What is "scilla peruviana"

Hyacinth \Hy"a*cinth\, n. [L. hyacinthus a kind of flower, prob. the iris, gladiolus, or larkspur, also a kind of gem, perh. the sapphire; as, a proper name, Hyacinthus, a beautiful Laconian youth, beloved by Apollo, fr. Gr. ?, ?: cf. F. hyacinthe. Cf. Jacinth. The hyacinth was fabled to have sprung from the blood of Hyacinthus, who was accidentally slain by Apollo.]

1. (Bot.)

   1. A bulbous plant of the genus Hyacinthus, bearing beautiful spikes of fragrant flowers. Hyacinthus orientalis is a common variety.

   2. A plant of the genus Camassia ( Camassia Farseri), called also Eastern camass; wild hyacinth.

   3. The name also given to Scilla Peruviana, a Mediterranean plant, one variety of which produces white, and another blue, flowers; -- called also, from a mistake as to its origin, Hyacinth of Peru.

2. (Min.) A red variety of zircon, sometimes used as a gem. See Zircon.

   Hyacinth bean (Bot.), a climbing leguminous plant ( Dolichos Lablab), related to the true bean. It has dark purple flowers and fruit.

Scilla peruviana, the Portuguese squill, is a species of Scilla native to the western Mediterranean region in Iberia, Italy, and northwest Africa.

Although the epithet peruviana means "from Peru", it is strictly a western Mediterranean species. Linnaeus named the species in 1753, noting an earlier name given to the plant by Carolus Clusius, Hyacinthus stellatus peruanus. It is said that Clusius misunderstood a statement that the bulbs came from a ship called "Peru" and thought that they came from the country.

It is a bulb-bearing herbaceous perennial plant. The bulb is 6–8 cm diameter, white with a covering of brown scales. The leaves are linear, 20–60 cm long and 1–4 cm broad, with 5-15 leaves produced each spring. The flowering stem is 15–40 cm tall, bearing a dense pyramidal raceme of 40-100 flowers; each flower is blue, 1–2 cm diameter, with six tepals.