Spherical (c1/2ins) hard, glazed, bright red sugar sweet flavoured with aniseed.
The name is known in E Nesbit's 'The Phoenix and the Carpet' of 1904.
There is a remarkable story told of Major C.V. Clarke of Bedford that, during the Second World War, he experimented with using the consistent shape and slow-dissolving properties of aniseed balls to construct a delay fuse for explosive mines to be used against shipping (BBC)