320 SUBTERRANEAN ORGANS 



Alexandretta respectively to the United States ; they are probably 

 derived from G. glabra. 



Stick Liquorice. The manufacture of stick or block liquorice is 

 carried on chiefly in southern Italy, but also to some extent in Spam, 

 Anatolia, &c. The runners and roots of both wild and cultivated 

 plants are collected, crushed, boiled with water, and pressed. The 

 decoction thus obtained is allowed to clear by standing, and is then 

 run off into large pans, where it is concentrated by boiling until it 

 has acquired a suitable consistence, when it is formed into sticks, 

 which are stamped with the name of the manufacturer (e.g. Solazzi), 

 or blocks (largely Anatolian) and dried. 



Stick liquorice contains approximately 10 to 13 per cent, of 

 glycyrrhizin, 13 per cent, of sugars, 23 per cent, of starch and gum, 

 and 22 per cent, insoluble in water. 



BRYONY ROOT 



(Radix Bryonise) 



Source, &C. The common bryony, Bryonia dioica, Jacquin (N.O. 

 Cucurbitacece) is a climbing and trailing plant, with rough, hairy 

 leaves, common in hedges and thickets in southern England. It 

 must not be confounded with black bryony (Tamus communis, Linne), 

 a very different plant with entire shining leaves. The root is collected 

 in the autumn and used in the fresh state. 



Description. The plant produces in the spring aerial stems 

 attaining a great length and arising from a large, tuberous rhizome 

 which is continuous with a thick, fleshy root. This subterranean 

 part of the plant is often of very considerable size and weight, 

 measuring occasionally at the upper extremity 15 cm. or more in 

 diameter, and reaching a length of half a metre, the whole weighing 

 several kilograms. It tapers more or less gradually towards the 

 tip, and is usually simple. When fresh it is of a greyish yellow colour 

 externally, and marked at close intervals with prominent transverse 

 corky ridges often extending half round the root. Internally the 

 root is whitish and fleshy, exuding when cut a juice that is milky 

 from the presence of numerous, minute starch grains. The transverse 

 section exhibits a fine line separating a narrow bark from a large, 

 fleshy wood ; the latter contains, more or less uniformly distributed 

 over it, small groups of vessels, radially arranged and extending from 

 the centre to the bark. 



The fresh root has an unpleasant odour and a nauseously bitter 

 and acrid taste. 



It is sometimes cut 'into transverse slices and dried ; the slices 

 average about 5 cm. in diameter and have a thin yellowish grey cork, 

 a whitish wood marked with concentric rings and radially arranged 



