Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/1034

 LUC

be made up in the other. The beft feafon for planting it in England is early in the fpring, the earlier the better, for then there is always moiflure enough in the earth to make it grow, and not lb much heat as would dry up its tender roots, and kill it after the firft {hooting. About a pound and half of feed will be fuflicient for an acre ; and if this be Town in February, though fomc of the young plants will be defboyed by the froths in Match, yet there will be enough left of them for the making as thick a crop as is necefiary. The planting it in autumn might do very well, in hotter countries, but with us the long winters would kill a great part of the tender plants, and greatly ftunt and injure thofe which they did not kill. The number of lucerne plants fhould be l'efs than thofe of faint fuin to an acre, becaufe they grow much larger in this way of management, and each occupies a greater fpace of ground, and produces a larger quantity of hay. The quick growth of this plant requires that it fhould have large fupplies of nourifhment, and good room to grow in, and it is better in all things of this kind to err in fetting the plants too far diftant than in fetting them too near.

The moft fatal difeafe incident to lucerne is ftarving ; for tins reafon good culture is necefiary to it, and the often turning the earth with the hoe all about it. By this means, a plant, that in the common way of fowing, would not have been more than four or five inches high will be three feet, and will fpread every way, fo as to produce a quantity of hay, more like the cutting of a fhrub than a plant. The plants fhould ftand at five inches diftance in fingle rows, and the intervals between thefc rows muft be left wide enough for the ufe of the hoe plow. The rows" of lucerne plants muft not be thinned till they are grown up to fome height ; for while young they arc fub- ject to be eaten by the fly, like turnips ; and if this de- ftroyer fhould fcize them, after they are reduced to only a competent number, the crop would be rendered much too thin. The hoe plow is the only inftrument that can bring this plant to perfection, and it muft be frequently had in pro- portion to the number of crops it produces ; but then it muft be ftill fome years, left the plowed ground injure the hay that is made upon it; and when it is come to a turf, and the lucerne wants renewing, the four coultered plow is the only inftrument that can prepare the turf to be killed, and cure "the lucerne. This plow muft be ufed in the follow- ing manner : turn its furrows toward one row, and from the next; ihat is, plow round one row, and that will finifh two intervals ; and fo of the reft. The next plowing muft be towards thofe rows from which they were turned the firft time, and care muft be taken that the firft furrows do not lie long enough on the rows to kill the plants, which will be much longer in winter than in fummer. Lucerne is to be made into hay in the fame manner as faint foin ; but this is to be obferved, that it is always to be cut juft before it comes to flower. The richeft lucerne hay of any is that cut while the ftalks are fingle, without any col- lateral branches, and in this cafe there ufually is not fo much as the bud of a flower to be feen on the plants. Lucerne can never be expected to fuccccd well any where, let the foil be ever fo good, unlefs it be kept clean from na- tural grafs. Tail's Hufbandry, p. 102.

Lucerne, in ichthyology, a name given by the Venetians to the fifh commonly called the uranefcape. It is a fpecies of Trachinus, with many beards on the lower jaw.

LUCIDA (Cycl.) — Lucida hydra?) in aftronomy. See Cor hydra;, Cycl.

LUCIOLA, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the ophloglofGim, or adder's tongue, Gcr. Emac. hid. 2.

LUCIOPERCA, the pike pearch, a fifh caught in the Da- nube and other large rivers, and in the lakes of Germany, and efteemed a very good one for the tabic. Others have called it by the names fchilus and nagumulus. It is a fifh that grows to a very confiderable fize, being frequently _ caught from two feet to three or four in length. It is of a longer fhape than the river pearch, and grows narrower toward the tail ; its fnout is alfo more pointed and longer, and its back much lefs prominent than that of the common pearch. Its figure, upon the whole, more approaches to that of the pike than of the pearch ; its belly is however broad and flat; and on the anterior part of the back, toward the head, there is a furrow in the middle. Thcfcalcs are ranged very ciofely together, and are fimbriated round their edges. The breaft has no kales. The fides are of the fame colour with thofe of the common pearch, a yellow ifh brown, and its belly and fins are red, but lefs fo than in the common pearch. Ray's Ichthyog. p. 292.

"LUCIUS, in zoology, the name of the common river fifh, called in Engi'ifla the jack, or pike, and by fome the pickerel. It is a well known nth, and very frequent in our ponds, lakes, and rivers, and grows to a very great fize, often weight- ing from fifteen to thirty pounds. It is a very voracious fifh, feed- ing on others, and often feizing i'uch as are but little lefs than itfelf. It is often found in ponds where the owners never in- tended it&ould come, and devours multitudes of fmall fifh. It is faid that it will be produced in thefe places from the fpawn

LUG.

eaten by herons, and voided in them. Ray's Ichdiyog. p. 236.

