RADIX GLYCYRRHIZ^. 179 



RADIX GLYCYRRHIZiE. 



Riidix JAquiritim; Liquorice Root ; F. Beglisse ; G^ SUssJioIz, 



LakrizumrzeL 



Botanical Origin — Glj/cyrrhiza glabra L., a plant which under 

 several well marked varieties^ is found over an immense extent of the 

 wanner regions of Europe, spreading thence eastward into Central Asia. 

 The root used in medicine is derived from two principal varieties, 

 namely : 



a. typlca — Nearly glabrous, leaves glutinous beneath, divisions of 



the calyx linear-lanceolate often a little longer than the tube, corolla 



.purplish blue, legume glabrous, 3-6 seeded. It is indigenous to Portugal, 



opam, Southern Italy, Sicily, Greece, Crimea, the Caucasian Provinces and 

 Northern Persia; and is cultivated in England, France and Germany. 



y. glandulifera ((?. glandulifera W.K.) — Stems more or less pubes- 

 cent or roughly glandular, leaves often glandular beneath, legume 

 sparsely or' densely echinate-glandular, many-seeded, or short and 

 2-3 seeded. It occurs in Hungary, Galicia, Central and Southern 

 Russia, Crimea, Asia Minor, Armenia, Siberia, Persia, Turkestan and 

 Afghanistan. 



G. glabra L. has long, stout, perennial roots, and erect, herbaceous 

 aunual stems. In var. «., the plant throws out long stolons which run 

 horizontally at some distance below the surface of the ground. 



History— Theophrastus ' in commenting on the taste of different 

 roots {3rd cent. B.C.) instances the sweet Scythian root which grows in 

 the neighbourhood of the lake Mc^otis (Sea of Azov), and is good for 

 asthma, dry cough and all pectoral diseases,— an allusion unquestion- 

 ably to liquorice. Dioscorides,^ wlio calls the plant yXvKi^plt^h i^otices 

 |ts glutinous leaves and purplish flowers, but as he describes the pods 

 to he in balls resembling those of the plane, and the roots to be sub- 

 austere {vir6(rrpv<hvoL) as well as sweet, it is possible he had in view 



as well as G. glabra. 



as 



Horaan writers, as Celsus and Scribonius Largus, mention liquorice 

 mdix dulcis. Pliny, wlio describes it as a native of Cilicia and 



^ontus, makes no allusion to it growing in Italy. 



Th 



e cultivation of liquorice in Europe does not date from a very 

 remote period, as we conclude from the absence of the name in early 

 rnedjfeval lists of plants. It is for instance, not enumerated among the 

 pants which Charlemagne ordered (a.d. 812) to be introduced from 

 italv ^n^r. r<.„.-. . ■. t^ ° . . among the herbs of the convent gardens 



abus.s abbot of Reichenau, lake of Con- 



:^y into Central Europe ; * nor 



as described by Walafridus Stn, „ „ ., - _ ^ _ , 



^^nce, m the 0th century • nor yet in the copious list of herbs con- 

 ^arned in the vocabularv of Alfric, archbishop of Canterbury m the 

 *^Jth century .6 



On the other hand, liquorice is described as being cultivated in Italy 



Ha Av .?"^^?P> ^^"se adopted by Boissier in Lfgjnn, i. ( 1 83o) 1 86. , 



I i.f- flant. lih. ix c Li ^' 6 AYHglit, Volume of Vocahularie-^, ISo^. 



' Pe ;"'• ^•5- " ' 30. This work contains several other early 



^ ' ^^onumeufa Germanue historka, lists of plants. 



