178 
GLYCYRRHIZA GLABRA. 
The root is perennial, long, round, succulent, pliable, furnished' 
with fibres, and running to the length of two or three feet into the soil ; 
in thickness, varying from the size of a goose quill to that of the 
thumb ; externally of a light brownish colour, internally yellow and 
juicy ; the stalks rise erect, to the height of four or five feet, her- 
baceous, striated and branched ; the leaves are alternate, pinnated, 
consisting of several pair of ovate, veined, retuse, petiolated leaflets, 
with an odd one, of a pale green colour, and somewhat clammy on 
the under side ; the flowers are papilionaceous, of a blue or purplish 
colour, and are produced in long spikes, arising from the axillae of 
the leaves; the calyx is persistent, tubular, and divided into two 
lips, which are cut into narrow pointed segments ; the vexillum of 
the corolla is erect, lance-shaped, concave and obtuse ; the alee are 
oblong, obtuse, and larger than the carina, which is about the 
length of the calyx ; the filaments are ten, nine of which are joined 
at the base ; the anthers are simple and somewhat round ; the 
germen is shorter than the calyx ; the style tapering, and terminated 
by a blunt stigma; the legumes are ovate, compressed, pointed,, 
smooth and one-eelled, containing two or three small kidney-shaped 
seeds ; the flowers are produced in August.* 
Sensible Qualities, &c. Liquorice root is inodorous; its 
taste sweet and mucilaginous, but when chewed for some time it 
leaves a degree of bitterness in the mouth ; when dried and reduced 
to powder it has a rich sweet taste, more agreeable than the recent 
root. The root when lightly boiled in water gives out nearly the 
whole of its saccharine and mucilaginous matter; the decoction 
passed through a strainer, and inspissated by a gentle heat to a 
proper consistence is superior to the foreign extract ; and its quan- 
tity amounts to nearly half the weight of the root. Alcohol takes 
up all the saccharine matter of the root ; hence the spirituous 
tinctures and extracts are sweeter than the watery; by long coction 
its sweetness is greatly impaired, and the preparation acquires an 
ungrateful bitterness and black colour. 
Medical Properties and Uses. As a remedial agent, 
liquorice root is not very powerful; but, from the quantity of muci- 
lage and sugar it contains, it proves a pleasant demulcent, and 
when taken in the form of decoction or infusion, proves of consider- 
* There are six different species of liquorice cultivated in our botanical gardens, 
of which the Glycyrrhiza Echinata, (prickly capsuled,) a native of Italy, is sometinite 
propagated for the sake of roots, but they are not so sweet and succulent as those of the 
Glycyrrhiza Glabra, hence not so much esteemed. 
