Bot. [L. vērātrum hellebore.]
1. A perennial genus typical of the family Veratreæ of liliaceous plants; a plant belonging to this genus, esp. the white hellebore (V. album); also, the rhizome of this.
[1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. lv. (Bodl. MS.). Eloborus;… þe Romayns clepeþ þis herbe Veratrum,… and þerof is twei manere of kinde, white & blacke.
1548. Turner, Names Herbes (E.D.S.), 79. Veratrum … maye be called in englishe Nesewurte.]
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 69. Veratrum, there are two kindes of it, the blacke and the white.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 232. The root of Veratrum or Ellebore … maketh a most excellent medicine to rid it [dandruff] away.
1693. trans. Blancard’s Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Veratrum, the same with Helleborus.
1753. Chambers’s Cycl., Suppl. s.v., The species of white Hellebore, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are these: 1. The greenish-flowered Veratrum. And 2. The early-flowering Veratrum, with blackish purple flowers.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVIII. 642/1. Veratrum has likewise been found useful in epilepsy, and other convulsive complaints.
1823. Crabb, Technol. Dict., s.v., White-flowered Veratrum, or White Hellebore.
1836. Penny Cycl., VI. 448/1. We strongly suspect that all these supposed Veratrums really belong rather to the genus Helonias [etc.].
1871. Garrod, Mat. Med. (ed. 3), 345. Therapeutics [of Veratria]. As veratrum, but much more powerful.
2. attrib. and Comb., as veratrum family, -leaved adj.; veratrum-resin (see quots.).
1836. J. M. Gully, Magendie’s Formul. (ed. 2), 69. That all the individuals of the veratrum family possessed a very acrid taste.
1843. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), IV. 156. Calanthe veratrifolia. (Derived from veratrum-leaved.)
1853. Royle, Mat. Med. (ed. 2), 664. Veratrum Wine.
1868. Watts, Dict. Chem., V. 997. Veratrum-resin,… a constituent of sabadilla-seeds.
1888. Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., Veratrum-resin,… brownish resin, extracted from sabadilla seeds.