Many authors have treated of the common pike under the names of three fpecies ; thefe are diftinguifhed by the dif- ferent times of fpawning, and have no real characters to diftinguifh them by ; though they are called by three names, as if To many diftinct forts of fifh. The firft is the giadda, that is the Indus glacialis or ice-pike. This is common in the lakes of Sweden, and fpawns in the fpring time under the ice. The fecond is called the hlomjier-giadda, that is the flower pike. It has this name from its time of fpawning, which is at a more advanced feafon, when the flowers begin to open in jhe fields. The third is called fro-giadda, or the feed pike. This fpawns much later in the feafon, as in Au- guft and September, and is thus called from the plants being in feed at that time. But the fifh is the fame fpecies, under all thefe differences of time of fpawning, and the diftinctions therefore idle and unnecefTary. Artedi's Ichthyol.

Lucius marinus, the fea pike, a name given by fome authors to the fifh more ufually called the vicrlucha, and in Englifh. the bake. IFillughby's Hift. Pifc. p. 174. See the article Merlucius.

Lucius marinus, is alfo ufed by many authors for the fudis, called alfo by fome fphyreena* Aldrovand. de Pifc. p; 102. See the article Sums.

Lucius terreflris, the land pike, in zoology, the name of a very fingular fpecies of American lizard, which has the fhape, fcales, c?V. of the pike fifh. In the place of the fins of that fifh it has four legs, but thefe are fo weak and /len- der that it makes no ufe of them in walking, but crawls along upon the ground in the manner of a fnake, and draws its legs after it. It grows to about fifteen inches long, with a proportionable thicknefs. It is all over covered with fmall, ftrong, and glofly fcales, of a filvery grey. In the night they retire into holes and caverns, and make a very difagreeable and loud noife, much louder than the croaking of frogs. They fcldom ftir out of their holes, unlefs in the dufk of the evening ; and if they are ever met with in the day time, their ftrange motion furprizes all who fee them. Rochefort's Hifl>Inf. Antill.

LUCULLEUM manmr, in the natural hiftory of the antients, the name of a hard ftony kind of marble, of a good fine black, and capable of an elegant polim, but little regarded from its want of variegations. When frefh broken, it is feen to be full of fmall, but very bright fhining particles, ap- pearing like fo many fmall fpangles of talc. It had its name from the Roman conful Lucullus, who firft brought it into ufe in that city. It is common in Italy, Germany, and France. We have much of it imported, and our artificers call it the narnur marble, the Spaniards call it marble of buga. Hill's Hift. of FofT. p. 466.

LUDUS (Cycl.) — Lqdus hehnontii, in natural hiftory, an opake foflile of an irregular fhape, but of a very regular and fingular internal ftructure. It is of an earthy hue, and al- ways divided into feparate mattes, by a number of veins of a different colour, and purer matter than the reft. Thefe mafles, into which it is divided, are fometimes fmall and pretty regularly figured ; in which cafe, they are called tali or ludi, dice ; but they are more frequently of no regular fhape at all. There are others of them cruftated or com- pofed of many coats, difpofed one over another about a central nucleus. In thefe the fepta, or dividing veins, are very thin and fine, in the others thicker. It is only thefe fepta that are ufed in medicine, being given in nephritic complaints with fuccefs. The dofe is from a fcruple to a dram.

LUDWIGIA, in the Linn^an fyftem of botany, the name of a genus of plants, the diftinguifhing characters of which are thefe. The cup Is a perianthium compofed of one leaf, di- vided into four fegments, fituated on the germen of the pi- ftil, and remaining after the flower is fallen ; the feg- ments of the cup are pointed, fpread very wide, and of the fame length with the petals of the flower. The flower is compofed of four petals all of the fame fize, fpread wide open, flat, and cordated. The framina are four erect, pointed, fhort filaments. The anthers are fimple, erect, and oblong. The germen of the piftil is fquare, and is cloathed with the bafis of the cup under the receptacle of the flower. The ftyle is cylindric, and of the length of the ftamina, and the ftigma is fomewhat fquared and headed. The fruit is an obtufe, fquare capfule, covered with, and crowned by the cup ; it contains four cells, and opens four ways. The feeds are numerous and fmall. Linntsi Gen. Plant, p. 49.

LXJG-a-lcaf, a name ufed in fome parts of England for a fmall fifh of the turbot kind, or rather a middle kind, between that and the plaife. The fame with the fiaggio. WHlughby* Hift. Pifc. p. 95. See the article Soaggio.

LUGGS, the Englifh name for a peculiar fpecies of infect, found in great plenty on the fbores of Cornwal. It is of the nature of the fcohpendra, and is called by Mr. Ray vermis fcohpendroides. It grows to twelve inches long, and has inftead of legs nineteen pair of ftiflf briftles, thefe all ftand toward the head part of the creature. The tail being

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