View source for Urginea

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Urginea (from the name of an Arabian tribe in Algeria). Liliaceae. Bulbous herbs used both in the greenhouse and out-of-doors.

Leaves radical, sometimes very narrowly linear, sometimes broadly strap-shaped or almost oblong: scape simple, leafless: fls. in a terminal raceme, usually numerous, rather small or medium-sized, whitish, or rarely pale yellowish or rose, color more intense in the center of the segms.; bracts small, scarious; perianth finally deciduous, segms. 6, distinct, campanulate-connivent or spreading after anthesis; stamens 6; ovary sessile, 3-celled, usually 3-cornered: caps. 3-cornered, grooved, or intruded between the angles, loculicidally dehiscent.—About 75 species, Eu., Medit. region, India and Trop. and S. Afr. The sea-onion is closely related to the genus Scilla, but seems to be much closer to Ornithogalum, especially in habit, infl. and color of fls. The seeds of Urginea are numerous in each locule (in the sea-onion 10-12), strongly compressed and winged; in Ornithogalum and Scilla they are not compressed or winged and in Scilla they are solitary or few in each locule.

The sea-onion, known to apothecaries by the name of squill, and to gardens as Urginea maritima, is a bulbous plant native to the Mediterranean region. It has the same style of beauty as Ornithogalum pyramidale but unfortunately it is only half-hardy. As an ornamental plant it is little known in America. The name seems not to appear in American catalogues, but the Dutch bulb-growers offer the bulbs in different sizes. A plant erroneously called sea-onion is Ornithogalum caudatum. There is considerable difference of opinion as to when the sea-onion blooms, but the plant is generally considered an autumn bloomer, and it is clear that the leaves appear after the flowers. In England the plant is said to have flowered as early as July and August. Baker writes that the leaves appear in winter. Some English cultivators say the leaves appear as early as October and November; others say not until spring. The plant grows near the seashore and inland, in dry sandy places from the Canaries to Syria. It is also found in South Africa, which is unusual, as the North and South African species of any genus are not usually identical.

The bulbs of Urginea are collected in large quantities in the Mediterranean region for the drug trade. They sometimes attain a maximum weight of fifteen pounds. The bulbs contain about 22 per cent of sugar and are used in Sicily in the manufacture of whiskey. Squills have emetic and cathartic properties. Sirup of squills is a popular croup medicine. The bulb, as it appears in the wholesale drug market, has been deprived of its outer scales and cut into thin slices, the central portions being rejected.
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