PART II.

Materia Medica.

185

GLYCYRRHIZA. 1 Spec. Plant. Willd. iii. 1U3.CI. 17. Ord. 4. DiadelphiaDecandria. Nat.ord. PapilionaceaeZ,i'»>t.

Leguminosae Juss.G. 1366- Calyx bilabiate ; upper lip three-cleft, lower undivided.

Legume ovate, compressed.Sp. 4. G. glabra. Common Liquorice. Med. Bot. 2dedA20.1. 152.Officinal. Glycyrrhiz.s: radix. Lond. Dub. Glycyrrhizje

glabra radix: — extractum. Edin. Liquorice root, and the

extract.

Syn. R'glisse (F.) Sussholzwurztl (G.) Legorizia (/.) Regaliza (S-) Ussulussoos[Arab.) Iei'nimal'li (H) Yastimadliuia (San.)

The liquorice plaat is a native of the south of Europe andSyria; but the greater part of what is used in Britain is theproduce of its own soil by cultivation. The London market issupplied chiefly from Mitcham in Surry. 1 It flowers in Au-gust. The root is perennial, running when in its proper soil,a light sandy one, very deep ; it is round, the thickness fromthat of a goose-quill to that of the thumb, long, thin, flexible,furnished with sparse libres ; covered with a brownish cuticle,internally fibrous, of a pale yellow colour, and juicy. The stemrises four or five feet in height, is herbaceous, and striated, withfew branches. The leaves are alternate, and pinnated ; con-sisting of four or five pairs of ovate, retuse, petiolated leaflets,with a terminal one; of a pale green colour, and clammy onthe under side. The flowers are papilionaceous in long axil-lary sparse spikes, of a blue or purplish colour. The calyx ispersistent, tubular, and divided above; the corolla consists ofan ovate, lanceolate, obtuse, erect, concave vexillum ; two ob-long obtuse alee, and a shorter carina. The filaments are ten,nine of them united at the base, bearing simple roundish an-thers ; the germen is short, with a tapering style and bluntstigma. 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 usein November. " The whole roots are then washed, the fibrescut off, and the smaller roots separated from the larger ones.The former, termed the offal, are dried, and ground to pow-der ; the latter are packed up, and sold to the druggists."*

Qualities. —This root is inodorous, and the taste sweet andmucilaginous, leaving, when it is chewed without being peeled,a slight degree of bitterness in the mouth. The powder, ifgood, 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

1 The name is derived from y\uKv$ sweet, and pt^a a root.

1 Very littte is now grown at Godalming, where it was formerly cultivated to some ex-tent. Vide Stevenson's Survey of Surry, p. 380. It was first cultivated in England,in 1538. Stoto. 5 The price of the best roots it about 3/. per ctrtr. Stevenson, \. e.

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