, but we are scarcely prepared to hear that a species has greenish-white flowers, whilst we have always seen a rosy or rosy-purple one produced. ”

“ Black hellebore sends those who take it to stool, and purges the bowels; the nature of the other, the white kind, is to purge by vomiting. It is the root of the hellebore which is used as a purging drug.
10.36.8 In the agora at Anticyra are bronze statues, and at the harbor is a small sanctuary of Poseidon, built of unhewn stones. The inside is covered with stucco. The image, which is made of bronze, is a standing figure, with one foot resting on a dolphin. On this side he has one hand upon his thigh; in his other hand is a trident. ”

“ The false hellebore may be found in midsummer in the mountains. It grows along watercourses, and often covers rich, moist meadows, where its stems rise from three to seven feet, with their coarsely ribbed, boat-shaped leaves and large panicles of greenish-white flowers. When at its best it is a rather fine, showy thing, but its leaves are often perforated by some insect, and present a ragged, untidy appearance. ”

“ There are three sorts of blacke Hellebor or Beares foote, one that is the true and right kinde, whose flowers haue the most beautifull aspect, and the time of his flowring most rare, that is, in the deepe of Winter about Christmas, when no other can bee seene vpon the ground: and two other that are wilde or bastard kindes, brought into many Gardens for their Physicall properties ”

“ The under side of the latter and the abdomen are covered with tessellated scales of a light-brown and dull yellow color arranged in another handsome pattern.
A Heloderma’s head, with its triangular shape, is very like that of a venomous snake; it gives the animal—especially when it is raised in anger—a truly awe-inspiring appearance.
The wide-cleft mouth reaches far behind the eyes. These are very small and, like all lizards, provided with eye-lids that close when the animal sleeps. ”

“ When it is leaping about it stretches this tail out behind it, and seems to find it of very great use in keeping its balance.
Jerboas are very common in Egypt and other parts of North Africa, and live in burrows which they dig in the sandy soil. In order to enable them to obtain a firm foothold on the slippery sand, the soles of their feet are covered with long hairs, which also prevent them from being scorched by contact with the heated ground. But as a rule they do not come out of their burrows until the evening, when the sun is not so powerful as it is during the middle of the day. ”

“ Whether Quails from any idiosyncracy or peculiarity of constitution, do innocuously feed upon Hellebore, or rather sometime but medically use the same; because we perceive that Stares, which are commonly said harmlessly to feed on Hemlock, do not make good the tradition ”

“ In Scotland they occur on most of the higher hills from Arran northwards, though no longer in Dumfries and Galloway; while abroad they occupy Northern Europe, with the Pyrenees and the Alps, and possibly Northern Asia. In the lighter L. rupestris the adult male never has a black breast or a grey back in autumn. This form occurs in North Asia and North America, with Greenland, Iceland, and Japan, many local races having been described as distinct species or sub-species; while the larger L. hyperboreus (hemileucurus) , with a white base to the tail, inhabits Spitsbergen ”

“ And if we inquire, on the other hand, into the aboriginal species of those islands,—or, at any rate, into such of them whose naturally acquired range embraces the opposite extremes of atmosphere,—we shall detect no less surely (albeit within a narrower space) the result of climatal action on insect form. The Helops confertus, Woll., "varies according to the altitude at which it is found; being usually deeply striated and rugose on its lower, but subpicescent and much more lightly sculptured on its upper limits. ”

“ A good illustration is found in the genus Uloborus, of which the members bear a deceptive resemblance to small pieces of bark, or to such bits of rubbish as commonly become entangled in old deserted webs. The only species in our neighborhood is Uloborus plumipes, which I have almost invariably found building in dead branches, where its disguise is more effective than it would be among fresh leaves. ”

“ As we wander through the silent woods we see patches of anemones, white and blue, lying upon the leaf-strewn ground, and beside them in many places are tufts of the pale starry primroses; coarse spurge, and lush masses of the hellebore with its large pale green flowers and dark leaves are common enough on all sides. ”

