The red larch grows usually on higher and drier ground, ranging from the Virginian mountains to the shores of Hudson Bay; the black larch is found often on moist land, and even in swamps. The hackmatack is one of the most valuable timber trees of America; it is in great demand in the ports of the St Lawrence for shipbuilding. It is far more durable than any of the oaks of that region, is heavy and close-grained, and much stronger, as well as more lasting, than that of the pines and firs of Canada. In many parts all the finer trees have been cut down, but large woods of it still exist in the less accessible districts; it abounds especially near Lake St John, Quebec, and in Newfoundland is the prevalent tree in some of the forest tracts; it is likewise common in Maine and Vermont. In the timber and building yards the “red” hackmatack is the kind preferred, the produce, probably, of L. microcarpa; the “grey” is less esteemed; but the varieties from which these woods are obtained cannot always be traced with certainty. Several fine specimens of the red larch exist in English parks, but its growth is much slower than that of L. europaea; the more pendulous forms of L. pendula are elegant trees for the garden. The hackmatacks might perhaps be grown with advantage in places too wet for the common larch.
In western America a larch (L. occidentalis) occurs more nearly resembling L. europaea. The leaves are short, thicker and more rigid than in any of the other larches; the cones are much larger than those of the hackmatacks, egg-shaped or oval in outline; the scales are of a fine red in the immature state, the bracts green and extending far beyond the scales in a rigid leaf-like point. The bark of the trunk has the same reddish tint as that of the common larch of Europe. It is the largest of all larches and one of the most useful timber trees of North America. Some of the trees are 250 ft. high and 6 to 8 ft. in diameter. The wood is the hardest and strongest of all the American conifers; it is durable and adapted for construction work or household furniture.
LARCHER, PIERRE HENRI (1726–1812), French classical scholar and archaeologist, was born at Dijon on the 12th of October 1726. Originally intended for the law, he abandoned it for the classics. His (anonymous) translation of Chariton’s Chaereas and Callirrhoë (1763) marked him as an excellent Greek scholar. His attack upon Voltaire’s Philosophie de l’historie (published under the name of l’Abbé Bazin) created considerable interest at the time. His archaeological and mythological Mémoire sur Vénus (1775), which has been ranked with similar works of Heyne and Winckelmann, gained him admission to the Académie des Inscriptions (1778). After the imperial university was founded, he was appointed professor of Greek literature (1809) with Boissonade as his assistant. He died on the 22nd of December 1812. Larcher’s best work was his translation of Herodotus (1786, new ed. by L. Humbert, 1880) on the preparation of which he had spent fifteen years. The translation itself, though correct, is dull, but the commentary (translated into English, London, 1829, new ed. 1844, by W. D. Cooley) dealing with historical, geographical and chronological questions, and enriched by a wealth of illustration from ancient and modern authors, is not without value.
See J. F. Boissonade, Notice sur la vie et les écrits de P. L. (1813); F. A. Wolf, Literarische Analecten, i. 205; D. A. Wyttenbach, Philomathia, iii. (1817).
LARCIUS (less accurately Lartius), TITUS, probably surnamed Flavus, a member of an Etruscan family (cf. Lars Tolumnius, Lars Porsena) early settled in Rome. When consul in 501 B.C. he was chosen dictator (the title and office being then introduced for the first time) to command against the thirty Latin cities, which had sworn to reinstate Tarquin in Rome. Other authorities put the appointment three years later, when the plebeians refused to serve against the Latins until they had been released from the burden of their debts. He opposed harsh measures against the Latins, and also interested himself in the improvement of the lot of the plebeians. His brother, Spurius, is associated with Horatius Cocles in the defence of the Sublician bridge against the Etruscans.
See Livy ii. 10, 18, 21, 29; Dion. Halic. v. 50-77, vi. 37; Cicero, De Re Publica, ii. 32.
