LAG
LAG-
"wax, long hardened in the ear. This is of a ftro»g and Very dtfagreeable fraell, like the fwcat of the fame animal, and is affirmed to be fudorific and alexipharmic. Grew's
Muf. p. 21.
Lacr-yma jsbi, in botany. See Diospiros.
LACTAR1A, mtlk wort, a name ufed by fome botanical au- thors for the tithymal or fpurge. This plant has been fo
■ called on account of its milk like juice. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.
LACTEAL fevers, a tcim ufcd by medical writers, to exprefs what the women call milk fevers, that is fuch fevers as attend die difficult ingrefs of milk to the breads in lying-in- women.
LACTEUS lapis, in natural hidory, a name given by fome authors to the galaclites. See Gal actites.
LACTIFEROUS, an epithet applied to fuch plants as abound with a milk like juice, fuch as the tithymal, fow-thidle, and many others.
LACTUCA, lettuce, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the chara&ers of which are thefe. The flower is of the femi-flofcular kind, being compofed of a number of fmall femi-flofcules, {landing on the embryo feeds, and contained in a common oblong and (lender fcaly cup. The embryos" finally become feeds winged with down. To this it may be added, that there is a peculiar appearance, in all the lettuces, which eafity diftinguidies them from all the other genera of the plants with femi-flofcular flowers.
The fpecies of lettuce enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. I. The common garden lettuce. 2. The endive leaved lettuce. 3. The lettuce with fpotted leaves. 4. The great variegated, headed and cultivated Auftrian lettuce with a fweet fmell, commonly called the clove lettuce. 5. The long fweet let- tuce, called the Roman lettuce. 6. The jagged lettuce with curled leaves. 7. The broader leaved curled lettuce. 8. The lettuce with oblong pointed leaves. 9, The common headed garden lettuce. 10. The greater headed garden lettuce with dufky green leaves. 11. The wild lettuce with thorny ribs to the leaves. 12. The Italian wild lettuce with a prickly middle rib and bloody foots on the leaves. 13. The great opium fecnted wild lettuce. 14. The wild lettuce with the ftalk covered with leaves, called by fome the infeous fnccory. 15. The blue flowered dwarf perennial lettuce. 16. The white flowered dwarf perennial lettuce. 17. The wild lettuce with narrow jagged leaves. 18. The prickly, fhrubhy Spanifh fea lettuce. 19. The dandelion leaved mountain lettuce. 20. The blue flowered mountain lettuce with broad jagged leaves, 21. The white flowered moun- tain lettuce with broad jagged leaves. 22. The tall broad leaved Canada lettuce with a greyifti flower. 23. The tall narrow leaved Canada lettuce with a pale yellowifli flower. Tourq. Inft. p. 473. SeeLETTUCE.
Lactuca marina, fea lettuce, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the lichen marinus, commonly called older green. Chabraius 572. LADA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the plant which produces the common black pepper. Pifo, Mant. arom. p. 492. LADDERS, in a fhip, are ufually three.
1. The enir'mg ladder is in the wajle, and made of wood
2. The gallery ladder made of ropes, is hung over the gallery or ftern of a fhip, and ferves to enter by, out of the boat, when the weather is foul, and the fea high.
3. The bolt ~fpr it-ladders are at the beak-head made fad over the bolt-fprit, to get upon it, and are only ufed in great fhips.
Cart-L ADDh&s. See the article Cart.
LADIES fimk. See the article Card amine.
Ladies fipper, in botany. See Calceolus.
LADLE of a gun, the indrument wherewith the powder is put into the piece. It is made of a plate of copper bowed in form of a half cy- linder, rounded at one end, the other being fixed upon a long dad ; this filled with powder, the gunner carries, with his left hand, under the end of it, to keep the powder from falling out, till he enters it in the muzzle of the piece when he has carried the powder home to the charged cylin- der, he turns the ladle that the powder may fall out, and withdraws it.
Ladles are fitted to the bore of each gun, and hold powder fufficient for the charge.
LADONIS, in the materia medica of the antients, a name given by fome to the laurus or bay tree. We find the word in a compofition prefcribed in Galen, from the works of fome of the empirics of his time, but it never was ufed by the more regular authors.
LADRE, in the manege. See the article Dull.
LjENA, among the antients, a thick ihaggy upper garment. See the article Chljena.
LAERTA, in natural hidory, a name given by authors to a fpecies of vefpa or wafp, whofe ding is faid to be fatal : but this is an erroneous opinion. This wafp is larger and longer bodied than the common kind, but fmaller than the hornet. It fecms of a very irritable difpofition, attacking animals of any kind that come in its way.
