SGILLA MARITIMA. 
135 
fflmislied with numerous fibres, which issue from the base ; exler ■ 
nally the bulb is coated with scales of a reddish hue ; internally it 
abounds with a tenacious juice ; the stem rises to the height of two 
or three feet, round, smooth, and succulent ; the leaves are radical, 
large, sword-shaped, pointed, smooth, and of a fine deep green ; 
the flowers are produced in a long close spike, and stand on pur- 
plish peduncles ; the bracteas are linear, twisted, and deciduous; 
there is no calyx ; the corolla is composed of six ovate petals, of a 
whitish or pale flesh colour, with a reddish line in the middle ; the 
six filaments are tapering, shorter than the corolla; the anthers are 
oblong, and placed transversely on the top of the filaments ; the 
germen is roundish ; the style about the length of the filaments, 
crowned with a simple stigma; the germen becomes an oblong, 
smooth capsule, marked with three furrows, and divided into three 
cells, each cell contains many roundish seeds. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties. The root of the 
squill, when recent, abounds with a viscid juice, which possesses an 
extremely acrid and bitter taste, and when much handled will inflame 
the skin ; its smell is subtle and penetrating, like that of horse- 
radish ; the expressed juice slightly reddens litmus paper. The 
dried roots or scales (the form in which it is commonly met with in 
the shops) are semi-pellucid, smooth, and brittle, and when chewed 
manifest an extremely bitter taste, wiihout much acrimony. The 
constituents of squill are, an acrid principle, bitter extractive, 
mucilage, albumen and starch. Water, alcohol, proof spirit, and 
also vinegar, extract the active properties both of the recent and 
dried root. None of the active properties of squill rise in distil- 
lation with any of the above menstrua. Alkalies abate both the 
bitter and acrid qualities of squill; vegetable acids, on the contrary, 
render them more pungent. The acrid principle of squill is nearly 
lost if much dried by a degree of heat above 212°, or if long kept 
in the form of powder, and thus it becomes almost inert. Nitrate of 
mercury and superacetate of lead separate from the expressed juice 
white curdy precipitates ; Gelatin throws down a copious preci- 
pitate ; lime-water and the alkaline carbonates produce the same 
efi^ect ; sulphate of iron throws down a green precipitate ; infusion 
of galls forms in it pale brownish flakes ; ether digested on dried 
squill acquires a pale green hue, and when evaporated on the surface 
of water, a thin pellicle of very bitter, resinous matter is deposited, 
while the water acquires an intensely bitter taste, and yields copious 
precipitates, with solutions of acetate of lead and nitrate of silver. 
The following are the constituents of squill, according to the 
