Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/971

 .LAN

gular whitifh fpots. The fkin is tough, but much thinner than that of the eel. Its mouth is rounded, and it lays fo faft hold of rocks, or wood, with this, that it feems to fuck them, and fticks fo firmly, as not to be eafily removed. It can however contract this mouth lengtliwife, and fhut it at pleafure. It has a white fpot in the middle of its forehead, between the eyes, and before that a hole, furrounded with a thin membrane, by which it admits the water and air, while its mouth lies clofely on the rock. The gills are placed within fevcn round holes on each fide, and the edge of its mouth is furrounded with a range of fhort fibrilhe which have by fome been miftaken for teeth ; but are really of no other ufe, than to affix its mouth the more firmly. Its teeth are placed within its mouth, and there are twenty rows of them, the inner ones being the larger. Thefe are difpofed in rows from the center toward the circumference, and are five, fix, or feven in a row.

It is a fifli that equally lives in fait and frefh water. In the month of March it commonly runs up into the rivers, and is then moft valuable for the table, as being fat and full of eggs. Gefner, de Aquat. p. 696.

The lamprey-eel is the eeheneis of Oppian, and fome other of the old Greek writers, and the galaxies of Galen. It is very different from what we call the lampern, though of the fame genus. See Lampern and Lampetra.

LAMPRILLON, or Lampreyon, a name by which fome authors have called that particular fpecies of lamprey,which we by way of diftinaion call lampern. U/illughby, Hift. Pifc. p. 104. See Lampern.

LAMPSANA, nipplewort, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the charaSers of which are thefe. The flower is compofed of a number of femiftofcules, placed on the em- bryo's, and contained in a one leaved jagged cup, which finally becomes a firiated feed veffel, containing narrow and pointed feeds.

There is no other fpecies of this plant, but the common nipplewort. Tourn. Hift. p. 479.

LAMPUGA, in zoology, a name given by fome authors to the fifh more ufually known by the name of Jlromateus. Mllugbby, Hift. Pifc. p. 156. See the article Stroma-

TEUS.

LAMPUGO, in ichthyography, a name given by many to the hippurus, a fea fifh, caught on the coaft of Spain, and fuppofed by fome to be the fame with the dorado. TVil- lughby, Hift. Pifc. p. 213. See Hippurus.

LANARIA, or Herba Lanaria, in botany, a name given by the antient Romans to a plant called Jlruthium by the Greeks, and ufed in the cleanfing of wool. The plant was of the thiftle kind, and had large roots, and very prickly leaves. Some have fuppofed that the chafcufa of the antients was the fame with the lanaria herba, or Jlruthium ; but this appears to be a great error, for the chafcufa of the Greeks is the an- tirrhinum of the Latins, which Pliny defcribes to have leaves like flax.

LANATA, in botany, a name given by Cordus, and fome other authors, to the aria Theephrajli, or white beam tree. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

LA\CARIM fpring, the name of a medicated water of Gla- morganfhire. It has its name from a town near which it rtfes, and has been very long famous in the place for the cure of the king's evil. The body of water is about an ell broad, and runs between two hills covered with wood. About twelve yards from this fpring the rill falls from a rock of about eight or nine feet high, with a confiderable noife. The fpring is very clear, and rifes out of a pure white marl. The cures that have been performed there are proofs of a real power in the water ; but there is fome queftion, whether the water, or its motion and coldnefs does the good ; for the people, who come for relief, always drink of the fpring, and bath the part afterwards in the fall below. It is Ge- nerally fuppofed that the lime-ftone rocks communicate a virtue to it, by which it cures internally ; but it has been often found, that the holding a limb difordered with the evil in the ftrong current of a mill tail, has cured it ; and there is the fame advantage in the fall of this water. Philof. Tranf. N J 233.

LANCEA Chrifli, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the ophioglojum, or adder's tongue, a fmall herb found ir moift places, with a fingle ftem of feeds. Ger. Emac Ind. 2.

LANCEARII, in middle age writers, foldiers whofe chief weapon was the lance. They were in great efteem for- merly. Pitifc. in voc.

LANCEOLA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to that fpecies of plantain called rib-wort, or plantago quinque- nervia, by moft authors. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

LANCEOLATED leaf, among botanifts. See Lea?.

