RHIZOMA VERATRI ALBI. 093 



Commerce — -Dried squill, usually packed in casks, is imported into 

 England from Malta. 



Use — Commonly employed as a diuretic and expectorant. 



Substitutes — There are several plants of which the bulbs arc used 

 in the place of the officinal squill, but which, owing to the abundance 

 and low price of the latter, never appear in the European market. 



1. Urginea altissima Baker {Oriiithogalum altissimum L.), a South 

 African species, very closely related to the common squill, and having, 

 as it would appear, exactly the same properties.^ 



2. U. indica Kth. {Scilla indica Roxb.), a widely diffused plant, 

 occurring in Northern India, the Coromandel Coast, Abyssinia, Xubia, 

 and Senegambia. It is known by the same Arabic and Persian names 

 as U. maritima, and its bulb is used for similar purposes. But according 

 to Moodeen Sheriff^ it is a poor substitute for the latter, having little 

 or no action when it is old and large. 



S. Scilla indica Baker ^ (non Roxb.), (Ledebourla hyacinthina 

 Roth), native of India and Abyssinia, has a bulb which is often confused 

 in the Indian bazaars with the preceding, but is easily distinguishable 

 when entire by being scaly not tunicated) ; it is said to be a better 

 representative of the European squill.* 



4. Drmiia ciMarh Jacq, a plant of the Cape of Good Hope of the 

 order Liliacece. Its bulb much resembles the officmal squill, but lias a 

 juice so irritating if it comes in contact with the skin, that the plant is 

 called by the colonists JevMol, i.e. Itch-hulh. It is used medicinally as 

 an emetic, expectorant, and diuretic.^ 



5. Cnmvm asiaticiim van toxlcarmm Herbert (C teimnum 

 Roxb.), a lar^e plant, with handsome white flowers and noble loiia^e, 

 cultivated in Indian gardens, and also found wild m low hunaid spots 

 m various parts of India and the Moluccas, and on the sea-coast oi^ej- 

 ^on. The bulb has been admitted to the rharmacopma of India 

 (18GS), chiefly on the recommendation of O'Shaughnessy, who considers 

 It a valuable emetic. We have not been able to examine a ^VJ^^^^^> 

 and cannot learn that the drug has been the subject ot any cnemicai 

 investigation. 



MELANTHACE^. 



RHIZOMA VERATRI ALBI. 



If 



iiadlx Veratri, Radix Hdhhori cdbi; White Hellebore; J. B,wine 



d' Ellehore hlanc ; G. Weim meswuTZtl,(xe^meu 



Botanical Origin-F.ra^~ aft^m L -pis plant o^^^^^^ 

 grassy places in tbi mountain regions of Middle and Southern Jiuiopc, 



' ^m^, Flor<. Medico Capensis Prodro. ^ 'Saunders W"r^'™ Bolan^^"^ iii. 



"^ Supvlem,»f. tn th. Phn,-rr,nrnnn>!a of * SuppHo the I ha,m. OJ II 



'Supplement 'to 'the Pharrmcopma of \ Suppl to the 1 mr 



India, Madras, 1869. 250. ' ^'''Pf"'' "P' " 



