Flora Medica

with very short pedicels and minute bracts. Perianth white, of anoblong bell-shape, divided at the mouth into 6 acute, spreading segments;the outside, particularly as the flower grows old, has a roughish,wrinkled or mealy appearance, by which the specific name was suggested.Stamens short, inserted near the mouth of the perianth at thebase of the segments. Ovary pyramidal, half inferior, tapering:styletriangular, separable into 3. Capsule invested with the permanentcorolla, triangular, 3-celled, 3-valved at top. Seeds numerous, minute,fixed to a central receptacle. One of the most intense bitters known.Used in infusion as a tonic and stomachic ; large doses produce nauseaand tendency to vomit. Has been employed in chronic rheumatism.SQUILLA.Sepals 3, coloured, spreading. Petals very like them, andscarcely broader. Stamens 6, shorter than the perianth ; filamentssmooth, somewhat dilated at the base, acuminate, entire.Ovary 3-parted, glandular and melliferous at the apex ; stylesmooth, simple ;stigma obscurely 3-lobed, papillose. Capsulerounded, 3-cornered, 3-celled. Seeds numerous, in 2 rows, flattened,with a membranous testa.1 250. S. maritima Steinheil in ann. sc. n. ser. vi. 279.Scilla maritima Linn. sp. pi. 442. Desf.fi.ail. i. 297. Red. Lil.t. 116. Woodv. t. 118. JR. and S. vii. 556. Ornithogalummaritimum Lam. ft.fr.iii. 276. O. Squilla JBot. Mag.t. 918.Stellaris Scilla Mcench. meth. 304. 2/aXX, Diosc. Nearthe coast of the Mediterranean, on both the North and Southsides, Portugal, the Levant. (Squill.)Bulb roundish-ovate, very large, between globose and ovate, halfabove ground, with the integuments either pale green or red. Leavesappearing long after the flowers, broad-lanceolate, channelled, spreading,recurved. Scape about 2 feet high, terminated by a rather dense, long,ovate raceme. Flowers about of an inch across, spreading, paleyellowish-green, with a green stain along the middle of each segment.Filaments shorter than the segments of the perianth. M. Steinheilrightly separates this plant from the numerous species to which thename of Scilla has in modern times been applied. It differs essentiallyin having large winged seeds and 3 nectariferous glands at the apex ofthe ovary. The bulbs contain an active principle called Scillitin, andhave been officinal from a very remote period. They are very acridand capable of vesicating. Squills are used medicinally as an emeticmedicine in hooping-cough, and croup, as a diuretic in dropsies, and inchronic pulmonary affections, such as chronic catarrh, humid asthma,winter cough, &c. They are also employed as an expectorant. Incommerce there are two sorts the red and the white, which appear tobe mere varieties differing in the colour of the bulbs. The dry externalscales of the bulb, and the young and tender interior ones, are inert ornearly so and should be rejected; the intermediate scales are, forobvious physiological reasons, the part in which the energy of the plantprincipally resides.1251. S. Pancration Steinh. 1. c. p. 279. HavKparuv, Dios-591