^ 



1355 



I 



^CILLA* plumbea 



Lead-coloured ^Scilla. 



^ 



HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. AsPHODELEJE. 



SCILLA.—Perianthium hexaphyllum, patens, sequale, deciduum (caeru- 

 leum). Stamina aequalia, subperigyna. Stylus filiforrais, intrusus. Capsula 

 subrotunda, 4-polysperma, seminibus subglobosis. 



S. plumbea; foliis ligulgeformibus planis recurvis, scapo erecto tereli pauci- 

 floro, pediceliis bracteis triple longioribus, laciniis peiianthii ovatis car- 

 nosis demiiin reflexis pediceliis duplo brevioribus. 



We only know this plant from a drawing made in 1813, 

 in the Kew Garden, by the late Mr. Sydenham Edwards. 

 The bulb had been imported from the Cape. We have 

 long hoped to discover it in some of the rich collections 

 near London ; but after an unsuccessful search we are con- 

 strained to publish it, in the hope that others may be more 

 successful. 



It seems to be a genuine Scilla, as far as it is possible 

 discover any character of distinction between that ger -~ 



and Ornithogal 



obse 



rve, are 



ke a 



hich we may take 



th 



to 



great many other Linnean genera, 

 separated upon account of differences, much more trifling 

 than such as modern Botany usually recognises; in fact 



♦Th 



^.18 cnt/xA, of Hippocrates and Dioscorides appears to have been the 

 plant now called Scilla maritima, and is of unknown derivation, unless it is 

 «> be traced to the Arabic dsqyl, which is the same plant, according to (jolius, 

 as cited by De Th6is. Some persons think the name originated in the verb 

 •^"^A*, to torment; on account of the emetic, or even poisonous properties 



«f the original species when eaten. But this etymology is perhaps over- 

 framed. ^ 



