Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/193

L A C L A C 181

Whatever style be adopted, it is essential that there should be a thick healthy growth of the hedges or shrubberies that confine the wanderer. The trees used should be impenetrable to the eye, and so tall that no one can look over them; and the paths should be of gravel and well kept. The trees chiefly used for the hedges, and the best for the purpose, are the hornbeam among deciduous trees, or the yew among evergreens. The beech might be used instead of the hornbeam on suitable soil. The green holly might be planted as an evergreen with very good results, and so might the American arbor vitæ if the natural soil presented no obstacle. The ground must be well prepared, so as to give the trees a good start, and a mulching of manure during the early years of their growth would be of much advantage to them. They must be kept trimmed in or clipped, especially in their earlier stages; trimming with the knife is much to be preferred to clipping with shears. It is not advisable to allow the hedge to run up too quickly or irregularly, so that any plants getting much in advance of the rest should be topped, and the whole kept to some 4 feet or 5 feet in height until the lower parts are well thickened, when it may be allowed to acquire the allotted height by moderate annual increments. In cutting, the hedge (as indeed all hedges) should be kept broadest at the base and narrowed upwards, which prevents it from getting thin and bare below by the stronger growth being drawn to the tops.

Fig. 4. – Maze at Hampton Court.

The maze in the gardens at Hampton Court Palace (fig. 4) is considered to be one of the finest examples in England. It was planted in the early part of the reign of William III., though it has been supposed that a maze had existed there since the time of Henry VIII. It is constructed on the hedge and alley system, and was, we believe, originally planted with hornbeam, but many of the plants have died out, and been replaced by hollies, yews, &c., so that the vegetation is mixed. The walks are about half a mile in length, and the extent of ground occupied is a little over a quarter of an acre. The centre contains two large trees, with a seat beneath each. The key to reach this resting place is to keep the right hand continuously in contact with the hedge from first to last, going round all the stops.

The maze in the gardens at Somerleyton Hall, near Lowestoft (fig. 5), was designed by Mr John Thomas. The hedges are of English yew, and are in very fine condition, without a break or flaw. They are about 6½ feet high, and have been planted a little over thirty years. In the centre is a grass mound, which is raised to the height of the hedges, and on this mound is erected a pagoda, which is approached by a curved grass path. At the two corners on the western side are banks of laurels some 15 or 16 feet high, which are kept trimmed with the knife. On each side of the hedges throughout the labyrinth is a small strip of grass.

Fig. 5.

There was also a labyrinth at Theobald's Park, near Cheshunt, when this place passed from the earl of Salisbury into the possession of James I. Another is said to have existed at Wimbledon House, the seat of Earl Spencer, which was probably laid out by Brown in the last century. There is an interesting labyrinth, somewhat after the Plan of fig. 2, at Mistley Place, Manningtree, the seat of the Rev. C. F. Norman.

Fig. 6. – Labyrinth in Horticultural Society's Garden.

When the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at South Kensington were being planned, the Prince Consort, the president of the society, especially desired that there should be a maze formed in the ante-garden, which was made in the form shown in fig. 6. This labyrinth, which was designed by the late Lieut. W. A. Nesfield, was for many years the chief point of attraction to the younger class of visitors to the gardens; but at last it was allowed to go to ruin, and had to be destroyed. (T. MO.)

LAC is a compound resinous and tinctorial incrustation formed on the twigs and young branches of various trees by an insect, Coccus lacca (Carteria lacca of Signoret), which infests them. The species of trees upon which it is principally obtained include Urostigma religiosa, U. indica, Croton laccifera, C. sanguifera, Aleurites laccifera, Carissa spinarum, Mimosa cinerea, Erythrina indica, Inga dulcis, Butea frondosa, Zizyphus Jujuba, Vismia laccifera, Feronia elephantum, and Vatica laccifera. Lac is a product of the East Indies, coming especially from Bengal, Pegu, Siam, and Assam. The insect which yields it is closely allied to the cochineal insect, Coccus cacti, kermes, C. ilicis, and Polish grains, C. polonicus, all of which, like the lac insect, yield a red dye colour. The term lac (Laksha, Sanskrit; Lakh, Hindi) is the same as the numeral lakh – a hundred thousand – and is indicative of the countless hosts of insects which make their appearance with every successive generation. Two evolutions of the young of the lac coccus make their appearance annually, one about the beginning of July and the other early in December. As soon as the minute larval insects make their appearance they fasten in myriads on the young shoots, and, inserting their long proboscides into the bark, draw their nutriment from the sap of the plant. The insects begin at once to exude the resinous secretion over their entire bodies, which forms in effect a cocoon, and, the separate exudations coalescing, a continuous hard resinous layer regularly honeycombed with small cavities is deposited