LAGANUM, in natural hidory, the name of a genus of the echini marini, of the general' clafs of the placentae. The
characters of the lagana are, that they have their mouth in the center of the bafe, and their aperture for the anus in its third region ; that their fuperficies is whole, and their edges waved. Of this genus there are five known fpecies, 1. A fmall very white one, with a fmuous and fimbriated edge. 2. A larger, with a fmuous edge, jagged in two places. 3. Rumphius's flat echinus. 4. A fmaller and thinner than that ; and 5. Plot's echinites defcribed by Lifter, which befide the fine ftria? has an almoft innumerable feries of fine circular rings. Klein's Echinod. p. 31.
LAGINE, in natural hidory, a name given by Pliny to a climbing plant, of the nature of that from which fcammony was obtained, but fmaller, and thence called by fome fcam- monea parva, the fmaller fcammony. The antient Greeks have called this plant jafne ; and it appears very probable, that the word lagine here mentioned by Pliny is but a cor- ruption of that name.
LAGOCEPHALUS, in zoology, the name of a fpecies of orbis or globe fifh. It is about a foot long and half a foot high. Its head is fomethmg like a hare's, the forehead plain and almod fquare, an inch and three quarters broad ; the eyes round, above three quarters of an inch over and ftanding high ; the nodrils three quarters of an inch before the eyes, and from thefe to the nofe end is a little above an inch. Each chap is, as it were, divided into two great teeth of three quarters of an inch broad. The fins are five in number ; the flrfn membranous and limber on the back, head, upper fides and bread, and round about his tail fmooth and bald, and on his belly and lower part of his bread armed with little fhort prickles ; and there are undulated and crooked lines running along his back and fides. Grezu's Mufeum Soc. Reg. p. 108.
LAGOPUS, in zoology, the name of a bird of the partridse kind, called by many the rabolane, and didinguifhed from all other birds of tins kind, by the thick covering of its legs and feet; it is a little larger than a tame pigeon; its beak is fhort, drong, and a little hooked, like that of the other gallinaceous fowls ; and over its eyes there are naked fpaces, of a fine red, and full of flefhy protuberances. The males have a black line on each fide the head, which the females have not ; all the reft of the body, the tail only excepted, is as white as the pureft fnow. Its tail confifts of fixtcen fea- thers, and is white, variegated with grey and black. Its legs and feet are very thick, covered even to the claws, with a fine, foft, and warm feathers ; its claws are very long and fharp, and its toes have a hairynefs underneath. It fpends its life on the mountains, in regions which are for the greateft part of the year covered with fnow. Its food is vegetable matter, the leaves of heath, whortles, and other fhrubs. Its flefh is very delicate and much valued. Rafs Ornithol. p. 127.
Lagopus altera, in zoology, the name of a bird of the galli- naceous kind, and approaching to the lagopus or rabolane in many refpects, more commonly known by the name of the gorcock, moncock, or red game. Some authors indeed have ufed the name lagopus altera, for the otomo, a bird feem- ing not eiTentially to differ from the lagopus. Ray's Ornithol. p. 128. See the articles Gorcock and Otomo.
LAGOUDI, a name given by the Indians to the tree, which produces the lefler galangal root of the fhops. See the arti- cle Galangal.
LAGRIMOSO, in the Italian mufic, is ufed to fignify a plaintive manner of fmging or playing.
LAKES (Cycl.) — The/c^Nefs in Scotland has been comme- morated by many writers, but never with any degree of judgment, till Mr. Frafer gave a perfect account of it to our Royal Society. It never freezes though the winters be •ever fo fevere, and is full of fprings in almoft every part; and its waters, in the time of the fevered frofts, run fluid, and fmoalcing for fix miles down the river into which they are difcharged, while every thing is frozen about them. The river runs very flowly notvvithftanding, and from this fmoak of the water there is raifed a fort of fog which over- fpreads the whole country for feveral miles. There is a mountain near the fide, of two miles perpendicular height from the lake ; and on the fummit of this mountain there is another lake, which has no fpring vifibly running into it, nor any outlet, and yet always keeps of the fame degree of fulnefs, dimmer and winter. Due weft from the river into which the lower lake difcharges itfelf, there is an opening of fea or frith of two miles long and fix miles wide ; the middle of this is fometimes dry, and it is then eafily feert that this was once dry land, and an inhabited country. There are found there large bodies of trees felled, and lying ftrait along : the wood of thefe is black but it is very found, and there are many tumuli, or heaps of ftones, to be-feen under water in different parts of the frith, one of which is acceffible at low water, and there have been found in it urns, which prove that they have been all burying places. Phil. Tranf. N° 253. p- 231.
As the fea wafhes away the banks of this frith, there is found in many places a large quantity of wrought timber; beams of fourteen, or more feet long, with the marks of the axe and other inftruments upon them; and at the depth of 3 fixteen.
