Its sweet-smelling and highly fragrant flowers blossom in May, and
are much sought after by bees, because abounding with honied
nectar. A medicinal tincture (H.) is made from them with spirit of
wine; and when given in doses of from five to ten drops with water,
three times in the day, it serves to relieve sick [317] bilious
giddiness, with depression of spirits, and a tendency to loose
bowels, with nervous headache. The sap of the Lime Tree (_Tilia
Europoea_) abounds in mucilage, from which sugar can be elaborated.
A tea made from the blossoms and leaves with boiling water,
is admirable for promoting perspiration. It is because of a
long established reputation for giving relief in chronic epilepsy or
the falling sickness, and of curing epileptiform headaches, whilst
proving of indisputable usefulness in allied nervous disorders, that
the flowers and leaves of the Lime or Linden Tree occupy a true
place among modern medicinal Simples. Gilbert White made some
Lime-blossom tea, and pronounced it a very soft, well-flavoured,
pleasant saccharine julep, much resembling the juice of liquorice.
This tea has been found efficacious for quieting hard coughs and for
relieving hoarseness.
The flowers easily ferment, and being so fragrant may be used for
making wine: likewise a fine flavoured brandy has been distilled
from them. The fruit contains an oily substance, and has been
proposed, when roasted, as a domestic substitute for chocolate. The
sap may be procured by making incisions in the trunk, and branches.
The flowers are sedative, and anti-spasmodic. Fenelon decorates his
enchanted Isle of Calypso with flowering Lime trees. Hoffman says
_Tilioe ad mille usus petendoe_.
The inner bark furnishes a soft mucilage, which may be applied
externally with healing effect to burns, scalds, and inflammatory
swellings. Gerard taught, "that the flowers are commended by divers
persons against pain of the head proceeding from a cold cause;
against dizziness, apoplexy, and the falling sickness; and not only
the flowers, but the distilled water thereof." [318] Hoffman knew a
case of chronic epilepsy recovered by a use of the flowers in infusion
drunk as tea. Such, indeed, was the former exalted anti-epileptic
reputation of the Lime Tree, that epileptic persons sitting
under its shade were reported to be cured.
A famous "Lind" or Lime Tree, which grew in his ancestral place,
gave to the celebrated Linnaeus his significant name. The well-known
street, _unter den Linden_ in Berlin, is a favourite resort,
because of its pleasant, balmy shade; and when Heine lay beneath
the Lindens, he "thought his own sweet nothing-at-all thoughts."
The wood of the Lime Tree is preferred before every other wood fur
masterly carving. Grinling Gibbons executed his best and most
noted work in this material; and the finely-cut details still remain
sharp, delicate, and beautiful.
Chemically, the Linden flowers contain a particular light, fragrant,
volatile oil, which is soluble in alcohol. They are used in warm
baths with much success to allay nervous irritability; or a strong
infusion of them is administered by enema for the same purpose.
LIQUORICE, English (_Leguminous_).
The common Liquorice plant, a native of the warmer European
countries, was first cultivated in Britain about 1562, in Turner's
time. It has been chiefly grown at Pontefract (Pomfret) in Yorkshire,
Worksop in Nottinghamshire, and Godalming in Surrey; whilst at
the present time it is produced abundantly at Mitcham, near London,
and the roots are dug up after a three years' growth, to be supplied to
the shops. The use of the Liquorice plant was first learnt by the
Hellenes from the Scythians; and the root was named _adipson_,
being thought from the time of Theophrastus to [319] powerfully
extinguish thirst. But Dr. Cullen says his experience has not
confirmed this as a true effect of chewing the root. When lightly
boiled in a little water it yields all its sweetness, together with
some mucilage.
A favourite pastime of school boys at the beginning of the present
century, was to carry in the pocket a small phial of water containing
bits of this "Spanish juice," and to shake it continually so as to make
a solution, valued the more the darker and thicker it became.
The juice is commonly employed as a pectoral in coughs or
hoarseness, when thickened to the consistence of a lozenge, or to
that of a solid mass, which hardens in the form of a stick. It is also
added to nauseous medicines, for masking their taste. Towards
obtaining this juice the underground stem or root of the plant is the
part employed.
