HYACINTH OR IRIS? 59 



but is usually to be found under the heading 

 " Squills " in a grower's list. Parkinson classes it 

 with his iacinths, where one would have thought it 

 belonged, calling it Hyacinthus anglicus belgiciis. 

 He also classes with them what he calls Scilla alba — 

 the common squill of the Mediterranean — the 

 great and important squill of old medicine, which, 

 according to the herbalists, must have been good 

 for everything, epidemic, accidental, and chronic, 

 from worms to toothache, though most especially 

 for consumptive diseases. "The Apothecaries 

 prepare thereof both Wine, Vinegar and Oxymel 

 or Syrupe, which is singular to exterminate and 

 expectorate tough flegm, which is a cause of much 

 disquiet to the body, and an hinderer of concoction, 

 or digestion in the stomach, besides divers other 

 wayes, wherein the scales of the roots being dried, 

 are used. And Galen hath sufficiently explained 

 the qualities and properties thereof, in his eight 

 book of Simples." Pliny, doubtless, explained some- 

 thing of the same, for he, too, wrote of squills. So 

 did that magnificent Dutchman, Clusius, who 

 reports that when, in the true spirit of inquiry, he 

 was about to make personal test of the Scilla rubra, 

 he was stopped by the Spaniards, Who assured him 

 it was a most strong and potent poison. It is to 



