Manufacture of the Extract.—" Spanish juice," or "liquorice," or "Italian extract of liquorice," is very extensively prepared in S. France, Spain, Calabria, Sicily, Austria, S. Russia (Astrakan and liasan), Greece, and in the noighbourhood of Smyrna. The roots are taken up during the previous winter, and stacked in a dry and sheltered place ; they are placed upright, with layers of sand between, and a stratum some inches thick on the top. When required, they are carried indoors, and crushed under an edge-runner mill-stone ; the pulp is then transferred to boilers set over a naked fire, and boiled with water ; the decoction is run off, and the fibre is pressed in cir cular bags ; the liquor is next pumped up into copper pans, for evaporation, care being necessary to avoid burning it. When of the proper consistence, the extract is removed while still warm, and weighed out into portions, ready to be rolled into sticks, which operation is performed by women's hands on a wooden table, the extract being moistened with oil to prevent adhesion. After being hand-rolled, the sticks are placed in marble or metal frames, when they are brought to the right dimensions. When stamped with the maker's name, they are stacked on boards in a room to dry. In the best establishments, vacuum pans are used for the inspissation. Of the dried roots, 100 lb. yield about 30 lb. of extract. The manufacture is best performed from November till March, warm weather causing the material to run ; for this reason, it should not be shipped in summer. The sticks are bound with bay leaves, to prevent adhesion. In France, Egypt, and Turkey, an infusion of it is used as a cooling beverage; and in America, it is largely consumed in brewing, and in the manufacture of tobacco. The Calabrian factories produced 11,000 cases of 2 cwt. each in 1878. Our imports, in the same year, were •—Frem Italy, 8505 cwt., value 31,3521.; France, 6345 cwt., value 12,6291.; Turkey, 6207 cwt., value 12,1571. ; other countries, 2285 cwt., value 55861. The London market price is about 30-368. a cwt.
Logwood.—A decoction of the chips of the heart-wood of Hcematoxylon Campechianum is administered in diarrhoea; the chief use of the article, however, is in dyeing. (See Dye-stuffs.) Lopez-root.—The root of Toddalia aculeata once had some celebrity in Europe as a remedy for diarrhoea. It is a thick, yellowish, woody root, with a pale-yellow corky bark. The plant is a prickly climber, indigenous to the Coromandel Coast, S. Concans, and Cancun, the Indian Archi pelago, S. China, Ceylon, Mauritius, and Bourbon. The root seems to have been occasionally brought to Europe from Goa ; but it was always dear and rare, and confined to Dutch commerce, its price in 1828 being about 24s. an oz. It is largely used in Indian medicine ; but is not now met with in this country.
Lycopodium (Fe., Lycopodc ; GEe., Bdrlappsamen, Hcxenmehl).—Tho minute spores contained in the capsules growing in the exile of the bracts covering the fruit spike of tho common Clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum) are employed by druggists for preventing the adhesion of pills when placed in boxes. Also, under the name of "vegetable brimstone," in pyrotechny. The plant, as well as L. Selago, ie said to possess medicinal virtues. L. clavatam occurs throughout Great Britain, but is most plentiful on the moors of tho N. counties ; and is found on heaths and hills from the Alps and Pyrenees to the Arctic regions, in Central and E. Spain, from Asiatic Russia to the Amur and Japan, at the Cape, in N. and S. America, the Falklands, and Australia. The drug consists of a fine, odourless, flavourless, pale-yellow powder, floating on cold water without becoming wet, but sinking after boiling. Iu a slow heat, it burns gradually ; but when thrown into a flame, it uudergoes instantaneous combustion, accompanied by faint explosion. It is °btu lied by cutting off the tops of the plant as the spikes approach maturity—in July and August; these are taken home, and the powder is shaken out, and sifted. It is gathered priucipally in Russia, Germany, and Switzerland, the quantity varying greatly with the season. In 1870, France imported over 16,000 lb. of the drug, ohiefly from Germany. Our imports are probably much less. The value
of the srticle is abdut 2s. a lb.
Manna (Fe., Dianne; GEe., Manna).—The saccharine exudation obtained prinoipally from Fraxinus Ornus (Ornus Europcea), is a gentle laxative widely employed. The Manna-ash (Fraxinus Ornus) is a small tree, met with in holy, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, the E. coast of the Adriatic, Greece. European and Asiatic Turkey ; F. Bungeana of N. China is probably also identical. The collection of the drug, which within recent times was carried on in the Tuscan Maremrna and the States of the Church, is now oonfined almost exclusively to Sicily, though an inferior kind is still called after Toffs, a town near Civita Vecchia. The Sicilian drug is chiefly produced in the neighbourhood of Capaci, Carini, Cinisi, and Favarota, districts lying about 20-25 miles W. of Palermo ; also around the towns of Goraci, Castelbuono,&c., in the Cefaln • district, 50-70 miles E. of Palermo. The beet manna is produced on the plantations where the tree is cultivated. The trees are planted about 7 ft. apart, and the land is occasionally forked, weeded, and manured. When the trunk is at least 3 in. thick (in 8-10 years), the tree is first tapped. This consists in making a series of incisions in the bark, just deep enough to reach the wood, and about If-2 in. long; the first cut is made near the bottom of the tree ; each day a fresh incision is made, immediately above, and about 4-1 in. from, the last ; this is continued while the dry weather lasts, or till the branches are reached. The season extends from early July to late September, being at its height in July-August, when the trees have ceased to put forth leaves, and warm, dry weather assures a good harvest. Next year, the cutting is repeated on the opposite or uncut side of the tree ; this is continued till about the 8th year ; and at the 9th year, when the tree is becoming exhausted, it is cut all round, and afterwards felled, a single shoot being left, which will be similarly fruitful at the end of 4-5 years. A portion of the juice which exudes from the wounds is gathered by inserting sticks or straws, on which it coagulates forming a superior quality of manna ; ou its first appearance, it is brown and bitter, but soon becomes solid, white, and sweet. Frequently, the juice is so fluid as to run down the bark of the tree, partly adhering to the stem, and partly falling to the earth, where it is caught on leaves of the fig and other trees. The bulk of the best commercial manna seems to be that collected from the bark, and known as manna canellata, or "Flake manna." The juice which exudes from the lower incisions is caught on tiles, or on pieces of the stem of the prickly-pear, and, being of inferior quality, is added to the drippings, and that which is scraped from the stem after removing the prime sticks, and is called manna in sorte, or " Small (Tolfa) manna." The gathering takes place once a week, in floe weather only; the drug befog soluble in water, rain and dew are injurious. After collection, both sorts are spread on shelves in the sunshine to dry and harden. The finest manna occurs in stalactites 6-8 in. long, and 1 in. or mere wide ; crystalline, porous, 3 G friable, and yellowish-brown to white ; brittle, crisp, and melting in the mouth with a flavour resembling honey. The deeper coloured gummy pieces are obtained from old stems, and from the lowest incisions, and sometimes owe their softness to the alteration in the juice caused by the unfavourable weather towards the end of the season. The gross returns of 1 hectare (2i acres) of land under manna cultivation is estimated as follows :—Manna canellata, In lb., 51. 6s.; manna in sorte, 207 lb., 281. 4s. ; wood cut down, 10s. ; total, 34/. The London market 'value of manna is about 4s. a lb. Our imports in 1870 amounted to 230 cwt., 44471. The Sicilian exports (chiefly from Palermo) in 1871 were 3039 cwt., half of which went to France. Messina, in 1877, exported 4273 kilo. of canelli, and 186,664 kilo. in sorte.