L A U
L A V .
The fpecies of lavender' enumerated by Mr.Tournefort are | ■thefe. i. The fhort fpiked greyifh broad leaved Indian la- vender. -2. The woolly Spanifh broad leaved lavender. 3. The common broad leaved lavender. 4. The white fiow- -ered common lavender. 5. The narrow leaved lavender. 6. The white flowered narrow leaved lavender. 7. The cut 'leaved lavender. S. The longer, and more elegantly cut ■leaved lavender. 9. The lavender with crenatcd leaves. JO. The American {hrubby lavender with broad crenated 'leaves. ^Tvitrn. Inft. p. 198.
We have : three or four fpecies of this plant in our gardens, all which are propagated by planting their cuttings, or flips, ■in April, in a place where they may be fhaded. They muff be watered till they have taken good root, which will be in about two months; after which they may be planted out where they are to remain. They thrive beft in an open ■Situation, and gravelly foil. They grow fafter in richer ground, but they are there very fubjecf to be deftroyed in hard winters, and their flowers are never fo well fcented. See Limonium.
The flowers and fummits of this plant are, in a very eminent degree, cephalic and nervine. They are given in palfies, vertigoes, lethargies, and tremors of the limbs. The com- pound fpirit, diftilled from them, is famous in thefe, and many other the like cafes. LAVER-bread, a fort of food made of a fea plant, otherwife called the oijlcr-green, or fea-liverwort. It is faid to be ufed in the county of Glamorgan, and other parts of Wales. LAUGHER, a name given to a particular fpecies of pigeon, called by Moore the columba ridens. It is about the fize of tire common pigeon, and much of the fame make; but it has a very blight pearl coloured eye, almoft white, and is a mottled red, or blue. They are faid to be brought from Jerufalem, and the country thereabouts. When the cock of this fpecies courts the hen, he has a guttural cooing, not unlike the guggling of a bottb'of water, when poured out baftily ; and after this he always make a noife, not unlike laughing, from the Angularity of which he has obtained his name. Moore's Columbarium, p. 45. LAVIGNON, the name of a French fhcll nth, common on the coaft of Poitou. It is of the ehama kind, having a very thin pair of fhells for its covering, which are eafily crufhed to pieces between the fingers, and which never can fhut clofe, in the manner of the oifter or mufcle, or other com- mon bivalve fhells. The fifh therefore always buries itfelf in the mud by^ay of fecurity. The fhells are very fmooth and polifhed, efpecially on the inftde, and they are naturally white. This colour they always retain within, though their outer furface is often tinged black by the mud. They are often buried five or fix inches deep in the mud, but it is always eafy to know where they are, becaufe they muff keep a free communication with ^Ue water above; and this is done by means of a round aperture, of about a tenth of an inch diameter, which opens from the furface of the mud to every fllell fifh. Very often there are two of thele apertures to one fifh, and ufually they are found in great numbers together ; the fifh generally living in the neigh- bourhood of one another. When the fliells of this fifh are opened to their utmoft width, it is eafy to fee a fort of arm with which each is furnifhed, in the manner of the common mufcle, for its progrellive motion. This part ferves them to bury themfclves in the mud, and to raife themfelves out of it again, when they are inclined to feek a new habita- tion ; unto which it makes its way in a more fpeedy man- ner than would eafily be thought.
When the creature is plunged to its proper depth under ground, it yet receives the benefit of the water above, by means of two pipes, or probofcides, which have each a dou- ble aperture at their ends. Thefe take in water, and throw it out again, alternately, for the ufes of the animal, and ei- ther of the two is indifferently qualified to anfvver either purpofe. Thefe pipes make the round apertures, which are feen over the places where the fifh are buried ; for as foon as they have entered the mud, the continual motion of the water fmooths over the top of the hole, and the creature is deprived of the advantages of the water above, till it open a communication again by one, or both thefe pipes. The fifh has a power of lengthening, or fhortening thefe pipes at pleafure, and, when it pleafes, takes them wholly into the fhell. It can alfo move them about, and turn them to any direction, and often they raife them above the furface of the bottom, the level with which is their ufual height ; and when they are thus exerted, they draw them feveral way about, and mark with them feveral irregular furrows about their holes. Mem. Acad. Par. 17 10. L AVIN, in natural hiftory, a name given by the people of the Philippine iflands to a fpecies of hawk, a bird of great beauty, being variegated all over with yellow, black, and white. They call it alfo ftcub. SeeSicuB. LAUNCEGAYS, in our old writers, a kind of offenfive weapons, now difufed, and prohibited by the ftatute 7 Rich. II. c. j 3. Blount. LAUNCH, [Cycl.) a term ufed in feveral fea phrafes, as launch eutlhecapflan bars, that is, put them out ; launch aft, or fore- ward on, that is, when things are flowed in the hold, to
put them more aft, or foreward on ; launch, ho ! that !s> when a yard is hoifed high enough, hoife no more ; or in pumping, if the pump fucks, pump no more.
