Am.  jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Oct.  1,  1874.  J 
Licorice. 
475 
cultivated  chiefly  for  the  preparation  of  a  fine  kind  of  cake,  which  is 
well  known  as  the  Pontefract  lozenge,  which  is  made  of  a  refined 
licorice,  and  bears  the  stamp  of  the  city  arms.  At  Mitcham  the 
licorice  is  tilled  for  the  sake  of  its  long  slender  roots,  that  find  their 
way  to  the  wholesale  druggists  and  Covent  Garden.  A  good-sized 
stick  is  about  the  size  of  a  well-grown  horse-radish,  although  some 
are  as  large  as  a  small  parsnip,  and  three  or  four  feet  in  length.  In 
taking  up  the  crop  a  trench  is  made  out  to  the  depth  of  three,  four, 
or  five  feet,  according  to  the  depth  of  the  former  trenching;  then  a 
rope  is  tide  round  the  top,  but  it  takes  all  the  strength  of  a  man  to  pull 
the  root  up,  and  it  generally  breaks  up  some  foot  or  so  below  the 
trenches;  this  root  is  not  eyed  like  the  horse-radish,  and  when  once 
broken  off  it  can  never  sprout  again.  During  the  autumn  there  are 
small  roots  that  descend  only  a  few  inches  beneath  the  surface  ;  these 
must  be  forked  up  and  cut  close  off  by  the  stem  of  the  plant,  and  if 
fresh  plantations  are  wanted  they  are  cut  into  pieces  and  laid  in  heaps 
out  of  doors,  where  they  are  covered  with  straw  and  mould  during 
the  winter,  but  if  not  wanted  for  planting  they  are  sold  for  inferior 
uses.  These  roots  are  pithy  and  not  half  so  sweet  as  the  down  root, 
and  if  not  taken  up  the  ground  becomes  full  of  worthless  licorice,  and 
the  main  crop  is  completely  choked,  as  was  the  case  before  we  under- 
stood its  cultivation  in  this  country. 
The  licorice  has  been  growing  at  Mitcham  since  the  days  of  good 
Queen  Bess  and  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  of  grateful  memory,  who  brought 
many  new  and  useful  ideas  to  this  country,  imbibed  during  his  dis- 
tant travels  ;  and  within  the  last  thirty  years  there  were  beds  of  this 
shrub  at  New  Cross,  where  the  Thames  had  left  its  deposit  of  mud, 
but  since  occupied  by  the  Brighton  railway  station.  At  the  present 
time  the  knowledge  of  its  treatment  is  confined  to  certain  localities : 
owing  also  to  the  time  which  elapses  before  any  proceeds  can  be  real- 
ized, and  the  active  competition  from  abroad,  there  does  not  seem, 
from  these  united  causes,  any  probability  that  this  cultivation  will 
be  greatly  extended.  The  consumption  is  believed  to  have  increased 
very  much  of  late  years,  for  in  addition  to  its  well-known  uses  by  the 
druggists,  quantities  are  employed  in  the  making  of  beer,  and  in  the 
United  States  still  greater  quantities  in  the  manufacture  of  tobacco. 
The  root  is  found  growing  throughout  the  whole  of  the  southern 
countries  of  Europe,  extending  from  the  Crimea  to  Portugal,  but  in 
Spain  and  Italy,  and  particularly  in  Sicily  and  Calabria,  the  juice 
