1355 



^cfLLA* plilSibea. 

 Lead-coloured ^Scilla. 



HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Nut. Ord. AsPHODELEiE, 



SCILLA. — Perianthium hexaphyllum, patens, aequale, deciduum (cseru- 

 leum). Stamina eequalia, subperigyna. Stylus filiformis, intrusus, Capsula 

 subrotunda, 4-polysperma, semiuibus subglobosis. 



S. plumben ; foliis liguljEformibus planis recurvis, scapo erecto tereti pauci^ 

 floro, pedicellis bracteis triple longioribus, laciniis perianthii ovatis car- 

 nosis demum reflexis pedicellis 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 

 to. discover any character of distinction between that genus 

 and Ornithogalum, which we may take this occasion to 

 observe, are like a great many other Linnean genera, 

 separated upon account of differences, much more trifling 

 than such as modern Botany usually recognises ; in fact 



* The trx-lxxvi of Hippocrates and Dioscorides appears to have been the 

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

 to be traced to the Arabic asqyl, which is the same plant, according to Golius, 

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

 c-KvX>.u, to torment; on account of the emetic, or even poisonous properties 

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

 strained. 



