ALETRIS. 



with very short pedicels and minute bracts. Perianth white, of an 

 oblong bell-shape, divided at the mouth into 6 acute, spreading seg- 

 ments ; the outside, particularly as the flower grows old, has a roughish, 

 wrinkled or mealy appearance, by which the specific name was sug- 

 gested. Stamens short, inserted near the mouth of the perianth at the 

 base of the segments. Ovary pyramidal, half inferior, tapering : style 

 triangular, separable into 3. Capsule invested with the permanent 

 corolla, triangular, 3-celled, 3-valved at top. Seeds numerous, minute, 

 fixed to a central receptacle. — One of the most intense bitters known. 

 Used in infusion as a tonic and stomachic ; large doses produce nausea 

 and tendency to vomit. Has been employed in chronic rheumatism. 



SQUILLA. 



Sepals 3, coloured, spreading. Petals very like them, and 

 scarcely broader. Stamens 6, shorter than the perianth ; fila- 

 ments smooth, somewhat dilated at the base, acuminate, entire. 

 Ovary 3-parted, glandular and melliferous at the apex ; style 

 smooth, simple ; stigma obscurely 3-lobed, papillose. Capsule 

 rounded, 3-cornered, 3-celled. Seeds numerous, in 2 rows, flat- 

 tened, with a membranous testa. 



1250. S. maritima Steinheil in ami. sc. n. ser. vi. 279. — 

 Scilla maritima Linn. sp. pi. 442. Desf.fl. ail. i. 297. Red. Lil. 

 t. 116. Woodv. t. 118. R. and S. vii. 556. Ornithogalum 

 maritimum Lam.fl.fr. iii. 276. O. Squilla Bot. Mag. t. 918. 

 Stellaris Scilla Mcench. meth. 304. 2/aXAa, Diosc. — Near 

 the coast of the Mediterranean, on both the North and South 

 sides, Portugal, the Levant. (Squill.) 



Bulb roundish-ovate, very large, between globose and ovate, half 

 above ground, with the integuments either pale green or red. Leaves 

 appearing long after the flowers, broad-lanceolate, channelled, spreading, 

 recurved. Scape about 2 feet high, terminated by a rather dense, long, 

 ovate raceme. Flowers about J of an inch across, spreading, pale 

 yellowish-green, with a green stain along the middle of each segment. 

 Filaments shorter than the segments of the perianth. — M. Steinheil 

 rightly separates this plant from the numerous species to which the 

 name of Scilla has in modern times been applied. It differs essentially 

 in having large winged seeds and 3 nectariferous glands at the apex of 

 the ovary. — The bulbs contain an active principle called Scillitin, and 

 have been officinal from a very remote period. They are very acrid 

 and capable of vesicating. Squills are used medicinally as an emetic 

 medicine in hooping-cough, and croup, as a diuretic in dropsies, and in 

 chronic pulmonary affections, such as chronic catarrh, humid asthma, 

 winter cough, &c. They are also employed as an expectorant. In 

 commerce there are two sorts the red and the white, which appear to 

 be mere varieties differing in the colour of the bulbs. The dry external 

 scales of the bulb, and the young and tender interior ones, are inert or 

 nearly so and should be rejected ; the intermediate scales are, for 

 obvious physiological reasons, the part in which the energy of the plant 

 principally resides. 



1251. S. Pancration Steinh. 1. c. p. 279. — RavKpaviw, Dios- 



591 



