RHIZOMA VERATRI ALBI. G93 



Commerce — Dried squill, usually packed in casks, is imported into 

 England from Malta. 



Use — Commonly employed as a diuretic and expectorant. 



Substitutes — There are several plants of which the bulbs are used 

 in the place of the officinal squill, but which, owing to the abundance 

 and low price of the latter, never appear in the European market. 



1. Urginea altissima Baker (Ornithogalum altissimum L.), a South 

 African species, very closely related to the common squill, and having, 

 as it would appear, exactly the same properties.^ 



2. U. indica Kth. (SciUa indica Roxb.), a widely diffused plant, 

 occurring in Northern India, the Coromaudel Coast, Abyssinia, Nubia, 

 and Senegambia. It is known by the same Arabic and Persian names 

 as U. niaritirtia, and its bulb is used for similar purposes. But according 

 to Moodeen Sheriff ^ it is a poor substitute for the latter, having little 

 or no action when it is old and large. 



3. SciUa indica Baker ^ (non Roxb.), (Ledehouria hyacinthina 

 Roth), native of India and Abyssinia, has a bulb which is often confused 

 in the Indian bazaars with the preceding, but is easily distinguishable 

 when entire by being scaly not tunlcated) ; it is said to be a better 

 representative of the European squill.* 



4. Drimia ciliaris Jacq., a plant of the Cape of Good Hope, of the 

 order Liliacece. Its bulb much resembles the officinal squill, but has a 

 juice so irritating if it comes in contact with the skin, that the plant is 

 called by the colonists Jeukbol, i.e. Itch-bulb. It is used medicinally as 

 an emetic, expectorant, and diuretic." * 



5. Oriniim asiaticiim vai\ toxicariwn Herbert (C. toxicarium 

 Roxb.), a large plant, with handsome white flowers and noble foliage, 

 cultivated in Indian gardens, and also found wild in low humid spots 

 in various parts of India and the Moluccas, and on the sea-coast of Cey- 

 lon. The bulb has been admitted to the PharTnacopceia of India 

 (1868), chiefly on the recommendation of O'Shaughnessy, who considers 

 it a valuable emetic. We have not been able to examine a specimen, 

 and cannot learn that the drug has been the subject of any chemical 

 investigation. 



MELANTHACE^. 



RHIZOMA VERATRI ALBI. 



Radix Veratri, Radix Uellebori albi ; White Hellebore ; F. Racine 

 dEllebore blanc ; G. Weisse Nieswurzel, Germer. 



Botanical Origin — Veratrum album L. — This plant occurs in moist 

 grassy places in the mountain regions of Middle and Southern Europe, 



* Pappe, Florce Medicos Capensis Prodro- * Saunders, Refugium Botanicum, iii. 



m%is,.eA. 2, 1857. 41. (1870) appendix, p. 12. 



■■' Supplement to the Pharmacopceia of * Suppl. to the Pharm. of India, 250. 



India, Madras, 1869. 250. ^ Pappe, op. cit. 42. 