“ Thus far have I spoken of the Hyperboreans, and let it suffice; for I do not tell the story of that Abaris, alleged to be a Hyperborean, who carried the arrow over the whole world, fasting the while. But if there be men beyond the north wind, then there are others beyond the south. And I laugh to see how many have ere now drawn maps of the world, not one of them showing the matter reasonably; for they draw the world as round as if fashioned by compasses, encircled by the river of Ocean, and Asia and Europe of a like bigness. ”

“ It seems too pale methinks; for those in Italy are blacker.
Eu. Don't you know the Herb it has fallen upon?
Ti. Not very well.
Eu. That's no Wonder, for it does not grow in these Parts: It is Wolf's-bane, so deadly a Poison, that upon the very touch of it, a Scorpion is stupified, grows pale, and yields himself overcome; but when he is hurt with one Poison, he seeks his Remedy with another. Do you see the two Sorts of Hellebore hard by ”

“ HELIODORUS, of Emesa in Syria, Greek writer of romance. According to his own statement his father’s name was Theodosius, and he belonged to a family of priests of the sun. He was the author of the Aethiopica, the oldest and best of the Greek romances that have come down to us. ”

“ All writers do not agree in their description of the Hellespont, and many opinions are advanced on the subject. Some describe the Propontis to be the Hellespont; others, that part of the Propontis which is to the south of Perinthus; others include a part of the exterior sea which opens to the Ægæan and the Gulf Melas, each assigning different limits. Some make their measurement from Sigeum to Lampsacus, and Cyzicus, and Parium, and Priapus; and one is to be found who measures from Singrium, a promontory of Lesbos. ”

“ The idea that this lizard enjoys the quivering heat on an open Arizona plain, while other sun and heat-loving reptiles keep in hiding, is as erroneous as many others. Nothing is so absolutely fatal to the Heloderma as to be exposed only for half an hour to the direct rays of the sun in midsummer. Another reason why it prefers to live in the neighborhood of streams where plant life is more abundant explains itself by the necessity to provide for food. ”

“ The illustration to this paper is so excellently made that scarcely any description is necessary as to the animal’s exterior in color and markings. This Heloderma is a little over nineteen inches in length by ten inches in circumference of the body and five inches at the thickest part of the tail, which makes one-third of the total length of the body. When such a reptile grows to the size of eighteen inches it is called adult. Those growing beyond these figures are unusually large specimens and in very rare instances the species of our illustration reaches the extraordinary length of two feet. ”

“ Strew the roots of black hellebore, at night, in the places infested by these vermin, and they will be found in the morning dead or dying. Black hellebore grows in marshy grounds, and may be had at the herb shops. ”

“ The Heloderm has a round, heavy tail, of no service to it in swimming, and short, weak fingers, ill suited to climbing; and it passes its lethargic existence on the sandy plains of Mexico, manifesting in its actions, or rather in its inactivity and stealthiness, a conscious timidity and cowardice. Motionless for hours, with an impulse to retreat if molested, but attempting to bite if angered, its noxious saliva would seem to be rather protective than aggressive. It may have formidable enemies at home; and by all we see of it here, it does not use its teeth as a means of obtaining food. ”

“ From among the Helli of the mountains, who nowhere appear among the contingents of the Greek army, must have proceeded the migratory bands who gave to the Thessalian plain the name of Hellas. Their descendants fix themselves as settlers there. Beguiled into civilization, they become Hellenes; they spread, by their inborn elastic energies, towards the south, and carry with them, only a little in their rear, the very title of their Hellenic origin, as well as their own peculiar name. ”

“ It is far easier to catch, as it is somewhat sluggish in movement, clean and hard in substance—and therefore less disgusting to touch than others that squash in one's fingers. The best remedies for these pests are: first, prevention, by spraying with hellebore wash, which I have found most useful. Second, by careful hand-picking when the larvæ appear. And third, by removing the surface soil in which the cocoons are buried, and all dead wood, during the winter.
Hellebore wash is made in the following proportion—
Mix the hellebore and flour with a little water till dissolved ”

“ This may be the place most convenient for observing, that there can be little hesitation in regarding the northern route as that by which the Hellic tribes came into Greece. They, a highland people, came along a mountain country. They left their name upon the Hellespont, the sea of Helle, which means not the mere strait so called in later times, but the whole northern Ægean [398] ; and upon the river Selleeis, which discharges itself into the sea of Marmora. ”