white hellebore

American  

[hwahyt hel-uh-bawr, wahyt] / ˈʰwaɪt ˈhɛl əˌbɔr, ˈwaɪt /

noun

1. a false hellebore, Veratrum album, with clusters of white flowers, native to Europe and western Asia: now rarely used in medicine, its alkaloids were once used in a number of treatments, as for high blood pressure, but accidental poisoning is due mostly to the plant’s resemblance to an ingestible European gentian.

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Etymology

Origin of white hellebore

First recorded in 1400–50

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

white hellebore

Flowers of sulphur, two ounces; hog's lard, four ounces; white hellebore powder, half an ounce: oil of lavender, sixty drops.

From Enquire Within Upon Everything The Great Victorian Domestic Standby by Anonymous

The powdered root of white hellebore is said to destroy both this grub and the caterpillars of the gooseberry moth and V-moth; infusion of foxglove, and tobacco-water, are likewise tried by some growers.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 2 "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George" by Various

For instance, they used white hellebore to cure their wounds, and John Josselyn tells us exactly how.

From The Old English Herbals by Rohde, Eleanour Sinclair

To one pailful of wood-ashes, add one quart each of white hellebore and flowers of sulphur; mix thoroughly; apply by sifting on the bushes while the dew is on them.

From Success with Small Fruits by Roe, Edward Payson

The treatment consisted of the application of belladonna and cantharides plasters, bismuth, and lime-water, camphor, and salts of white hellebore inhaled through the nose in finest powder.

From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)