'SCILLA rufa magna vulgaris. J. Baub. Hift. 2. 615. Tc. 

 SCILLA vulgaris radice rubra. Bauh. Pin. 73. 

 (x) radice rubra. 

 PANCRATIUM. Cluf. Hifp. 293. Htji.iji. cum herbs 



et bulbi icone abfque inflorefcentia. 

 (p) radice alba. 

 SCILLA hifpanica. Cluf. Hifp. 290, 291. Hifl. 171. cum 



iconibus. 



This well known vegetable is a native of all the countries 

 bordering on the Mediterranean, as alfo of Brittany and Nor- 

 mandy -, it has been found growing in the very fand of the fea- 

 fhore, and again, at the diftance of a hundred miles inland, 

 for inftance, at the foot of the Eftrella mountains ; fo that, as 

 Link obferves, riiaritimum is rather a fallacious appellation. 

 By the Spaniards it is called Cebolla alharrana. The bulbs are 

 annually imported by our druggifls, for whofe purpofes both 

 varieties are ufed indifferently : they are efteemed powerfully 

 diuretic, and adminiilered chiefly in dropfical and afihmatical 

 cafes. 



Blooms in July and Auguft, the leaves appearing in Oftober 

 and November. Miller fays the plant foon decays in our 

 gardens, and attributes the decline to want of fea-water, which 

 cannot, however, well be the caufe, as its natural fituation is 

 often at a great diftance from the lea, as we ftated above ; with 

 us it has been preferved for thefe three years in vigour, planted 

 in a large garden pot and flickered during winter in a common 

 garden frame ; nor do we yet difcover the leaf! fymptom of 

 decay. The root is frequently as big as a child's head, and often, 

 when frefli imported, throws out the flowering ftem while lying 

 in the fhop windows; the fpike is fometimes a foot or more 

 in length ; pedicles rather fhort, filaments nearly equal ; feed- 

 velTcl alately three-lobed, a (hape that Gartner terms molcn- 

 dinaceus ; feeds black, flat, chaff-like. 



While ScilLa and Ornitiiogalum continue to be kept 

 apart by the prefent barrier, which we think the only one there 

 is, we can have no doubt under which to range this fpecies. 

 Brotero obferves, that when Lefling and, after him, 

 Linnaus, flate Ornithogalum pyramid ' to be of Portu- 

 guefe origin, they have molt probably miftaken marithnum for 

 it, as pyramidak is certainly not a native of Portugal. G* 



