Squill
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Squill. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a genus of Liliaceæ numbering about 72 known species of bulbous plants with radical linear leaves; usually blue flowers (rarely purple or white), in racemes on leafless scapes; perianth segments six, free or nearly so; capsule three-angled, loculicidally three-valved, seeds small, swollen. The genus is confined to the Old World. Three are British. S. autumnalis, in which the leaves are autumnal, succeeding the flowers, is confined to a few counties in Southern England; En while S. verna, with leaves appearing in spr spring in anticipation of the light-blue fragrant flowers, is met with in localities near the coast between Cornwall and Shetland. The third is the familiar wild hyacinth often called "bluebell" in England, the "English Iacint" of old writers, the Hyacinthus nonscriptus non of Linnæus, now named S. nutans. It is common from Ross S., often occurring in such profusion as to render large tracts of woodland a sheet of blue from April to June. The medicinal squill belongs to an allied genus of the tribe Scilleæ, named Urginea, comprising 24 species spread through the whole of Africa, and reaching Hindustan and Southern Europe. It is the species known as U. scilla or maritima (formerly S. maritima), a native of the coast district from Syria to the Canaries, appearing also in the Cape flora. From a bulb of four to six inches in diameter leaves are produced in spring, followed in autumn by a raceme of whitish flowers borne round scape of one to three feet high. Medicinally, squill is used as a diuretic in certain forms of dropsy, and as an expectorant.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a plant of the lily family. Squills are related to the hyacinth and camass, and more remotely, to the leek and onion. There are about eighty species, all stemless plants from onion-like coated bulbs. Several species are known as wild hyacinth. One kind is known in England as the bluebell. A sirup pressed from the bulb of one species is a well known remedy. Flowering squills are reared like the hyacinth and lily-of-the-valley as early blooming plants. There is a wide range of colors, as white, blue, purple, and pink. The chief species appear to be of Mediterranean origin. Others are from Japan, the Philippines, Peru, Java, etc.