LARD (Fr. lard, from Lat. laridum, bacon fat, related to Gr. λαρινός fat, λαρός dainty or sweet), the melted and strained fat of the common hog. Properly it is prepared from the “leaf” or fat of the bowel and kidneys, but in commerce the term as applied to products which include fat obtained from other parts of the animal and sometimes containing no “leaf” at all. Lard of various grades is made in enormous quantities by the great pork-packing houses at Chicago and elsewhere in America. “Neutral lard” is prepared at a temperature of 40°–50° C. from freshly killed hogs; the finest quality, used for making oleomargarine, is got from the leaf, while the second, employed by biscuit and pastry bakers, is obtained from the fat of the back. Steam heat is utilized in extracting inferior qualities, such as “choice lard” and “prime steam lard,” the source of the latter being any fat portion of the animal. Lard is a pure white fat of a butter-like consistence; its specific gravity is about 0.93, its solidifying point about 27°–30° C., and its melting point 35°–45° C. It contains about 60% of olein and 40% of palmitin and stearin. Adulteration is common, the substances used including “stearin” both of beef and of mutton, and vegetable oils such as cotton seed oil: indeed, mixtures have been sold as lard that contain nothing but such adulterants. In the pharmacopoeia lard figures as adeps and is employed as a basis for ointments. Benzoated lard, used for the same purpose, is prepared by heating lard with 3% of powdered benzoin for two hours; it keeps better than ordinary lard, but has slightly irritant properties.
Lard oil is the limpid, clear, colourless oil expressed by hydraulic pressure and gentle heat from lard; it is employed for burning and for lubrication. Of the solid residue, lard “stearine,” the best qualities are utilized for making oleomargarine, the inferior ones in the manufacture of candles.
See J. Lewkowitsch, Oils, Fats and Waxes (London, 1909).
LARDNER, DIONYSIUS (1793–1859), Irish scientific writer, was born at Dublin on the 3rd of April 1793. His father, a solicitor, wished his son to follow the same calling. After some years of uncongenial desk work, Lardner entered Trinity College, Dublin, and graduated B.A. in 1817. In 1828 he became professor of natural philosophy and astronomy at University College, London, a position he held till 1840, when he eloped with a married lady, and had to leave the country. After a lecturing tour through the principal cities of the United States, which realized £40,000, he returned to Europe in 1845. He settled at Paris, and resided there till within a few months of his death, which took place at Naples on the 29th of April 1859.
Though lacking in originality or brilliancy, Lardner showed himself to be a successful popularizer of science. He was the author of numerous mathematical and physical treatises on such subjects as algebraic geometry (1823), the differential and integral calculus (1825), the steam engine (1828), besides hand-books on various departments of natural philosophy (1854–1856); but it is as the editor of Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1830–1844) that he is best remembered. To this scientific library of 134 volumes many of the ablest savants of the day contributed, Lardner himself being the author of the treatises on arithmetic, geometry, heat, hydrostatics and pneumatics, mechanics (in conjunction with Henry Kater) and electricity (in conjunction with C. V. Walker). The Cabinet Library (12 vols., 1830–1832) and the Museum of Science and Art (12 vols., 1854–1856) are his other chief undertakings. A few original papers appear in the Royal Irish Academy’s Transactions (1824), in the Royal Society’s Proceedings (1831–1836) and in the Astronomical Society’s Monthly Notices (1852–1853); and two Reports to the British Association on railway constants (1838, 1841) are from his pen.
LARDNER, NATHANIEL (1684–1768), English theologian, was born at Hawkhurst, Kent. After studying for the Presbyterian ministry in London, and also at Utrecht and Leiden, he took licence as a preacher in 1709, but was not successful. In 1713 he entered the family of a lady of rank as tutor and domestic chaplain, where he remained until 1721. In 1724 he was appointed to deliver the Tuesday evening lecture in the Presbyterian chapel, Old Jewry, London, and in 1729 he became assistant minister to the Presbyterian congregation in Crutched Friars. He was given the degree of D.D. by Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1745. He died at Hawkhurst on the 24th of July 1768.
An anonymous volume of Memoirs appeared in 1769; and a life by Andrew Kippis is prefixed to the edition of the Works of Lardner, published in 11 vols., 8vo in 1788, in 4 vols. 4to in 1817, and 10 vols. 8vo in 1827. The full title of his principal work—a work which, though now out of date, entitles its author to be regarded as the founder of modern critical research in the field of early Christian literature—is The Credibility of the Gospel History; or the Principal Facts of the New Testament confirmed by Passages of Ancient Authors,
