Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/275

Rh the and, sometimes in deep , but more frequently in shallow y places of the coast; probably it is much more common than is generally supposed, but easily escapes observation on account of the transparency of its body, and the rapidity with which it buries itself in the. It is noteworthy that the first two specimens from which the became known, although discovered at an interval of more than fifty s, were found on the  coast. The first fell into the hands of the n naturalist, who took it to be a , and described it in under the name of Limax lanceolatus. The second was found by in, who recognized it as a  and sent it to. Since then it has been met with on other parts of the coast, in, the , , , , , and. For further details of its organization we refer to the article.

 LANCEWOOD is a straight-grained, tough, light, elastic obtained from the and. It is brought into in the form of taper poles of about 20  in length and from 6 to 8  in diameter at the thickest end. Lancewood is principally used by -builders for shafts; but since, the practice of employing curved shafts has come largely into use it is not in so great demand as formerly. The smaller is used for -handles, for the tops of, and for various minor purposes where even grained elastic  is a desideratum. The is obtained from two species of Guatteria, a  belonging to the natural order Anonaceæ. The black lancewood or carisiri of (Guatteria virgata) is a  which grows to a height of 50, of remarkably slender form, and seldom yields  of more than 3  diameter. The yellow lancewood (yari-yari of ) is of similar dimensions, found in tolerable abundance throughout, and used by the  for -points, as well as for spars, beams, &c.

 LAN-CHOW-FOO, the chief of the  of, and one of the most important  of the interior part of the, stands on the right  of the. The is estimated by Gustav Kreitner ( expedition) at half a million in. The, with very few exceptions, are built of , but the are  with blocks of  and. , s,  and  s,  and  wares, s, and  are the chief articles of the local. is very extensively in the vicinity. Since the occupation of by the, the provincial  resides three s at  and three s at Lan-chow-foo.

 LANCIANO, the chief of a circle in the of,, is situated on three s, about 5 s from the  coast. It is one of the most beautiful in the, and has broad regular , and several fine s. The , an imposing structure with a fine -, is built upon s that span the gorge of the , and is dedicated to  of the. The es of and, built on the sites of  s, and the , also deserve notice. Although the and  of the  have declined, a considerable miscellany of s is still carried on. The, dealing with , , , , and , is the leading one; -working, -making, and the  of , , , &c., follow. There are four ly s. In the  was 8758; including the suburbs it was 15,342, or, embracing the, 17,340.

Lanciano claims a respectable antiquity, for, although Pliny’s Anxia or Anxa Frentanorum is to be placed about a from the present, there is no doubt that under the early the present site was occupied by a, as the oldest of the s on which the stands was erected by the  and people of Anxanum, under. During the Lanciano was of considerable importance, and enjoyed various privileges, chiefly of a  nature.  LANCRET, (1660–1743), was born in Paris on 22d January 1660, and became a brilliant painter of light comedy, but of light comedy which reflected the tastes and manners of French society under the regent Orleans. His first master was Pierre d’Ulin, but his acquaintance with and admiration for Watteau induced him to leave D’Ulin for Gillot, whose pupil Watteau had been. Two pictures painted by Lancret and exhibited on the Place Dauphine had a great success, which laid the foundation of his fortune, and, it is said, estranged Watteau, who had been complimented as their author. Lancret’s work cannot now, however, be taken for that of Watteau, for both in drawing and in painting his touch, although intelligent, is dry, hard, and wanting in that quality which distinguished his great model; these characteristics are due possibly in part to the fact that he had been for some time in training under an engraver. In 1719 he was received as Academician, and became councillor in 1735; in 1741 he married a grandchild of Boursault, author of Æsop at Court, but he survived his marriage only two s, dying, in his eighty-fourth, on 14th September 1743.

The number of his paintings (of which over eighty have been engraved) is immense; he executed a few portraits and attempted historical composition, but his favourite subjects were balls, fairs, village weddings, &c. The British Museum possesses an admirable series of studies by Lancret in red chalk, and the London National Gallery shows four paintings—the Four Ages of Man (engraved by Desplaces and L’Armessin), which have been cited by D’Argenville amongst the principal works of Lancret. See D’Argenville, Vies des Peintres; and Ballot, Éloge de M. Lancret.

 LAND, in the sense in which it will be used in this article, which treats especially of its possession and tenure, includes that portion of the earth of which industry has rendered either the surface or the mineral riches underneath available for human requirements. It forms thus the storehouse from which nearly all human wealth is drawn, since it nourishes the animals and plants which supply mankind with food and clothing, and yields the stone, the coal, and the metals which make existence possible and progressive. The history of its use is therefore a main element in the history of our race, and the manner of its tenure and employment lies at the root of political and economic science. In the present article it is proposed to sketch in outline the historical development of the ideas relating to land, and briefly to point out the leading principles which influence its tenure and beneficial employment under present circumstances.

The history of land commences with the division of men into tribes, for the division of tribes involves distinction of territory. The earliest age, when men lived solely on wild fruits or on the produce of the chase, may still be pictured to us in the habits of the North American Indians, while the second or pastoral stage is represented in modern times by the life of the Tartars of the Asian steppes. In both these conditions an immense tract of country is absorbed in the support of a small, but the hardships of existence, aided sometimes by organized systems of child-murder, serve to keep the inhabitants within the limits of subsistence. Under such circumstances each tribe jealously guards its own territory from intrusion by others, but within its range all members of the community have equal and unrestricted rights of use. Among civilized nations the principle still survives. Each modern nation claims a special ownership in the fisheries within a certain distance of its coasts; but among the inhabitants of these coasts there is a common right to fish in the s thus reserved. So also each modern state recognizes the shores as far as high 