LAUNDER, in mineralogy, a name given in Devonfhire, and other places, to a long and fliallow trough, which re- ceives the powdered ore after it comes out of the box, or coffer, which is a fort of mortar, in which it is powdered with iron peftles.
The powdered ore, which is Warned into the launder by the water from the coffer, is always fineft neareft the grate, and coarfer all the way down. See Dressinc of ore.
LAURACES lapis, in natural hiftory, the name of a ftone faid to be of great virtues againft the head-ach, but not known among us, nor defcribed by the antients.
LAUREL, in botany. See Lauro-Cerasus.
This tree is very eafily propagated, by planting cut- tings of it in September, in a cool fhady border, where they will very foon take root, and the year afterwards are to be removed into beds, and placed at two or three feet diftance ; and when they have flood here three years they will be fit for tranfplanting into the places where they are to ftand. The beft feafon of making this laft removal is April. This is the better method when they are defined for dwarfs ; but if they are intended for high trees, they fhould be raifed from berries, as they then always o-row much fafter. The berries fhould be fown as foon as they are ripe, covering them an inch thick with earth, and the young plants will appear the fpring following, when they fhould be cleared of weeds, and watered in dry weather. The next year they fhould be tranfplanted, and fet at a foot diftance ; and when they are two years older, may be re- moved to the places where they are to remain. Miller's Gard. Diet, in voc.
Laurel berries are held to be carminative, emollient, and refolvent. They are given internally in fuppreffions of urine and the menfes, in colics, in pains after delivery, and in all nervous complaints. Externally they are ufed in emol- lient cataplafms and fomentations.
Spurge Laurel. See Laureola.
Laurel water has been difcovered to be of a poifonous qua- lity. See Lauro-cerasus.
LAURENTINA, in botany, a name given by Matthiolus, and fome other authors, to the bugula, or bup-le. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.
LAUREOLA, the fmall fpurge laurel, in botany, is the fame with the thymcU-a with laurel Ihapcd leaves. See the ar- ticle Thymeljea. Laureola is a very rough purge ; it operates both upwards
| and downwards, and ufually carries off a great quantity of matter, but it is apt to erode, and inflame the flomach and inteftmes. The leaves are fomewhr.t milder than the bark of the item ; that of the root is ftrongeft of all. Many have given it in drops with fuccefs ; but it is fo roueri and dangerous a medicine, that while there are others capable of anfwerine all the purpofes intended by it, it is unpardonable to brin^ it into ufe. &
LAURO-CERASUS, the laurel, in botany, the name of a genus of trees, the charafters of which are there. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of feveral petals arranged in a circular form. The cup is hollowed, and funnel fafhioned, and from it there arifes a piftil, which finally be- comes a fruit, refcmbling a cherry, foft, and enclofing a ftone with a roundifh kernel. Twrn. Inft. p. 629. The fpecies of laurel enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. I .The common laurel,md 2.The fmaller Portugal laurel. The diftilled water and the infufion of the leaves of the lauro-cerafus are poifonous ; both the water and the infufion having been obferved to bring on convulfions, pally, and death, when taken by the mouth, or anus. This was difcovered by the accident of two women dyina- fuddenly at Dublin, after drinking fome of the common diftilled laurel water. Several experiments were then made on dogs, and communicated to the Royal Society by Dr. Madden, and afterwards confirmed by Dr. Mortimer, which plainly fhewed the poifonous effeft of laurel water! See Phil. Tranf. N°4i8, 420.
The lauro-cerafus being an ever-green, and abounding with a warm effential oil, it was at firit imagined that other ever- greens might partake of the fame poifonous quality. But by Dr. Madden's experiments made on the leaves of the yew tree, and on box leaves no fuch quality appeared. Phil. Tranf. N°4l8.
The expreffed juice of laurel leaves had the like poifonous effect s with the diftilled water and the decoction. Several things were tried as antidotes to this poifon, as bole, vinegar, and milk. The two former did little good, but the dog which drank the milk recovered, without any bad fymptoms.
LAUROTAXA, in botany, a name ufed by'Columna and fome other authors for the narrow leaved kind of rufcus or butcher's broom, called by others biflmgua. See the ar- ticle Ruscus.
LAURUS, the bay, in botany, the name of a genus of plants the charaflers of which are thefe. The flower is compofed 3 of
