Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/799

* HELLEBORE. 739 HELLENICA. HEL'LEBORE (Lat. helleborus, elleborus, friiin Gk. fXX^flopos, AX^^opos). A name ap- [jlied to a iiuiiiluT ut' plants of dilVercnt yeiipra, but properly to the species of llellehorus, u genus which beloiiys to the order Kanunoulacea-, and which contains about a dozen species, most of which are natives of Europe. The species are perennial herbs, with short rootstocks and few stem-leaves; the leaves are deeply divided, and the Howers terminal. One of the best-known spe- cies is the black hellebore {Hellcbonin iii(icr), which has evergreen leaves, and is so called from its black rootstock. Its Howers, which are white or tinged with red, appear very early in the sea- son; in England, frequently during the winter, on which account it is called Christmas rose. The leaves and flower-stalks arise from the root- stock. In former times this plant w-as reputed as efficacious in the treatment of insanity, but it is little used at present. It has some medicinal properties, but in over-doses is an acrid poison. A second species, common in Europe, is the stink- ing hellebore {Helleborus foetidusi. which grows upon hills in England and elsewhere, has leafy stems, and greenish flowers tinged with purple. It is noted for its disagreeable smell. Green hellebore { HeUehvnis viridis), which has large, greeni.sh-yellow flowers, is another common Euro- pean species. It has escaped from cultivation in the eastern part of the United States. Helle- borus orieiitalis is the species known to the ancients. To it was first attributed the virtue of a specific for insanity. It is particularly abundant in Greece and the Levant, and was for- merly very plentiful about Anticyra, where the best was obtained. Of these difTerent species there are many horticultural varieties, some of which are beautiful. On account of their early HELLEBORUS XIGER. flowering, they are planted usually in shrubberies and borders. Closely allied to the above, and often called winter hellebore, is Eranthis hye- vtrtlis, the winter aconite, a native of Central Europe introduced into England, and sparingly escaped in the I'nitcd States. This plant is em- ployed in horticulture in the same way as the species of Helleborus. It has a single large yellow flower surrounded by an involucre of a single leaf. A third plant, to which the name white helle- bore is given, is cratruiii album. This genus be- longs to the order Liliacca>, or, according to some authorities, to the Melanthacea'. White helle- bore has a leafy stem, 3 to 4 feet high, and a long compound panicle of yellowish-white flow- ers. It is a native of Central and Southern Eu- rope, and abounds in mountainous regions. The root of this plant is an active, acrid poison, and is used in medicine. In a powdered slate it is an important insecticide, and is esiiecially valu- able for dusting over currant bushes as a pro- tection against the currant -worm. The Ameri- can hellebore (^'er(ltruln ririV/c), also known as swamp hellebore, Indian poke, and itch weed, is a common plant in wet grounds from Canada to Alabama. Its properties are similar to those of white hellebore. A species commonly knova as Veratrum Californieuin is found tmni the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast. Its prop- erties are doubtless similar to those of the other species, and it is reputed to be the cause of considerable loss to stockmen through its being eaten by stock. The active principle seems in all of the species to be the alkaloid vcratrine, or a substance similar to it. Some pharmacologists restrict the production of veratrine to the re- lated Schoenocaulon oflicinale, and call the cor- responding alkaloid of Veratrum viride vcra- troidine. HELLEBORE. The president of a medical school, in Foote's Devil upon Two Glides. The part is one of the incarnations assumed by the Devil, and was generally taken by the author himself. HEL'LEN (Lat, from Gk."EXX7;v). In Greek tradition, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, and father of Dorus, -Eolus, and Xuthus ; from .^iolus were descended the .liolians. from Dorus the Dorians, while from the two sons of Xuthus, Ion and Achfeus, came the lonians and Achteans. From Hellen came the collective name of the Greeks. Hellenes. The whole story is relatively late, being unknown to the Homeric poems, where the Hellenes are a tribe of the Phthiotis, and is probably a creation of the eighth century B.C. or later, when the feeling of national unity de- veloped among the Greeks, and the name Hellenes received its later meaning. We are told that Hesiod and Archilochus were the first to call the body of Greeks Hellenes. HELLENES, hel'lvnz. The name applied by ethnologists to the earliest Greek-speaking .ryans, who on their arrival in the peninsula, found the land already inhabited by the Pelas- gians, the eastern division of Sergi's INIediter- ranean species. The Pelasgi, excepting a few scattered groups, became Hellenized. the hetero- geneous elements being fused with a Hellenic. nationality, built upon a Pelasgic substratum and possessed of Hellenic culture. See Greece. HELLEN'ICA (I.at., from Gk. 'EXXT^nini, Hel- lenilcn. neu. pi. of 'EXX^wkSs, HrllrniLus, relat- ing to Greece, from 'EXXds, llrlbix, Greece). An historical work in seven liooks by Xenophon, tak- ing up the history of Greece from the point at which the history by Thucydides ends, and cover- ing the forty-eight years prior to the battle of Mantinca. The work is tnistworthy and the most important authority for the period covered, but suffers from incompleteness, failure to men-