462 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



rate of four to the running foot give a proper de- 

 gree of shade. These 2 x 4-inch pieces run across 

 others nailed to the tops of eight-foot posts set two 

 feet in the ground. The soil may be worked up 

 without making beds. The planting may be in rows 

 twelve inches apart, the plants being set six inches 

 apart in the rows. Beds about four feet wide, made 

 of ten-inch boards, and filled with soil are easier 

 to keep clean of weeds but are more expensive in 

 the beginning. Plants may then be set eight inches 

 apart each way. A mulch' of leaves or similar 

 material three inches deep spread on after planting 

 furnishes humus and keeps down weeds. Two hun- 

 dred pounds each of acid phosphate and kainit in 

 addition to the mulch will supply the necessary 

 fertilizer. Walks about a foot or a foot and a half 

 wide made between the beds make it possible to 

 weed the beds without tramping out the plants. 



The best method of propagation consists in divid- 

 ing the root-crowns of old plants. These may be 

 divided each year, doubling the number at each 

 division, or, if desirable, more and smaller plants 

 may be made according to the number of buds pro- 

 duced, since a bud and a part of the rhizome is 

 necessary to produce a new plant. The tops die in 

 early fall and the roots may be divided and planted 

 again while they are dormant. Small plants are 

 formed on the fibrous roots of old plants and may 

 be cared for separately or with the other part of 

 the crop. Seeds are a practicable means of prop- 

 agation, being stratified in sand till the following 

 spring when they are planted in the seed-bed. 

 Several years are required to grow the plants to 

 marketable size. The plants from crown division 

 should be dug while dormant about the third year 

 after planting, the large roots sorted out, washed 

 and dried for market, and the smaller ones planted 

 again with those made from crown division for a 



new crop. The yield 

 per acre is 2,000 

 pounds, or more, of 

 dried root. 



Liquorice (Glyeyr- 

 rhiza glabra, 

 Linn.). Legumi- 

 nosce. Pig. 687. 

 A smooth, peren- 

 nial - rooted plant, 

 with herbaceous top, 

 bearing on the spar- 

 ingly branching 

 stems alternate, once- 

 pinnate, compound 

 leaves of eight to 

 fourteen paired leaf- 

 lets and one terminal 

 member ; leaflets en- 

 tire, obtuse, oblong or 

 elliptical; the small, numerous, papilionaceous, lilac- 

 to violet-colored flowers borne in a rather loose, 

 pedunculate spike. The underground parts are 

 wide-spreading through the long, slender rhizomes 

 which run out on all sides and constitute the chief 

 part of the Spanish and smaller sorts of liquorice- 



Fig. 687. Liquorice plant (adapted 

 from 1903 Yearbook, United 

 States Departmeut of Agri- 

 cuiture) . 



root. The larger sort, the so-called Russian liquorice 

 of southeastern Europe, consists of the larger, more 

 irregular underground parts of the variety glan- 

 dulifera, Reg. & Herd. 



The chief sources of liquorice at present are Asia 

 Minor and the Caucasus, where the plant grows 

 wild, and Spain, Italy and England, where it is cul- 

 tivated. The plant can be grown from the seed, 

 but usually is propagated by planting the younger 

 parts of the rhizomes bearing the buds. The crop is 

 harvested in the fall by digging, the cuttings then 

 removed being placed perpendicularly in the ground 

 in a deep, rich, loamy soil. The crop is harvested 

 every third year. The fresh root is washed, dried 

 and sold. At present 

 the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture 

 is experimenting with 

 several commercial sorts 

 in several of the warmer 

 states. Aside from the 

 medicinal use, liquorice 

 is largely demanded in 

 the tobacco industry. 



During the year ended 

 June 30, 1905, the fol- 

 lowing importations of 

 liquorice products were 

 made: Liquorice ex- 

 tracts, etc., 751,646 

 pounds, valued at $90,- 

 508; root, 106,457,889 

 pounds, valued at 

 $1,780,485. 



Lobelia (Lobelia inflata, 

 Linn.) LobeliaeecE. 

 Indian Tobacco. (G. 

 P.Klugh.)Fig.688. 



A small, branching, 

 hairy herb, six inches to 

 two feet high, bearing 

 ovate or elliptical, 

 roundly toothed leaves, 

 and a slender spike-like 

 raceme of small pale 

 blue flowers, and later 

 much inflated bladdery 

 capsules containing a 

 large number of small 

 brownish seeds. It is found wild on dry hillsides and 

 in pastures from New England to Georgia. Both the 

 green herb and the seed are collected for the crude 

 drug market. Recently the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has undertaken its cultivation. 



It likes a moist loam containing a fair percent- 

 age of sand and humus. Owing to the smallness of 

 the seed and young seedlings, conditions suitable 

 for germination must be unusually good. The seeds 

 cannot be buried at all, but germinate early in 

 April if planted in late fall or early spring on the 

 surface of the soil. Freedom from weeds and 

 thorough cultivation are essential to its growth. 

 One-half to one pound of seed should be sown to 

 the acre, the rows being two feet apart, to facili- 



Fig. 688. Lobelia (Lobelia 

 inflata). 



