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Black Hellebore

Names. It is called also fetter-wort, fetter-grass bear's-foot, Christmas-herb, and Christmas-flower.

Description. It hath many fair green leaves rising from the root, each of them standing about a span high from the ground; the leaves are all divided into seven, eight, or nine, parts, dented from the middle to the point on both sides, and remain green all the winter. About Christmas time, if the weather be somewhat temperate, the flowers appear upon foot-stalks, each composed of five large round, white, leaves, which are sometimes purple toward the edges, with many pale yellow thrums in the middle. The seed is divided into several cells, somewhat like those of columbines, but rather larger; the seed is long and round, and of a black colour. The root consists of numberless blackish strings all united into one head. There is likewise another species of black hellebore which frequently grows in woods and forests, very much like this, except that the leaves are smaller and narrower. It perisheth in the winter. Place. The first is cultivated in gardens; the second is commonly found in the woods in Northamptonshire.

Time. The former blossoms in December and January; and the latter in February and March.

Government and virtues. It is an herb of Saturn, consequently would be taken with greater safety purified than when raw. The roots are very effectual against all melancholic diseases, especially such as are of long standing, as quartan agues and madness; it helpeth the falling sickness, the leprosy, the yellow and black jaundice, the gout, sciatica, and convulsions; or, used as a pessary, provoketh the terms exceedingly. The same being beaten to powder, and strewed upon foul ulcers, consumes the dead flesh and instantly heals them; it will also help gangrenes by taking inwardly twenty grains thereof corrected with half as much cinnamon. Country people use it for the cure of such beasts as are troubled with the cough, or have taken any poison, by boring a hole through the ear and putting a piece of the root therein; this, they say, will give relief in twenty-four hours time. It is an excellent ingredient, and used by farriers for many purposes.