Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/380

 374 LETTER OF MARQUE LETTUCE LETTER OF MARQUE. See PEIVATEEK. LETTIC RACE, a northwestern subdivision of the Letto- Slavic or Slavo-Lettic group of the Aryan or Indo-European family, embra- cing the Lithuanians, Old Prussians, and Letts. The Lithuanians, the inhabitants of the an- cient grand principality of Lithuania, are dis- tinguished as Lithuanians proper, who occupy the eastern portion of the Russian govern- ments of Kovno, Wilna, Oourland, and Grodno, and number about 750,000; Samogitians or Shamaites, who inhabit ancient Samogitia, now mainly comprised in the government of Kovno, numbering about 500,000; and Prussian Lithu- anians, of the N". E. portion of East Prussia, numbering about 150,000. The Old Prussians have been Germanized, and their language has been extinct since the iVth century; they in- habited the Baltic region between the Vistula and the Niemen. The Letts inhabit princi- pally Oourland, Vitebsk, and Kovno; a few hundreds are found also in the governments of Pskov and St. Petersburg ; their number is estimated at about 1,000,000. The Lithuanian language has several dialects, of which the principal are the Lithuanian proper, O High Lithuanian, the Samogitian, and the Prussian Lithuanian. It is of great interest to the stu- dents of - the Aryan languages on account of the large number of archaic forms which it has preserved. Though several religious books, as translations of the Bible, hymn books, and cate- chisms, have been printed in it, the Lithuanian language has no literature proper. The Lithu- anians possess a large mass of songs (dainos), proverbs, and riddles, which have lately been gathered and published by Rhesa, Nesselmann, Schleicher, and others. In the last century a Lithuanian clergyman, Christian Donaleitis, composed several charming little poems. The Lettish language is of a more modern origin. It is heard in the purest form near Mitau, where recently several books have been published in it. The first printed Lettish book was a Luther- an catechism, which appeared in 1586. Sev- eral religious works have since appeared, and during the last 50 years an attempt has been made to translate into Lettish several popular German idyls and fairy tales. A national Let- tish literature is not entirely wanting. There have been composed in it several lyrical po- ems and plays by native authors, and several periodicals, mostly written by clergymen, are issued. The Old Prussian language is but lit- tle known. Nesselmann has made a collection of the last remains of it. (See LITHUANIA, and SLAVIC RACE AND LANGUAGES.) LETTRES DE CACHET. See CACHET, LET- TEES DE. LETTUCE, a plant of the natural order com- positce, the leaves of which are largely used as a salad. It has been cultivated in England for over 200 years, and has been known from the earliest times ; hence, as is the case with many cultivated plants, its native country is uncer- tain; Alphonse de Candolle (GeograpMe ~bo- tanique raisonne) says that he knows of no locality in which the plant appears to be really spontaneous, and he thinks it probable that the cultivated lettuce, usually called lactuca sativa, is only a form of the widely distributed L. scariola. Lettuce is an annual, at first forming a more or less compact cluster of leaves, or a head, which are exceedingly crisp and tender ; as the plant grows older it secretes an abun- dant, milky, bitter juice, and rapidly pushes up a flower stalk, 2 to 4 ft. high, which has nu- merous branches, the subdivisions of which are terminated by small heads of pale yellow ligulate flowers. The varieties in cultivation are numerous, new ones being offered every year ; these varieties are divided into two prin- cipal groups : the cabbage lettuces, which have rounded leaves and form a compact head like that of a cabbage, and the cos lettuces, which have firm and oblong leaves forming a long, erect head, largest above and tapering be- low. The seeds in some varieties are white, and in others yellow, brown, or black; some varieties produce white and black-seeded sub- varieties; such is the tendency to vary that each gardener largely engaged in lettuce grow- ing, by careful selection of plants for seed- bearing, soon establishes a subvariety or strain suited to his soil. Among the leading varieties are the Silesian, tennis-ball, and drumhead; the curled India is best for summer crops, and the Dutch and hardy green for wintering over. In the family garden lettuce is sown in the spring, transplanted when large enough, and consumed as it conies to perfection. Those who supply the markets pursue a very differ- ent method, as they must have it every month in the year. In some localities large areas are covered by the sashes of the salad growers, who by the use of fermenting manure produce crops all through the winter. Latterly pits or low greenhouses heated by hot water have been used for this purpose. The hot months of summer present the greatest difficulty to the lettuce grower, as the plants run up to seed too soon, though some varieties do this less readily than others. In the vicinity of New York many families are supported solely by the culti- vation of this plant, with perhaps radishes in