Am.  Jour.  Pharm.\ 
December,  1896.  > 
Glycerite  of  Licorice. 
663 
water-soaked.  Cut  in  slices,  fried  or  stewed,  they  are  remarkably 
tender  and  of  delicate  flavor.  In  one  genus — the  Scleroderma — is 
found  the  Scleroderma  Vulgare.  It  is  very  plentiful  under  beeches 
and  along  the  rooted  banks  of  rivulets.  In  size  it  resembles  a 
walnut.  Its  skin  is  brown  and  rough.  When  quite  young,  the 
flesh — solid  as  a  potato — is  white.  It  then  changes  to  purple,  and 
finally  to  a  deep  black,  in  its  granulated  appearance  resembling 
gunpowder.  As  long  as  it  remains  solid  it  is  good  eating,  but 
must  be  well  cooked. 
I  am  compelled  to  pass  hundreds  of  species  to  which  I  would  like 
to  draw  your  attention ;  the  field  is  too  large  to  cover  with  a  single 
paper.  If  I  have  succeeded  in  interesting  you  in  the  vast  food 
supply  which  invites  your  investigation  and  cultivation,  I  have  done 
a  good  thing  for  you,  and  have  removed  somewhat  of  the  stigma 
which  attaches  to  my  little  friends — the  toadstools. 
I  have  seen,  this  year,  a  large  and  paying  crop  of  mushrooms 
grown  on  a  meadow  where  pieces  of  spawn  had  been  inserted  in 
the  sod.  This  inserting  should  be  done  after  the  spring  rains  are 
over,  and  the  dry  season  well  set  in.  Too  much  moisture  will 
invariably  kill  spawn.  The  horticulturist  will  have  ample  remuner- 
ation from  spawning  unshaded  ground. 
¥    GLYCERITE  OF  LICORICE. 
By  Joseph  W.  England. 
Probably  the  most  generally  popular  products  used  to  mask  the 
taste  of  bitter  and  nauseous  drugs,  given  in  liquid  form,  are  to  be 
found  in  preparations  made  from  licorice  root,  despite  the  fact  that 
none  of  them,  as  at  present  made,  are  fully  representative,  or  free 
from  objectionable  features.  The  notoriously  variable  quality  of 
commercial  extract  of  licorice  is  an  open  secret.  The  fluid  extract 
is  acrid  from  the  resin  dissolved  by  the  alcohol  of  the  menstruum 
used  in  making  it.  The  official  "  pure  extract  "  does  not  have  the 
pure  licorice  flavor,  and  is  apt  to  become  mouldy.  The  purified 
extract  of  the  "  National  Formulary,"  intended  doubtless  to  replace 
the  well-known  "  Succus  Liquoritiae  "  of  commerce,  is  the  best 
product  of  all,  but  its  merits  are  marred  by  a  "  strawy  "  taste,  the 
probable  presence  of  vegetable  spores  and  the  absence  of  definite 
strength.    Ammoniated  glycyrrhizin  no  more  represents  the  full 
