Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/974

 LAP

L A R.

Lapis lazuli. The method ~of making the Venetian coun- terfeit lapis lazuli is this. Melt in a pot, in a glafs-houfe furnace, equal quantities of the faireft lattimo, and the whiteft cryftalline glafs j when this is in fufion, mix into it, by fmall parcels at a time, the blue {malt ufed by the painters j make frequent proofs of the colour, and when it is right let the whole ftand twelve hours, and then work it. If the metal rife in the pot, put in a piece of leaf gold to keep it down; this makes a fine plain blue fubftance, reprefenting the plain blue parts of the true natural lapis lazuli. Neri's Art of Glafs, p. 117.

Lapis lazuli ftands recommended agaiuft apoplexies, epilep- fies, melancholy, and quartan agues; but its violent opera- tion, as a purgative and emetic, has frighted people out of the ufe of its anc * the prefent practice takes no notice of it in any of the above intentions. The chemical writers give us proceffesformagifteries, tinctures, and elixirs of lapis lazuli, but they are wholly out of ufe. Lapis lucis, the Jl one of light, in the materia medica of the Arabs, a name given to the brafly marcafite or py- rites. The Arabians have adopted this. Avifenna fup- pofes this fubftance to be called fo, becaufe it was ufed after calcination for difeafes of the eyes. It is very pro- bable, that where vitriolic medicines take place, the caput mortuum of this foflile, which is only a colcothar of vitriol, may be of ufe. But its virtues in this refpect can never be fuppofed fo eminent, as to have entitled it to the pompous name it bears. It feems more probable, that it was called the Jiene of light, either from its glittering ap- pearance where frefh broken, or from its giving large fparks of fire, when ftruck againft a fteel. It was from this qua- lity that it obtained the name of pyrites or fire ftone. It giv- ing fire on the collifion with fteel much better than flint does. Lapis luminis, is ufed by fomc authors, in the fame fenfe as lapis lucis, that is, for the pyrites. De Laet. de Lap. See Lapis lucis (apra. Lapis Lydius. See Lydius lapis.

Lapis muftcalis, the mufic Jhne, in natural hiftory, a name given by Mr. Sivcrs, to a ftone found in Pruffia, carrying naturally on it all the m.ufical characters found on the ihell, commonly called the mufic {hell. He defcribes the ftone, which feems to have been a fingle fpecimen, as being of a greyifh colour, and of the matter of the common finer fand ftones, ten inches in length, and feven in breadth. The lines which exprefs thofe of the common ruled mufic paper are continued length way through the ftone, and are of a reddifh colour; as are alfo the marks expreffing the notes, which are partly of the common modern character, and partly of that kind ufed by the Monks in their writing mufic on vellum. There feems to be no regular origin af- fignable to this ftrange ftone; and as this author is the only one who ever met with it, it is much to be fufpected that either fraud or fancy has had a great fhare in the matter. Lapis Nephrhicus. See Nephriticus lapis, Cycl. RAPIDES Picli, in natural hiftory, a term ufed by Langtus, to exprefs fuch ftones as are found with the delineations of fifties, trees, and fhells, as well as leaves of ferns and other plants, very perfectly reprefenting the things themfelves, but fcarce at all ftanding out above the furface of the ftone, and having in themfelves fcarce any thicknefs. The foflile bodies, which have been once parts of animals or vegetables, and are thence called by authors extraneous foffils, have ufually the fame thicknefs, that the natural bodies, whofe figures they reprefent, have. Thus our fnail, wilk, and other fea fhells which we find buried in ftone, ufually are not only as long, but as thick as thofe now found recent in the feas; but it is very certain, that the figures of fifhes found in ftone are often mere lineaments, and only repre- fent figures traced out with a pencil, not the bodies of the fifh themfelves buried in the ftone. Thefe laft are what this author feparates from the common kinds, under the names of lapides picli \ and we find fomething of this kind 'among the {hell clafs as well as the fifh; fome of our own blackflate ftones beingfull of fcallop fhells, and cornuaammonis, which have fo little thicknefs, that twenty beds of them lie over one another, in the compafs of the fixth of an inch. We have been ufed to attribute this to preifure j but however well this might ferve to explain the flatnefs of the repre- fentation of a fifh in a hard ftone, as it is not difficult to imagine fo foft a body eafily compreffed by fo hard a one; yet it feems ftrange, that in a foft and crumbly ftate, fuch friable bodies as fhells are, fhould have been thus flatted, and yet not broken to pieces. The opinion of Langius is, that in thefe cafes the body of the animal is not there, but that as when a branch of rofemary, or any other plant, is carefully burnt, the afhes will perfectly preferve its form, though their whole fubftance might be reduced by prefliire to the thinnefs of a piece of paper; fo in thefe cafes the body of the animal reprefented has been decayed and cor- rupted, but that fome of its remaining principles, its ful- phurs, as he fuppofes, might preferve its exact lineaments to the ftone, as we fee them. It is difficult to conceive that thefe bodies fhould be thus diffolved, while in a ftate of fuch perfect reft, as that not one lineament mould be loft, ox

