70 
BOTANICAIi INDEX. 
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Another very interesting species is the Squills,— Scilla Maritima, or, as it is 
now called, Urginea nominaly from Algeria, Africa; but widely distrib- 
uted over the entire borders of the Mediterranean Sea. The bulbs are large and float 
about from place to place, never losing their vitality by the long sea voyage but . 
immediately, on being thrown upon shore, take root and grow luxuriantly, from 
which circumstance they have received the popular name of Sea Onions, from the 
inhabitants living in the vicinity. In an old work on Botany, now before me I find 
the following interesting passage.— “They grow naturally on the sea-shore and in 
the ditches where the salt-water naturally flows with the tide, in most of the warm 
parts of Europe; so cannot be propagated in gardens, the frost in Winter always de- 
stroying the roots, and for want of salt-water they do not thrive in Summer.”— This 
paragraph must be taken with a good deal of allowance in regard to salt-water for 
bulbs in our greenhouses form immense clumps in a few years, each bulb beino- often 
three and one-half inches in diameter, and they certainly get no salt here Thev 
will not, however, endure any frost. Our treatment of the bulbs is exactly 'similar 
to other tender bulbs. In the same work, I find :— “Sometimes the roots, which are 
bought for use, put forth their stems and produce flowers as they lie in the druo-- 
gists’ shops.”— The numerous, fleshy fascicles or coats forming the bulb, are filled 
with a viscous juice, very bitter and acrid, 
and even corrosive, which contain a pe- 
culiar principle, called scillitine. The 
outer coating of the bulb is a thin, brown 
skin ; while the fleshy, inner scales, in 
some bulbs are white, while others are 
of a dark color, and produce the Bed 
Squills, an inferior drug, which, howev- 
er, were reputed to be the extract from a 
less valuable medical bulb,— the Scilla 
Pancration. The drug obtained from the 
white-scaled variety, is the only market- 
able one in demand. Squills are also 
used quite extensively for tanning leath- 
