48 



SCILLA Peruviana; va7\ discolor 

 Dimjy-jiowcred Peruman Squill. 



IIEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

 Nat. ord. LiLiACE^. 

 SCILLA. L. 



S. 2)eruvia)ia ; foliis lato-lanceolatis patentibus planis niargiue ciliatis scapo 

 longioiibus, racemis coufertis conicis, bracteis lanceolatis elongatis ner- 

 vosis, capsulis mucronatis? Gussoiie Fl. Sic. 1. 415. 



S. peruviana. Linn. sp. pi. 442. &c. 



Var. discolor, sepalis petalisque Jlavescenti-hi'unneis, ovario coeruleo. 



? Ornitliogalum siculum floribus cinerco-carneis in rotuudam metam fastigi- 

 atis. Bonanni, t. 19. ex Gussone. 



That the Peruvian Squill does not grow in Peru is well 

 known, the name having been applied by Linnteus in con- 

 sequence of some erroneous statements of Clusius or Morison. 

 Neither is it found in India, as one of its old synonyms 

 would lead us to suppose. Its real country is Portugal, about 

 Cintra, according to Brotero ; Algiers, where Desfontaines 

 found it in corn-fields ; Tripoli, on hill sides, according to 

 Delia Cella ; Corsica, near S. Bonifacio, where Seraphini 

 found it; clayey hills in Sicily, as we learn from Gussone, and 

 even the sterile hills outside the gate Degli angioli of Genoa, 

 as we arc assured by Viviani. 



The present plant was sent from Algiers to the Hon. and 

 Very Reverend the Dean of Manchester, and therefore agrees 

 in its native country with S. peruviana. At first sight, how- 

 ever, it seems so diff^erent that it cannot be regarded as 

 the same species. We must, however, confess our inability, 

 after a careful examination, to discover any other distinction 

 between them than that of the colour of the flowers, which 

 are neither white nor bright blue, as in the previously known 

 states of S. peruviana, but a dirty pale fawn-colour. The 

 seed-vessels have exactly the mucronate form ascribed to S. 



peruviana. 



u 



