SCILLA, in botany, squill, a genus of the Hexandria Monogynia class and or der. Natural order of Coronaria. As phodeli, Josue'''. Essential character : corolla six-petalled, spreading, deciduous; filaments filiform. There are twenty-two species. The most remarkable is S. r.J. r i ti ma, or sea onion, whose roots are used in medicine. Of this there are two sorts, one with a red, and the other with a white root : which are supposed to be accidental varieties, but the white are ge nerally preferred for medicinal use. The roots are large, somewhat oval-shaped, composed of many coats lying over each other like onions ; and at the bottom come out several fibres. From the middle of the root rise several shining leaves, which continue green all the winter, and decay in the spring. Then the flower-stalk comes out, which rises two feet high, and is naked half-way, terminating in a pyramidal thyrse of flowers, which are white, composed of six petals, and spread open like the points of a star. This grows
naturally on the seashores, 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. The root is very nauseous to the taste, in tensely bitter, and so acrimonious, that it ulcerates the skin if much SCIOPTIC,or Setorraic bull, a sphere, or globe of wood, with a circular hole or perforation, wherein a lens is placed. tt is so fitted that, like the eye-of an animal, it may be turned round every way, to be used in making experiments of the dar kened room.