Licorice extract is a highly appreciated sweetmeat but unfortunately it is often grossly adulterated with dextrin, starch, sugar, and gum arabic. Many of the licorice drops, etc., contain very little licorice, but even the poorest article seems to be highly prized by the average child. Licorice extract in mass is known as licorice paste and is extensively employed in preparing chewing tobacco and in brewing beer, to which substances it imparts a peculiar flavor and a dark color.
Licorice extract is a popular remedy for colds and sore throat, though its curative powers are certainly very slight. Physicians make extensive use of it to disguise the disagreeable taste of medicines, such as quinine. It is an ingredient of many cough remedies. The finely powdered roots are dusted over pills to prevent their adhesion and to give them consistency.
Licorice roots have the same properties as the extract and may be similarly used. Many children prefer the dried roots obtained at the drug store to the stick licorice or the licorice drops. This choice is in many respects a good one; the roots are at least not adulterated, but of course only the juice should be swallowed—a precaution which it is not necessary to emphasize—as the fibrous nature of the wood makes it difficult to swallow. Even if a little of it is swallowed no particular harm would be done, as it is not in the least poisonous, though the fibers may act as an irritant to the stomach.
As already indicated there are several species of Glycyrrhiza of which the roots and rhizomes are used like those of G. glabra, but, in addition to these there are a number of other plants designated as licorice. Indian licorice or the wild licorice of India (Abrus precatorius), is a woody twining plant growing quite abundantly in India; it is sometimes substituted for true licorice. Prickly licorice (Glycyrrhiza echinata) resembles true licorice quite closely. The wild licorice of America (Glycyrrhiza lepidota) is found in the Northwest. Its roots are quite sweet and often used as a substitute for true licorice. The European plant known as "rest harrow" (Ononis spinosa), so-called because its tangled roots impede the progress of the harrow, has roots with an odor and taste resembling licorice. The roots are extensively employed by the country practitioners of France and Germany in the treatment of jaundice, dropsy, gout, rheumatism, toothache, ulcers, and eruptive diseases of the scalp. The name, wild licorice, also applies to Galium circaezans and Galium lanceolatum on account of the sweetish roots. The wild licorice of Australia is Teucrium corymbosum. Licorice vetch (Astragalus glycyphyllus) has sweet roots. Licorice weed (Scoparia dulcis) is a common tropical plant which also has sweet-tasting roots.
A WINTER WALK IN THE WOODS.
ANNE W. JACKSON.
LAST week I had the good fortune to be invited with two other girls to spend a few days in the country. We hailed the invitation with delight and accepted it with alacrity, for we all three love to get out into the woods and fields.