st any soil. They have been very
extensively grown by the Forest Department in every district for fuel
and along the coast upon sand dunes. They have not been utilised so far
for the extraction of tanning, except experimentally. Samples of the
barks of the two last-named species were found on examination at the
Imperial Institute to be too poor in tannin to be worth exporting, but
they should be quite suitable for use in Cyprus (see BULLETIN OF THE
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE, vol. xi. 1913, pp. 412-414).

_Madder_

In former years, and within the period of the British occupation, the
cultivation of madder (_Rubia tinctorum_) was fairly flourishing in
Cyprus. The old madder grounds can still be distinguished, and are
mostly to be seen near Morphou, Ayia Irini, Sotira, Ayios Serghios,
Famagusta and Larnaca. These madder grounds were excavations made in
order to expose the soil lying beneath 10 to 30 ft. of drift-sand; and
they form, as it were, a series of tanks along the shore. The red dye
obtained from the dried and ground madder roots constituted at one time
one of the most valued of dye-stuffs, and was in special demand for
military uniforms; but this has been entirely superseded by artificial
coal-tar derivatives and, as Gennadius says: "The happy days of the
cultivation of this plant are past, never to return."

It is propagated mostly by root cuttings. The leaf begins to dry at
about the sixth month. There is no further growth above ground, but the
roots continue to increase and shoot downwards till moisture affects
them. "When they get too wet, they become black or rot. In Cyprus this
rotting would often begin after about eighteen months, while in superior
soils the roots would continue to improve during thirty-six months, and
they would be known in the trade as eighteen months and thirty-six
months roots. In Famagusta district they remain mostly eighteen months,
while at Morphou they would continue fully thirty-six months, during the
whole of which time the surface ground should be kept free of weeds."

After the root is lifted it is generally dried; if packed before quite
dry, it ferments and deteriorates.

Two and a half tons of dried roots would be produced from an acre of
good ground, and the madder grounds used to fetch a very high price.

DRUGS AND OTHER PRODUCTS

_Liquorice Root_

The liquorice plant (_Glycyrrhiza glabra_, Linn.) grows mainly in the
Famagusta and Kyrenia districts, and the roots are c