S CI 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



S C I 



543 



the taste of the acid renders that of the squill more support- 

 able. This is one of the few medicines known in the early 

 ages of Greece, which .is held in great estimation, and is in 

 frequent use at this time ; though it appears to act as a poison 

 upon several animals. If much handled, it exulcerates the 

 skin ; and in large doses, frequently repeated, it not only 

 excites nausea, but strangury, bloody urine, and haemorrhoids, 

 with fatal inflammation and gangrene of the stomach and 

 bowels. Under proper management, however, it is a medicine 

 of great practical utility. In dropsy, it has long been esteemed 

 the most certain and effectual diuretic with which we are 

 acquainted ; and in asthma or dyspnoea, occasioned by the 

 lodgment of tenacious phlegm, it has been the expectorant 

 usually employed. In large doses it is apt to prove emetic, 

 and sometimes purgative, by which the patient is deprived 

 of its diuretic effects : it is given therefore in small doses, 

 repeated at more distant intervals, or an opiate is joined with 

 it. From a continued repetition, the dose may be gradually 

 increased, and the intervals shortened : when thus the doses 

 come to be tolerably large, the opiate may be most conve- 

 niently employed to direct the operation of the squill more 

 certainly to the kidneys. In dropsy, when, from an effusion 

 of water into the cavities, less water goes to the kidneys, it 

 may be of use to add neutral salt. Dr. Cullen recommends 

 a solution of corrosive sublimate to promote the diuretic 

 effects of squills. When iheprima: via; abound with mucous 

 matter, and the lungs abound with viscid phlegm, squills 

 are in general estimation. As an expectorant, they may be 

 supposed not only to attenuate the mucus, and thus facilitate 

 its ejection, but, by stimulating the secretory organs and 

 mucous follicles, to excite a more copious excretion of it from 

 the lungs, and thereby lessen the congestion, upon which the 

 difficulty of respiration very generally depends. Therefore 

 in all pulmonic affections, excepting those of actual or violent 

 inflammation, ulcer, or spasm, this has proved a useful medi- 

 cine. The officinal preparations are, a conserve, the dried 

 root, a syrup and vinegar, an oxymel, and pills. When this 

 root is intended as a diuretic, it has most commonly been 

 used in powder, with the addition of neutral salts, as nitre 

 or crystals of tartar, especially where the patient complained 

 of thirst. Others recommend calomel, and also add aromatics 

 to accommodate weak stomachs. The dose of dried squill, is 

 from two to four or six grains daily, or half that quantity twice 

 a day. The dose of the other preparations, when fresh, should 

 be four times this weight. On account of their very ungrate- 

 ful taste, they are commonly given in the form of pills, made 

 of the dried root reduced to powder, with the addition of syrup, 

 or mucilage of gum arable. Either the vinegar, syrup, or 

 oxymel of squills, may be used as expectorants, in doses of two 

 or three drachms, in cinnamon water, or some other cordial 

 liquid ; for in whatever form they are given, unless it is designed 

 for them to act as an emetic, the addition of some warm 

 grateful aromatic is necessary, to prevent that nausea which 

 they are apt to occasion when given alone in ever such small 

 quantities. This plant grows on sea-shores and in ditches 

 where the salt water flows in with the tide, in the warm 

 parts of Europe. It cannot be propagated in gardens, the 

 frost always destroying the roots in winter, while in summer 

 they decay for want of salt water. Sometimes the roots put 

 out stems and produce flowers, as they lie in the druggists' 

 shops ! In England it flowers in April. 



2. Scilla Lilio-Hyacinthus ; Lily-rooted Squill. Raceme 

 few-flowered; peduncles without bractes ; leaves lanceolate, 

 pressed close to the ground ; bulb ovate, scaly. The stalk 

 is slender, and rises a foot high : it is terminated by the 

 flowers, which are from six to nine, erect, light blue, appear- 

 VOL. ii. 111. 



ing in June. Native of Portugal, Spain, and the Pyrenees. 

