THE COLLECTION OF LIQUORICE. 191 



characteristic plants of Ordos, the Hquorlce root 

 {Glycyrrhiza Uralensis), called Cki/nr btirja by the 

 Mongols, and so or soho by the Chinese. This plant, 

 which belongs to the leguminous order, has a root four 

 feet long and upwards, with a thickness of two inches 

 near the stem. These are, however, the dimensions 

 of the full-grown plant ; the roots of the young speci- 

 mens are about the thickness of a finger, although 

 their length is from three to four feet ; iron spades 

 with wooden handles are used to dig up this root. 

 The labour of extracting it from the ground is very 

 heavy, because it grows downwards almost vertically 

 into a hard clayey soil, and is found in waterless 

 districts where the workmen are exposed to a 

 burning sun. 



A party of labourers, generally Mongols, men 

 and women, hired by the Chinese, on first arriving 

 at the place, establish a depot for storing the roots 

 obtained every day. Here they are laid in a pit to 

 preserve them from the sun ; the next process is to 

 cut off the thin end and the lateral offshoots. Then 

 the roots are tied in bundles like sticks, each bundle 

 weighing 100 hings (about 130 lbs.), loaded on boats, 

 and despatched down the Hoang-ho. The Chinese 

 told us that the liquorice root was sent to Southern 

 China, where a particular kind of cooling drink is 

 prepared from it.^ 



' Liquorice root is much used in China, and is largely produced in 

 some of the northern provinces ; in 1870 6,954 peculs ( = 927,200 lbs.), 

 were shipped from Chefoo, and 1,304 peculs ( = 173,866 lbs.), from 

 Ningpo. (^Reports on Trade at the Treaty-Ports, &^c:, Shanghai, 1871, 

 from Hanbury and Fliickiger^s Pharmacographia, p. 156.) — Y. 



