Forms: 6 lyberdes, libardis, leopardes bayn(e, libardbain(e, -bayne, 7 lib(b)ard, libbard’s bane, libbardsbane, 6– leopard’s bane. [See BANE sb.1 2 b.] A plant of the genus Doronicum, esp. D. Pardalianches. Also applied to Arnica montana, Paris quadrifolia (Herb Paris), etc.

1

1548.  Turner, Names of Herbes (E.D.S.), 8. The one kynde [of Aconitum] is called Pardalianches, which we may call in englishe Libardbayne or one bery. Ibid. (1551), Herbal, I. B ij. Leopardes bayne layd to a scorpione maketh hyr vtterly amased and Num.

2

1579–80.  North, Plutarch (1676), 739. Libardbain or Wolf-bain.

3

1609.  B. Jonson, Masque Queens. Night-shade, moon-wort, libbard’s bane.

4

1658.  Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 908. The venomous herb called Libbardsbane, or Wolf-wort.

5

1682.  Wheler, Journ. Greece, VI. 478. Leopard’s-bane whose root is like a scorpion.

6

1785.  Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxvi. (1794), 394. Leopard’s-bane, a wild plant of the Alps, and now common among the perennials of the garden.

7

1822–34.  Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 137. When a more active stimulant is necessary, that of leopard’s bane (arnica montana) may be found useful.

8

1882.  Garden, 15 April, 247/1. The Leopard’s-bane … grows in great patches in the woods.

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