420 
THE 3 
GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. [Ocrosmn 4 
LIQUORICE CULTURE AT 
PONTEFRACT. 
Tue traveller who ma for London by 
y leave Leeds 
A ei start er Riba: “oF 
> Great No va or w. y rags tera 
the right, with a tower in the centre, copied, one 
but thi m the ripe and opened capsule 
of the Meconopsis or Welsh This 
is ancient and celebrated Pontefract, once the 1 
of a magnificen castle, now famed for its 
pols, salubrity, malt, j Li PE 
ivation, still more 
ient puie So of Kirkby, i a which case we must 
o have made a mistake. Tradition 
renders it pretty certain, at all. ‘events, that the spot 
was as planted, and where a rude and primitive kind of 
urch was first erected. 
N Conquest, the sg adja- 
cent lands were bestowed on one Ilbert 
feature, whil th below 
‘the conspicuous ile the dungeons 
were simply frightful. Within the walls of this famous 
castle it was that Edward I IL. was impriso’ 
t was i 
ty and wre death of Richard II., and of the 
shedding of much innocent and illustrious blood by 
techie wh wR os ie ard III 
Like most of the lish castles in Crom 
we times it was a stronghold of Bex’ but in 
1649 it was constrained to s der t Par- 
ntary forces, and shortly after that date it was 
dismantled and destr we call to mind 
how recently pi gin and eae have 
uired hd nage to a 
e had in the 
government of the net it “is interesting rs ~ 
that venerable Pon eeit hih med members to Par 
hood. . ts only were held during the 
ements which 1 i included A.D. 1298, and to two of 
tatives These 
ee a 
i has “been so Tong a jaiei fot which 
sax been so ong ebrated, commenced 
Be aati core 
or- 
oggre: pecti 
thus rendered with fair iF compli: 
‘t Here Liquorice grows upon the mellow banks, 
warmer 
From Dr. Flemi 
ng’s Catalogue of Indian 
appears to be indigenous to Bengal, wh le De A 
Ainslie 
reckons it a native product of the coast of Malabar. 
Wev! 
fro the plant 
nts especially affecting the Date Palm is 
in the neigh! 
‘ain a sufficient pormo of iui o alt 
bourhood of Bussora, and those on the 
Songen e the Sewund Rive r. Of course, it was 
ancients, one of whose chief writers 
rity has more thoroughly escaped 
from the tormentors, in regard to its a 
i t appellation t all the 
and in my annotated w f Matthiolus it appe 
as A Mediately, perhaps the authentic 
Engl come from /iguiritia, the ter: 
introduced into botany by Ménch, in th odus 
fla Marburgensis, &c., 1794, hough oe 
more than eighty years old—I find it in use, Ries, a 
far back as 1586, 
ot very much can be said in favour of the 
plant as an Dbject of edit uty. The root is perennial, 
brown ly, yellowish inside, 3 or 4 feet in 
length, nearly simple, about ae Lape mes of ae 
thumb, round and pliant ; the e rise 
height of about a y. and a ~plentifally clothed 
th rather ake impari-pinnate leaves, the ets 
of whic in five pairs, are oval, entire, and, 
yi entité; 
like the stain lightly eed: the insignifica 
flowers are papilionaceous, and pro yent in erect and 
axillary racemes, shorter however than se ee so 
that without scrutiny = are liable to be overlo 
eir time is the mi a August ae at itii of 
developed, looks very much 
e Ash trees, baa the hue of the 
Car Gta tas 
succulent ne sweet, th 
mawkish. Its value comes of the presence of 
cyrrhizin, a: principie discovered R 
analogous to sūgar, but 
Manna, in iik being era into alcohol by. f ; 
ntation. The chem mposition, 
the way of writing it until as s Reial ch: 
carbon 16, hydrogen 12, oxygen 6, cane-sugar bent 
moe st TA yari o II, and oyge en II. When 
e, glycyrrhizin is a yellow, un 
a ibia solid ; 
it is soluble both in writer and d alcohol, 
an thn able of forming compounds with acids 
an 
t in be aided that soit other k of the 
e known to_botanis and that 
of juice 
aet areae in conn countries, though none are 
to the officinal g D mme ia eaa 
z pe have in caren piler ains of 
i i may be well tot say als that the 
eleg: z ya rice or 
Wild Liquorice, the Abrus precatorius of scientific 
botany, iquorice y : ry one 
no 
sy scarlet, with a patch 
d 
Sak i ack at ie extremity. - Properly, - they are 
The scaly of the cultivation of Liquorice at 
Pontefract is somewhat remarkable. The immediately 
subjacent rock i is red sandstone; eath ain 
is magesi Ages in the geologi 
times, portions of the sandstone we > carried a y 
r leavir ; uncovered, and it 
isin the spaces thus establis ) 
with deep rich , and no where else in the neigh- 
bourhood, that th he plant grows, or at least ina way 
worth speaking of. Tried upon the sandstone it is 
a failure. All the way ontefract 
towards Spree tt down in the valley and in — 
preeti it grows to perfectio 
in the lo 
the pine babi of I 
“plant known 
| The late Dr, Pappe st 
requires considerable care, 
now, n the roots are dug, comes the 
propagation. This is effected by cutting o 
crowns, with their buds or suckers, stori 
are 
the individual plants } 
reg. pone: as veritable extensio 
oan me of the manufacturers of the liquorice 
hops cultivate their 
i 
t e, but the secrets of 
are all psi kept, pein Tee —_— or bes 
ex me ue tim may buy, if we 
our box of “ Pomfret-cakes,” the little disks 
pared li uorice which s ost in favour. 
trade, which i 
n 
s said to be a ready-mone i 
only half-a deren te ae An acr of gon 
roots, when ready for 
a 
of liquorice eT mucilage, which 
not unknown to the ‘* Pomfret-cakes,” and 
proba accompanied by other auxiliaries to weigh) 
iquorice, sign of no great importance 
oeni, has from time immemorial had thé 
putation of bei 
rs 
TULP. 
In our columns for 1871 (p. 1098), 187: 
and 1873 (p. 1596), aene has 
at the Ca l 
the cause of f fatal results ne the cattle which come 
and re of the 
“Tulp”? is poisonous, 
The c 
pected. were raat ees 
Grey’ s remarks upon 
‘© This og is to’ be fount’ in a ous pails 3 
: Serie and the species vai PP cen 
ocalities. The row lentifull bs ips! 
E n “A sterile rocky: 
-coloured i 
fancy of Ebenezer El os ee 
APERo iña we ; 
Where idhceowi Wheat and Pampas 
The vari eo best ore = its poisonous 
is the M. 
and is the only species yet described pa 
‘* Judging from the pe! spr bre v 
in po cases vee 
by mistake, they et Bore 
only desili resulting ‘from these Pans cna ded 
siderable number of cases i le) hitherto 7 
have been caused 5 yae g accidentally 4 
parts of the M. collina ; of 
toms in these cases with his ‘of the fatal 
Middelburg gives in some respe lightly 
result ; for seve 
M. collina had been the a agent, acute 
als6 me bn 
vomiting 
had cleared the e Homil as in | 
nsequent!\ 
si a post mo 
O the present time, the ee 
ing to the Eastern Province 
= ` b., the ‘ Yalp bommetje 
p „dt is very probable t effects 
aj 
this, like | 
; pay eae rent, 
ear nothing whatever is interlined, its 
cots the roots are ready for ‘ocess which 
