690 LILIACEiE. 



4811 cwt. ; and Barbados 970 cwt. The remainder was probably 

 furnished by Eastern Africa. 



The commercial value of the varieties of aloes is very different. In 

 1874, Barbados Aloes was quoted in price-currents at £3 os. to £9 10s. 

 per cwt.; Socotrine at £5 to £13; while Cape Aloes was offered at £1 10s. 

 to £2. In England, the first two alone are allowed for pharmaceutical 

 prepai'ations. Even the Veterinary Pharmacopoeia^ names only Aloe 

 Barbadensis. Cape Aloes is esteemed on the Continent, and chiefly 

 consumed there. 



Use — Aloes is a valuable purgative in very common use, it is 

 generally given combined with other drugs. 



Adulteration — The physical characters of aloes, such as colour of 

 the powder, odour, consistence and freedom from obvious impurity, 

 coupled with its solubility in weak alcohol, usually suffice for determin- 

 ing its goodness. 



BULBUS SCILL^. 



Radix Scilloe ; Squill ; F. Bulbe ou squames de Scille, Ognon marin ; 



G. Meerzwiebel. 



Botanical Origin — Urginea maritima Baker^ {Scilla maritima L., 

 Urginea Scilla Steinheil). It is found generally in the regions bordering 

 the Mediterranean, as in Southern France, Italy, Dalmatia, Greece, Asia 

 Minor, Syria, North Africa and the Mediterranean islands. In Sicily, 

 where it grows most abundantly, Urginea ascends to elevations of 30()() 

 feet. It is also very common throughout the South of Spain, where it 

 is by no means confined to the coast ; it occurs also in Portugal. In 

 the Riviera of Genoa the peasants like to see it growing under the fig 

 trees. 



Two varieties of squill, termed respectively white and red, are distin- 

 guished by druggists. In the first, the bulb-scales are colourless ; in the 

 second they are of a roseate hue. No other difference in the plants can 

 be pointed out, nor have the two varieties distinct areas of growth. 



History — Squill is one of the most ancient of medicines. Epimenides, 

 a Greek who lived in the 80th Olympiad, is said to have made much 

 use of it, from which circumstance it came to be called Epimenideai^ It 

 is also mentioned by Theophrastus, and was probably well known to all 

 the ancient Greek physicians. Pliny was not only acquainted with it, 

 but had noticed its two varieties. l3ioscorides describes the method of 

 making vinegar of squills ; and a similar preparation, as well as com- 

 pounds of squill with honey, were administered by the Arabian physi- 

 cians, and still remain in use. The medical school of Salerno preferred 

 the red variety of the drug, which on the whole is not frequently met 

 with in mediaeval literature. 



Description — The bulb of squill is pear-shaped, and of the size of a 



1 By R. V, Tuson, London, 1869. allusion to the Algerian tribe Ben Urgin, 



2 Journ. of Linn. Soc, Bot., xiii. (1872) near Bona, where Steinheil (1834) ex- 

 221. — The genus Urginea has flat, discoid amined this plant. 



seeds, while in Scilla proper they are tri- ^ Haller, BibUotheca hotanica, i. 12. 



quetrous. The name f/ryiwea was given in 



