NAT. ORDER. 
Liliaceoe. 
SCILLA CAMPANULATA. COMMON SQUILL. 
Class VI. Hexandria. Order I. Monogynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, five-parted. Corolla, six-petalled, spreading- and 
deciduous. Filaments, thread-like. 
Spe. Char. Flowers, naked, with refracted bracteas. 
The root is large, perennial, bulbous, coated, of a reddish hue, 
abounding- with a tenacious juice, and furnished with many white 
fibres, which issue from its base ; the stem is round, smooth, succulent, 
and rises two or three feet in height ; the leaves are sword-shaped, 
radical, smooth, pointed, long, and of a deep green color ; the flowers 
are whitish, produced in a long, close spike, upon purplish peduncles, 
and appear in April and May ; the bracteas are linear, twisted, and 
deciduous ; calyx none ; the corolla is composed of six petals, which 
are ovate, patent, with a reddish mark in the middle ; the filaments 
are six, tapering, shorter than the corolla, and furnished with 
oblong anthers, placed transversely ; the germen is roundish, support- 
ing a simple style about the length of the filaments, and furnished with 
a simple stigma ; the capsule is oblong, smooth, marked with three 
furrows, and divided into three cells, which contain many roundish 
seeds. 
This plant is a native of Spain, Sicily and Syria, growing in sandy 
situations on the sea coast, and hence its name. It was first cultiva- 
ted in England about the year 1648. There are several varieties of 
the Squill, but there is not found to be any very essential difference in 
their sensible or medicinal properties, and the distinction seems merely 
Vol. nr.— 148. 