LAND (Cycl.)-Clay Land. The clay lands in different parts of England are of different colours,, as blue, black, yellow, white, and red. Of thefe the black and the yellow are every where found the beft for corn ; the red is very good, but the white and the blue are the worft. Some of the blue in particular is of fuch a ftubborn nature and difpofition, that nothing can fubdue it ; and is fo greedy and voracious, that nothing will fatiate it, without the utmoft induftry. Some

LAN

day lands are more pinguid, and others more flippery, but all of them are very tenacious of water upon the furface, where it Magnates and chills the plant, inftead of penetrating and nourifhing it ; and in dry feafons they become fo hard, that the dews cannot penetrate them. Wheat, barley, grey peafe, and horfe beans, are the principal produce of thefe fort of lands ; and that the farmer may know which of his untried lands are of this kind, he mult obferve their natural produdions, and if he finds goofe-grafs, or chavers, with wild tanzy, great daifies, thirties, May weed, and fome red poppies, he may be allured the land that produces them is of this kind.

Some of thefe clays will bear exceeding good crops of clover, or rye grafs, and if well manured and fed, they will anfwer the expence by the richnefs of the crop. The beft manures for them are dung, particularly horfe dung, alhes, lime, foot, pigeons dung, malt duft, and the dung of fheep, by the folding them upon the land in different places. Marti* mer's Hufbandry, p. 68.

Clays hold the manure that is beftowed on them better than any other lands whatever, and yield the beft grain of any, efpecialiy where there is a mixture of lime-ftone with them. It is the common pra&ice of the farmers of England to fow thefe lands at firft breaking up with black oats; they then fallow them, and after this fow them with wheat or barley, and the etch crop with either oats, peafe, or beans.

Bog Land. See Bog.

Chalk Land. See Chalk.

Cbijley Land. See Chisley.

Gravelly Land. See Gravelly,

Marjb Land. See Marshes.

Meadow Land. See Meadow.

Sandy Land. See Sand.

Wood Land. See Wood.

"Burning of Land. See Burning.

Inclofing c/Land. See Inclosing of land.

Overflowing of Lands. See Overflowing.

Land layed, at fea. They fay the land is layed, when a flilp ia juft got out of fight of the land.

Land mark-, at fea, is any mountain, rock, fteeple, wind-mill, a tree, or the like, near the fea-fide, which ferve to direct fhips, patting by, how to fleer, fo as to avoid certain dan- gers, be they rocks, fhoals, whirlpools, &c.

Land Jbut in, at fea. When another point of land hinders the fight of that which a Ihip came from, then they fay the land is Jbut in,

Land to, at fea. When a fhip lies fo far from thefhore, that fhe can but juft ken land; then fhe is faid to lie land to.

Land turn, at fea, is a wind that blows from the fhore, in the night, at certain times, in moft hot countries.

Setting the Lakd, at fea, is obferving by the compafs how it bears.

Head Land, or Point of land, in the fea language, is that which lies farther out into the fea than the reft. See Point, Cape, &c. Cycl.

LANE, in the military art, is ufed when men are drawn up in two ranks facing one another. This is called ?naking a lane, and is generally done in the ftreets through which a great perfon is to pafs, as a mark of honour. But foldiers are often drawn up in this manner, when an offender is to run the gauntlet, each having a fmall wand or fwitch in his hand, to whip him as he panes.

LANGUENTE, in the Italian mufic, Is ufed to denote a lan- guishing and foft manner of ringing.

LANIS de crefcentia WalUa traducendis abfque cufluma, &V. art antient writ that lies to the cuftomer of a port, to permit one to pafs wool without paying cuftom, he having paid it before in Wales. Reg. Orig. 279. Blount, Cowel.

LANISTA, in antiquity, is fometimes ufed to fignify an executioner, but more frequently for a m after-gladiator, who taught the ufe of arms, and had always people under them, ready to exhibit fhews of that kind. For which purpofe, they either purchafed gladiators, or educated children, that had been expofed, in that art. Pitifc. in voc.

Lanista was alfo ufed to denote one who taught game- cocks to fight.

LANIUS, in zoology, the name of a fpecies of fhort winged hawk, called in Engliih the butcher bird. It is the fmalleft of all the European birds of prey, yet is very fierce and de- structive. Its beak is all the way ftrait, except juft at the end, where it is flightly hooked, and its tail fafhioned like that of the magpye, the outer feathers being the fhorteft, the reft gradually longer ; for which reafon fome have called it the pica. The antients called it the iyrannus, and in Englifh we fometimes alfo call it the Jhr ike. There are three fpecies of the lanius : 1. The common larger kind, called the mattagefs. 2. The fmaller, called the flu/her. See the articles Matt agess and Flusher. And 3. The lanius minor, or grey little butcher bird. See Tab. of Birds, N° 5. and Rays Ornitholog. p. 52.

Lanius minor cinereus, the little grey butcherbird, the name of a very fmall fpecies of the lanius. It has a white fpot on each fhoulder, and a tranfverfe black ftreak over the top of the beak. Its head is of a pale brown, and its

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