HOP TREPoru 



319 



this country. It is less hardy than red clover, 

 requiring tliree or four years before it attains its 

 full growth, thus becoming less adapted for pro- 

 fitable cropping in the rotations of English 

 fanning. 



The yellow or Swiss lucern (m.falcata), is a 

 coarser and much more hardy plant than the 

 other. The soil suited for the growth of lucern 

 should be dry and friable, and rather sandy, but 

 good and deep. The climate requires to be warm 

 and dry. The seed should be sown early in the 

 spring months. From fifteen to twenty pounds 

 per acre of broad-cast, is the quantity usually 

 required. 



The mowing, ffec. of this plant is the same as 

 that used for clover. According to Sir H. Davy, 

 the nutritive qualities of the plant are two and 

 three tenths percent.; and are to that of the clovers 

 and saint-foin as twenty-three to thirty-nine. 



Hop Trefoil, (medicago lupidina,) is by some 

 considered the shamrock of the Irish. It very 

 nearly resembles the common yellow clover, but 

 is larger than that plant, and is a perennial, while 

 the clover is an annual. 



LiQUOEicK ( GlycyrMsa glabra). This is a per- 

 ennial deep-rooted plant, witli herbaceous stalks, 

 four to five feet in height, pinnated alternate 

 leaves, and small blue, violet, white, or purplish 

 papilionaceous flowers, disposed in axillary heads 

 or spikes. It belongs to the natural order Legu- 

 minos(e, and to the class diadelphia, and order 

 decandria of Linnoeus. 



Liquorice. 



Liquorice is a native of the south of Europe, 

 and appears to have been cultivated in England 

 since the time of Elizabeth. The chief places 

 where it was long reared in any quantity for 

 sale, were Pontefract in Yorkshire, Worksop in 

 Nottinghamshire, and Godalming in Surrey. It 

 is now, however, raised by many gardeners in 

 the vicinity of London, by which the London 

 market is supplied with roots in no respect infe- 

 rior to those of wanner climates. 



It requires a deep sandy loam, trenched by tlie 

 spade or plough to two or three feet deep, and 

 manured if necessary. The plants arc procured 



from old plantations, and consist of those side 

 roots which have eyes or buds. The planting 

 season is either October or Febniary, and March; 

 the latter is preferable. The plants are dibbled 

 in, in rows three feet apart. The plants do not 

 rise above a foot the first se;ison, and take three 

 years before the root is fit for use. 



Decoctions of this root yield an extract con- 

 taining a large quantity of saccharine matter and 

 mucilage, with a little bitter extract. It is used 

 in medicine under various forms, and is the black 

 sugar, or Spanish juice, so generally known. 

 The liquorice roots are also used by brewers, to 

 a considerable extent, in the manufacture of 

 porter. 



Liquorice juice has been fomed since the days 

 of Hippocrates as useful in allaying thirst. Dr 

 CuUen supposes, however, that this property 

 does not actually belong to the saccharine juice; 

 but that if a piece of the root be chewed till all 

 this juice is extracted, there remains a bitter 

 which acts on the salivary glands, and this may 

 contribute to remove thirst. 



CiiESTxuT Bean (castanospermum AustraleJ. 

 This bean was discovered by Mr Cunningham 

 upon the banks of the river Brisbane, which 

 flows into Morton bay, New South Wales. It 

 grows on a large handsome tree, which belongs 

 to a new and undescribed genus, in many par- 

 ticulars allied to the robinia. The leaves are 

 pinnated on long footstalks, the leaflets entire, 

 with a tenninal one. The flowers, which are 

 papilionaceous, are produced at the bases of the 

 leaves in considerable numbers, not unlike those 

 of the robinia hispida. Those flowers are suc- 

 ceeded by large hard pods, of a brown cinnamon 

 colour. The pods contain a varying number of 

 round seeds, or beans, compressed on one side, 

 and covered with a thin loose shell of a chestnut 

 colour. When these beans are roasted they have 

 much the flavour of chestnuts, and may yet prove 

 in that country a wholesome article of food. 



Though not belonging to the family of pulses, 

 the following plant may here be described as in- 

 termediate between this family and the grami- 

 neae. 



Buck-wheat ( polygonum fagopyrum), or beech 

 wheat, from its seed resembling the mast of 

 beech. Octandria, trigynia, Linn.; nat. order, 

 polygoncm. Buck-wheat is considered a native of 

 Asia, though sometimes found in Europe in a 

 seemingly wild state. It will not, however, bear 

 tlie frosts of our springs, or the severity of win- 

 ter. In China and other eastern countries it is 

 cultivated as a bread-corn. The meat of the 

 seed is also used in cooking, and in making a 

 kind of coarse bread, in various parts of Europe. 



Buck- wheat is an annual plant, growing rather 

 handsome, with branched herbaceous stems, hav- 

 ing leaves which at first are roundish, but after- 

 wards become arrow-shaped, resembling some- 



