SQUILL lor 



room. They are usually sold in bales of 50 to 100 kilo- 

 grammes. One donum may produce about 100 okes of 

 flowers annually. 



Squill 



Bulbs of the local squill were submitted in 1917 to 

 Kew and provisionally identified as Urginea Scilla. Like 

 the asphodel, this root is found everywhere. If sliced and 

 placed about the house they are said to drive away mice. 

 It was intended by the Agricultural Department to make 

 an attempt to find a market for these roots, in the hope 

 that if they could obtain a small payment for them 

 farmers might be induced to collect them off their lands, 

 but the project had to be abandoned for the time owing 

 to the war. There is a small demand for these roots, if 

 sliced and dried, in Europe for medicinal purposes. 



Squill bulbs from Cyprus were examined at the Imperial 

 Institute in 1916 (see BULLETIN OF THE IMPERIAL INSTI- 

 TUTE, vol. xv. 1917, p. 311). The samples, which were 

 submitted to a firm of drug manufacturers, were objected 

 to on account of their dark colour, and were valued at 

 about 6d. per Ib. as against a pre-war value of $d. per Ib. 



According to the report by the Imperial Institute there 

 are two varieties of Urginea Scilla , white and red, the scales 

 of the former being yellowish-white and those of the latter 

 having a reddish tint, and there are also many intermediate 

 forms. Though the red and the white varieties have been 

 stated to possess equal medicinal value, the white variety 

 is preferred in England. 



In making stone irrigation channels which are lined 

 with a coating of lime and sand or earth, local masons 

 sometimes rub over this lining with a sliced squill which 

 has been dipped in oil. It is found that this tends to 

 harden and glaze the lining and prevent it from cracking. 



Colocynth or Bitter Apple 



The colocynth (Citrullus Colocynthis) , locally called 

 11 pikrankoura " or " petrankoura," grows wild in some 

 parts of the plains. The round yellowish-green fruit, 

 about the size of an orange or small melon, ripens in July 



