PLANTS. 255 



angular : leaves simple and ternate ; flowers large and 

 yellow. Found in woods, hedges, or on hill-sides ; used 

 for making brooms and baskets. Hares eat it greed- 

 ily. 12. 



Liquorice. Swectwood (Glycyrrhiza glabra), the pro- 

 duct of a bush which grows wild in Spain, France, and 

 Italy, is sometimes cultivated as far north as Germany. 

 The root, which is the part used, is about two inches in 

 circumference, woody, sometimes four feet long ; brown- 

 ish-yellow on the outside, bright yellow within ; tough, 

 and has a sweetish taste ; the leaves unequally pinnate 

 and somewhat gummy ; flowers pale blue, clustering, 

 hanging in racemes ; fruit, a pod containing many small 

 seeds. The liquorice plant is more generally cultivated 

 in the south than in the north ; requires but little care. 

 The juice of the root boiled down to a certain consist- 

 ence, furnishes the article sold as liquorice, and well 

 known to children. The manner of preparing it, is to 

 cut the root in small pieces, crush or grind them in a 

 mill, like the sugar cane, and then boil the juice until of 

 the requisite thickness. Afterwards it is next molded 

 into shapes, enveloped in the leaves of the bay berry, 

 wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera), and sent abroad as an 

 article of commerce. Some care is requisite to keep it 

 from burning, and it has been known to injure, when 

 mixed with the particles of copper supposed to be scraped 

 from the boiler, h. 



The Broom (Genista tinctoria). Calyx two-lipped ; 

 branches upright, round, and striated ; leaves woolly and 

 lance-shaped ; fruit-pods smooth and straight. Grows 

 on hills or mountain-sides ; height of stalk about two 

 feet. Blooms from July to August ; contains a yellow 

 juice, from which is prepared the pigment known as 



