Hellebore

hel'e-bor, a plant of the crowfoot family. There are about eight species native to Europe and western Asia. They are herbs with palmate leaves. The flowers are large, varying in color with the species from white to green, red, purple, and yellow. There are five broad, petal-like sepals. The petals are small and tubular, furnished with claws, somewhat like those of the columbine. The hellebore is related to aconite. Some species are poisonous, others medicinal. The green hellebore has been naturalized along our Atlantic coast. The white hellebore of the pharmacist, sold in the form of a powder to kill insects, is the pulverized root-stock of an entirely different plant.