1 Spec. Plant. Willd. iii. 1143. Cl. 17. Ord. 4. Diadelphia Decandria. Nat. orof. Leguminosae. G.1366. Calyx bilabiate; upper lip three-cleft, lower undivided.

Legume ovate, compressed. Spec. 4. G. glabra. Common Liquorice. Med. Hot. 3d edit.

429. t. 152. Officinal. Glycyrrhiza, Lond. Glycyrrhizae radix recens,

Dub. Glycyrrhizae glabrae radix:-extractum, Edin.

Liquorice root, and the extract.

Syn. Reglisse (F.), Sussholzwurzel (G.), Zocthout (Dutch), Lakris (Dan.), Lakrits (Swed.), Lakrycya (Pol.), Addimodrum ( Tarn.), Bikh-mehek (Pers.), Urat manis (Malay), Oyot manis (Jav.), Kanzoo (Japanese), Olinde (Cyng.), Legorizia (I.), Regaliza (S.), Alcacuz (Port.), Ussulussoos (Arab.), Iet'himad'h (H.), Yastimadhuca (San.).

The liquorice plant is a native of the south of Europe and Syria. In Languedoc, Spain, and Sicily, it grows in such abundance as to prove the scourge of the cultivator. The greater part of what is used in Britain is the produce of its own soil by cultivation. The London market is supplied chiefly from Mitcham in Surrey.2 It flowers in August. The root is perennial, running, when in its proper soil, a light sandy one, very deep; it is round; the thickness from that of a goose-quill to that of the thumb; long, thin, flexible; furnished with sparse fibres; covered with a brownish cuticle; internally fibrous, of a pale yellow colour, and juicy. The stem rises four or five feet in height, is herbaceous and striated, with few branches. The leaves are alternate and pinnated, consisting of four or five pairs of ovate, retuse, petiolated leaflets, with a terminal one; of a pale green colour, and clammy on the under side. The flowers are papilionaceous, in long axillary sparse spikes, of a blue or purplish colour. The calyx is persistent, tubular, and divided above: the corolla consists of an ovate, lanceolate, obtuse, erect, concave vexillum; two oblong, obtuse alae, and a shorter carina.

The filaments are ten, nine of them united at the base, bearing simple roundish anthers: the germen is short, with a tapering style and blunt stigma. The legumes are ovate, flatted, smooth, acute, one-celled, containing two or three small kidney-shaped seeds.

When liquorice root is three years old, it is dug up for use in November. "The whole roots are then washed, the fibres cut off, and the smaller roots separated from the larger ones:

Dioscoridis. The name is derived from sweet, and a root.

2 Very little is now grown at Godalming, where it was formerly cultivated to some extent-Vide Stevenson's Survey of Surrey, p. 380. it was first cultivated in England in 1558,-Stow.

the former, termed the offal are dried and ground to powder; the latter are packed up and sold to the druggists."1

Qualities.-This root is inodorous, and the taste sweet and mucilaginous, leaving, when it is chewed without being peeled, a slight degree of bitterness in the mouth. The powder, if good, is of a brownish yellow colour, and has a rich sweet taste, more agreeable than that of the fresh root; but it is said to be often sophisticated with flour, and other substances not quite so wholesome, in which case it has a fine pale yellow colour.

The medical properties of the root depend on a saccharine matter, which approaches in its nature to sarcocoll and mucus: water, by coction, extracts both of these principles, but alcohol only the saccharine matter. For the properties of the extract, which is imported from Spain, see Part III. (Preparations and Compounds.) According to Robiquet, it contains fecula, saccharine matter, Glycion2, Asparagin3, a resinous oil, phosphate and malates of lime and magnesia.

Medical properties and uses.-Liquorice root is a pleasant demulcent; but on account of its bulk it is rarely used in substances The decoction of it, either alone or in combination with other mucilaginous vegetables, is often given in catarrh, and in hectic and phthisical cases. It is also administered in some cases of dyspepsia, where there is a deficiency of the natural mucus of the stomach, which is injured by the acrimony of ill-digested food, and a morbid state of its secreted fluids. The dose of the powder is from gr. x. to 3j., that of the decoction a cupful frequently repeated.

Officinal preparations.-Extractum Glycyrrhizae, L. E. D. De-coctum Sarsaparillae comp. L.D. Infusum Lini, L. Confectio Sennae, L. E. Decoctum Mezerii comp., E. D.