RADIX GLYCYRRHIZiE. 179 



RADIX GLYCYRRHIZ^. 



Radix LiquiriticB ; Liquorice Root ; F. Reglisse ; G. SUssholz, 

 Lakrizwurzel. 



Botanical Origin — Glycyrrhiza glabra L., a plant which vmder 

 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. typica — 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, 

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

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



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

 cent or roughly glandular, leaves often glandular beneath, legume 

 sparsely or densely echiuate-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 

 annual stems. In var. a., 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 Mseotis (Sea of Azov), and is good for 

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

 ably to liquorice. Dioscorides,^ who calls the plant yXvKippi^r}, notices 

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

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

 austere {vTr6crTpv(pvoi) as well as sweet, it is possible he had in view 

 Glycyrrhiza echinata L. as well as G. glabra. 



Roman writer's, as Celsus and Scribonius Largus, mention liquorice 

 as Radix diUcis. Pliny, who describes it as a native of Cilicia and 

 Pontus, makes no allusion to it growing in Italy. 



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

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

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

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

 Italy into Central Europe ; "* nor among the herbs of the convent gardens 

 as described by Walafridus Strabus,^ abbot of Reichenau, lake of Con- 

 stance, in the 9th century ; nor yet in the copious list of herbs con- 

 tained in the vocabulary of Alfric, archbishop of Canterbury in the 

 10th century.^ 



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



' We accept those adopted by Boissier in Legum, i. (1835) 186. 



his Flora Orientaliif, ii. (1872) 20-2. » Migne, Patrolofjice Curms, cxiv. 1122. 



=* Hist. Plant, lib. ix. c. 13. 6 Wright, Volume of Vocabularies, 1857. 



' Lib. iii. c. 5. 30. This^work contains several other ear y 



• Pertz, Monumenta Otrmaniie historica, lists of plants. 