 This, and most of the following species, are hardy, and 

 may be propagated by seeds, or offsets ; the latter, which 

 is the most expeditious, being oftenest practised. The offsets 

 may be taken off every other year, and planted out at the 

 time the leaves and stem decay. The roots may be trans- 

 planted after the leaves are decayed ; but if they are removed 

 after they have put out new fibres, they rarely succeed, at 

 least they will not flower in the following spring. They may 

 be treated in every respect like the common sorts of Hyacinth. 

 The seeds should be sown in autumn soon after they are ripe, 

 either in shallow boxes, or pans, as directed for Hyacinths. 



3. Scilla Italica ; Italian Squill. Raceme conical, oblong; 

 stem seven or' eight inches high, terminated by clustered 

 flowers of a pale blue colour, at first disposed in a sort of 

 umbel or depressed spike, but afterwards drawing up to a 

 point, and forming a conical corymb. Native place uncer- 

 tain ; but found in different parts of the south of Europe. 



4. Scilla Tetraphylla; Four-leaved Squill. Stemless : flowers 

 in bundles ; leaves in fours, ovate, lanceolate ; root bulbous. 

 Native of Africa. 



5. Scilla Peruviana ; Peruvian Squill. Corymb crowned, 

 conical; root large, solid, raised a little pyramidal in the 

 middle, covered with a brown coat; from this come out before 

 winter five or seven leaves, six or eight inches long, of a 

 lucid green, keeled, and spreading almost flat on the ground. 

 From the centre of these come out one, two, or three scapes, 

 thick, succulent, six or eight inches high, terminated by a 

 conical corymb of dark blue flowers, with purple stamens and 

 pistil, and yellow pollen, upon pretty long pedicels. There 

 is a variety with a white flower. It has long been known in 

 the English gardens by the name of Hyacinth of Peru. Sup- 

 posed to be a native of Peru, and common in Spain and 

 Portugal. 



6. Scilla Japonica. Umbel terminating, fastigiate ; scape 

 erect, simple, smooth, a palm high. Native of Japan. 



7. Scilla Amoena; Nodding Squill. Scape angular ; pedun- 

 cles alternate, shorter than the flower; bractes obtuse, very 

 short. Flowers blue. Native of the Levant. 



3. Scilla Prsecox ; Early Squill. Scape angular, racemed, 

 snbcorymbed ; peduncles twice as long as the flower; bractes 

 obscure. Native country unknown. 



9. Scilla Campanulata ; Spanish Squill. Bulb solid ; raceme 

 many-flowered, oblong, subconical; corollas bell-shaped, 

 erect; bractes two-parted, longer than the peduncle ; leaves 

 lanceolate ; corolla of a deep blue violet-colour. It flowors 

 in May. -Native of Spain and Portugal. 



10. Scilla Bifolia; Two-leaved Squill. Root solid; flowers 

 corymbed, racemed, without bractes, almost upright; leaves 

 lanceolate, by rows. It varies with a white flower. Native 

 of Europe. Found also in the western parts of Great Britain, 

 flowering in March and April. 



11. Scilla Verna; Vernal Squill. Root solid ; corymb hemi- 

 spherical, few-flowered ; bractes lanceolate, obtus'e ; leaves 

 linear, channelled. The bulb, as well as the whole plant, 

 smaller than any of the foregoing; but the herbage varies 

 considerably in luxuriance, according to soil or culture. 

 This is a maritime plant, found among the rocks of Corn- 

 wall, on the western coast of Wales, on the isle of Man, and 

 in the Hebrides. It flowers in April. 



12. Scilla Lusitanica; Portuguese Squill. Raceme oblong, 

 conical ; petals marked with lines. It flowers in May. 

 Native of Portugal. 



13. Scilla Orientalis ; Oriental Srjmll. Flowers erect, 

 racemed; leaves elliptic, ensiform. Native of Japan, in the 

 island of Niphon. 



6Y 



