12 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
are chiefly natives of the northern hemisphere; one only has 
been discovered in India; one, an esculent bulb, in North 
America; two African ; and all the rest are from Europe and 
Siberia. How delighted the half-savage boors of the last-named 
country must be, when they first observe the Scilia prcecox 
peeping through the edge of the wasting snow, to usher in their 
short though fervent summer ! And even in this country, and at 
the present moment (April 17th), it is refreshing to see the little 
blue bells peering forth from among their scanty leaves ; though 
assailed at once by both a dry easterly wind and a cloudless sun. 
Nor is it only in the flower-garden that the Scillas are so 
conspicuous. If we walk into the woods, coppices, or among the 
hedge-rows of the rural districts, there the Blue Bell (Scilla 
nutans) is seen fringing every bush, and^ bordering every path. 
This Wild Hyacinth, as it is provincially, and as it was formerly 
called by men of science, Hyacinthus non scriptus, is eminently 
ornamental, from the vast masses in which it appears, its bright 
tints, and drooping position of each individual spike of flowers ; 
and if v r e examine narrowly those masses of beauty, w T e may 
observe some that are pure white, others cream-coloured, others 
again reflecting the tint of the amethyst, and some few the glow 
of the ruby. 
The famous medicinal Squill was formerly placed among the 
Scillas, and known as the Scilla maritima , or Sea Onion, a native 
of the sandy shores of Spain, France, and Italy, washed by the 
Mediterranean. In these localities it is plentiful, and groups to a 
large size. The bulb is extremely bitter, and is esteemed as an 
expectorant, nausent, and diuretic. This celebrated plant is, 
however, no longer a Scilla, but the Ornithogalum Squilla of 
modern botany, and allied to the no less celebrated bulb, called 
“ dove s dung,” so valuable during the famine in Samaria, as 
related 2 Kings vi. 25. 
Our favourite flower-garden Scillas are the S. Italica ; S. Peru¬ 
viana ; S. lileo-hyacinthus; S. amcena ; S. Siberica ; S.prcecox; 
S. verna ; S. hyacinthoides ; S. bifolia ; S. campanulata , &c. 
They all flourish in a light sandy soil; and as the bulbs of some of 
them are small, they are best kept in pots, plunged in the borders, 
as a precaution against losing them. Many of the Scillas are of 
humble growth, and therefore should be placed near the edge of 
the border, in order to be near the eye : such of them as have 
