of medicine, and that, not only in this country, but also in the land of Hippocrates and Dioscorides. In the modern Greek Pharmacopœia it is directed to be kept as a poison. (p. 76.) Mesue, Serapion, and many of the authorities recommend the black hellebore in melancholy. That it was either the _Helleborus niger_, or the species _orientalis_, Tournefort, and not the _Veratrum album_ which was commonly administered in Anticyra, in cases of mania and melancholy, is clearly proved from Dioscorides (iv, 149.) He further states of it that, applied _per vaginam_, it procures menstruation, and kills the fœtus; he recommends it for the cure of scabies, alphos, lichen, and leprosy; he also speaks favorably of it as an external application to fistulæ, dropsies, toothache, and diseases of the ears. Galen recommends both species equally in nearly the same class of complaints. Notwithstanding the high authority of Pereira, who maintains the contrary, we do not see the least reason to doubt that the _black hellebore_ of the ancients was our _Helleborus niger_, or Christmas rose. See Gerard (Paradisus, p. 386) and Parkinson (p. 211.) Without doubt it was introduced into this country by the Romans for their _H. niger_. The _H. officinalis_, Salisb., which Dr. Sibthorp brings forward in its place, is a distinct species. See Alston’s Lectures (42); also the Greek Pharmacopœia, Athens, 1837, (p. 77.) Ἐλίχρυσον, Elichrysum, _Shrubby Everlasting_ or _Eternal Flower_ (called also Chrysanthemon and Amarantum), is a plant used for garlands, having capillary leaves of a golden appearance. When drunk with wine it is suitable for dysuria, the bites of reptiles, ischiatic disease, and fractures. It also promotes menstruation, and dissolves coagula when drunk with wine and honey, and relieves catarrhs. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Linnæus makes the ancient Helichrysum identical with his _Gnaphalium_. (Gener. Plant. 946.) Accordingly Sprengel, in his R. H. H., refers it, with Cordus and Sibthorp, to the _Gnaphalium Stæchas_. But in his edition of Dioscorides he rather inclines to the _Tanacetum annuum_. Dr. Hill says of the tansy: “It has been greatly celebrated as an uterine, a vulnerary, and a diuretic. It is recommended in suppressions of the menses, and in cases of the gravel, and other nephritic complaints.” This agrees so well with the characters of the elechrysus as given by Dioscorides and Paulus, that we are inclined to identify this article with the _Tanacetum annuum_. It is proper to admit, however, that the virtues which Dioscorides ascribes to the elechrysus are ascribed by old Gerard to the cudweed. It is one of those articles in the ancient Materia Medica which can never be satisfactorily determined. See further, Parkinson (p. 695) and Lewis’s Dispensatory (i, 411.) Ἑλξίνη,