The search of Diogenes for an honest man was scarcely more
difficult than would be that of an average person for genuine
Liquorice; since the juice is adulterated to any extent, and there is
no definite standard of purity for this article so commonly used.
Potato starch, miller's sweepings mixed with sugar, and any kind of
rubbish are added to it.
In China, the roots of _Glycyrrhiza echinata _and _Glycyrrhiza
glabra_, are used in a variety of medicinal preparations as
possessing tonic, alterative, and expectorant properties, and as a
mild aperient. Thereto are attributed rejuvenating and highly
nutritive qualities. English Liquorice root occurs in pieces three or
four inches long, and about as thick as a finger.
The extract of Liquorice must be prepared from the _dried_ root,
else it cannot be strained bright, and would be liable to
fermentation. Chemically, the root [320] contains a special kind of
sugar, glycyrrhizine, a demulcent starch, asparagin, phosphate and
malate of lime and magnesia, a resinous oil, albumen, and woody
fibre. Old Fuller says concerning Nottingham, "This county
affordeth the first and best Liquorice in England: great is the use
thereof in physick. A stick of the same is commonly the spoon
prescribed to patients to use in any Loaches. If (as the men of
oeneas were forced to eat their own trenchers), these chance to eat
their spoons, their danger is none at all." The Loach, or Lingence,
from _ekleigma_, a substance licked-up, has become our modern
lozenge. Extract of Liquorice is largely imported as "Spanish" or
"Italian" juice, the Solazzi juice being most esteemed, which comes
in cylindrical or flattened rolls, enveloped in bay leaves; but the
pipe Liquorice of the sweetstuff shops is adulterated. Pontefract
lozenges are made of refined Liquorice, and are justly popular. The
sugar of Liquorice may be safely taken by diabetic patients.
Officinally, the root and stolons (underground stems) of the
_Glycyrrhiza glabra_ (smooth) are variously employed; for making
an extract, for mixing with linseed in a tea, for combination with
powdered senna, sugar, and fennel, to form a favourite mild laxative
medicine, known as "Compound Liquorice Powder," and for other
uses. The solid juice is put into porter and stout, because giving
sweetness, thickness, and blackness to those beverages, without
making them fermentative; but Liquorice, like gum, supplies
scant aliment to the body. Black Liquorice is employed in the
manufacture of tobacco, for smoking and chewing.
The Rest Harrow (_Ononis arvensis_), a troublesome weed, very
common in our ploughed fields, has a root [321] which affords a
sweet viscid juice, and hence it is popularly known as "Wild
Liquorice."
This is a leguminous plant, called also "Ground Furze," which is a
favourite food of the donkey, and therefore gets its botanical title
from the Greek word _onos_, an ass. Its long and thickly matted
roots will arrest the progress of the harrow, or plough. Medicinally,
the plant has been given with success to subdue delirium. It is
obnoxious to snakes, and they will not come near it.
Other appellations of the herb are Cammock, Stinking Tommy,
_Arrete boeuf_, _Remora aratri_, _Resta bovis_, and Land Whin
(which from the Latin _guindolum_, signifies a kind of cherry). The
plant was formerly much extolled for obviating stone in the bladder.
It is seen to be covered with spines; and a tradition exists that it
was the Rest harrow which furnished the crown of thorns plaited by
the Roman soldiers at the crucifixion of our Saviour. This plant has
been long-used as a culinary vegetable, its young shoots being
boiled, or taken in salad, or pickled.
The French know it as _Bugrane_, beloved by goats, and the chief
delight of donkeys, who rejoice to roll themselves amid its prickles.
Simon Pauli _ne connait pas de meilleur remede contre le calcul des
reins, et de la vessie_. "_Anjourdhui l'arr ete boeuf est a peu pres
abandonne_." "_On y reviendra!_" The plant contains "ononin," a
chemical glucoside, which is demulcent to the urinary organs.
Its botanical name of _Glycyrrhiza_ comes from the Greek words,
_glukus_, "sweet," and _riza_, "a root." English Liquorice root,
when dried, is commercially used in two forms, the peeled and the
unpeeled. By far and away the best lozenges are those of our [322]
boyhood, still attributed to one "Smith," in the Borough of London.