THE LICORICE PLANT. 19 



to rigid weather, and the banks of rivers. A cold climate is not suited 

 to its growth, and the root never grows on hills where the snow falls 

 in winter. 



It requires three years to reach maturity. The first year after the 

 ground has been dug the root of the new plant is very thin and con- 

 tains a milky vegetable matter, which, in the second year, is formed 

 into the thick yellow matter of the licorice, but not sufficiently strong 

 to resist the air and sun. 



The plant or stalk is not utilized. 



The root is not subject to any adulteration in its preparation for the 

 market. It is dug during the end of the winter and the spring, ex- 

 posed to the sun to dry, and when dry enough it is pressed by hydrau- 

 lic presses in bales and shipped for export. 



STEPHEN J. COIDAtf, 



Consular Agent. 



UNITED STATES CONSULAR AGENCY, 



Alexandretta, May 13, 1885. 



SYRIAN LICORICE ROOT. 



REPORT BY CONSULAR AGENT POCHE, OF ALEPPO. 



In answer to the circular of the Department of State relative to 

 licorice root, which you have been pleased to transmit to me, I have 

 the honor to inform you that, from all the information I could gather 

 in the vicinity of Aleppo about this plant, it results that it is not culti- 

 vated in any part and grows wild in a large tract of this villayet. 



As to the second question, relative to the land, [ must inform you 

 that this plant prefers the plains where the soil is deep and red, although 

 it grows as well in the other lands in the east and the west of this prov- 

 ince, where the climate is temperate. 



The reproduction of this plant is made with great rapidity by its 

 energetic roots as well as by its seed. 



The root only is util.ized. As to the plant itself, it is of no use. The 

 plant that grows in the vicinity of towns is used for the heating of 

 ovens. The cultivation of this root in this province, for exportation, 

 dates from twenty years ago, and was inaugurated by a French manu- 

 facturer, Mr. Vidal, who established a factory in Autioch for the prep- 

 aration of the root, which, after being dug out of the ground and dried, 

 used to be scraped, made into faggot packages of three different sizes, 

 and exported to France and Spain, where they used it for the prepara- 

 tion of the drink called "coco" (licorice-water) and for pharmaceutical 

 purposes. This enterprise, after some years of existence, tailed, owing 

 to bad management. 



For a long time this commerce was abandoned, when a few years 

 since some firms of Smyrna, who deal in this article with the United 

 States, sent their agents to Antioch and began, in the plains which 

 surround this city, to cultivate this root, which is exported in its wild 

 state, either to Smyrna or direct to America. The exports have -been 

 simultaneously made at the ports of Suedich and Alexandretta. The 

 cultivation of this root which is considered to be the plague of the 

 lands where it grows, as the latter cannot be used for any other culture 

 and to clear the same of it would require a long, assiduous, ami very 

 expensive work has become an important resource for this province 