one fmall part feparated from the reft, and carried away from fo foft a mafs; but till fome future writer {hall advance a better fyftem, this may deferre a place. . The other kind of lapides picli, or painted ftones, are thofe which give de- lineations of rivers, trees, houfes, and the like j of this kind are the mocoa ftone, and the florentine marble. It is very evident, that the bodies reprefented are not here, in reality, but the whole configuration is owing to the natural veins of the ftone, and the coalefcence of the feveral fmaller malTcs of which each large ftone is compofed, and to the vapours from within the earth, getting into the natural fine cracks in the ftones, and tinging their fides with blacknefs. Lang. Hift. Lapid. Helvet. LAPPAGO, in botany, a name given by the old Roman au- thors, to the plant we call aparine, or clivers, or fome herb nearly allied to it.

Many of the modern Greeks have been erroneoufly of opi- nion,' that the lappago of the Romans was the fame with the pheos or hippopheos of the Greeks; but it is evident, that the pheos of the Greeks was a prickly flirub. Thcophraftus abfolutely defcribes it as fuch, and Diofcorides yet more at large; yet Gaza interprets the pirns of the firft author lap* pago, though that was, by all account, only a low her- baceous plant. The lappago of the Romans is no where faid to be a prickly plant. Pliny fays it refembles the anagallis, a fmall and tender herb; but that it is more branched, and has more numerous and rough leaves. Diofcorides faysj that the antirrhinum is like the anagallis in ftalks and leaves, and Theophraftus refembles the fame plant to the aparine. Pliny's account of the antirrhinum is different indeed from this j but though many have, for that reafon, fuppofed the text both in Theophraftus and Diofcorides corrupt, it appears to be right in both; and the whole matter is, that the antirrhinum of the Greeks, and antirrhinum of the Romans were two different plants; but both thefe and all the other defcri prions given of the lappago, and the refem- blances mentioned between it and other plants, and compa- nions of other plants to it feem to exprefs, that it was a very rough and tenacious plant, having feveral leaves growing from every joint, and bearing a fruit; which, by reafon of its roughnefs, and its property of fticking to peoples clothes, had fome refemblance to the lappa, or burs, as we call them, which grow upon tiie common burdock. Pliny tranflates the aparine of Theophraftus, where he copies his accounts from that author, fometimes by the word lappago, tho' fometimes by lappa; hence, it fhould feem, that lappago and. lappa were efteemed fynonymous terms at that time. Theo- phraftus has peculiarly defcribed the flower and fr unification of the aparine; and Pliny has in his way translated the ac- count, ufing the word lappa as the name for sparine. In another part of the fame book he tranflates it lappago, where he mentions two kinds of it, the (bit and the rough, which he calls molhtgo and afperugo. The mcllugo feems to have been the fame plant we ftill call by that name, an herb refembling the aparine in its whole exterior face, and manner of growing, but being wholly fmooth. The name afperugo here plainly meant the common aparine or clivers, but we have fince appropriated it to another plant. LAPPULA, in botany, a name given by fome to the great caucalis, or rough fruited ftone parfley. J. Bauhin, V. 3. p. 80. See Caucalis. LARBASON, a word ufed by fome authors as a name for

antimony. See Antimony. LAP GE, in the manege. A horfe is faid to go large, or wide, when he gains or takes in more ground in going wider from the center of the volt, and defcribing a greater circumference. To make a horfe go large you muft give him the aid of your inner heel. See Enlarge. Large, in mufic. See Character, Cycl. LARGHETTO, in the Italian mufic, fignifies a movement fomething flow, yet a little quicker than largo. — V. Bra IT. Muf. Didt. in Voc. See Largo. LARGO, in the Italian mufic, a flow movement, one degree quicker than grave and two than adagio. See Adagio and Grave. LARIX, the larch tree, in botany, the name of a genus of trees, the characters of which are thefe. The Bower is of the amentaceous kind, being compofed of a number of apices; but it is barren, the embryo fruits appearing in other parts of the tree. Thefe finally become a fort of cones, com- pofed of a number of fcales affixed to an axis, and contain- ing under them a number of foliated feeds. To this it is to be added, that the leaves grow many together out of the fame theca. Tourn. Inft. p. 5S6.

The fpecies of lartx enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. 1. The common larch tree. 1. The oriental lartx with round obtufe fruit. 3. The American larix, with leaves growing, five out of the fame theca; and 4, The Canada larix with very long leaves.

There are two fpecies of this tree cultivated in the gardens about London; the one is the common kind, the other has white rudiments to the fruit. They are propagated by {ow- ing in March on a bed of light earth expofed to the morn- ing fun. The feed muft be covered half an inch thick

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