Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/729

 LUPERCALIA LUPINE 723 and senator. He began to write and publish poetry at an early age. A small volume of his poems appeared in 1839, and another in 1843 entitled " The Age of Gold." In 1845 he de- livered a poem before the Boston mercantile library association called " Culture," which was afterward published. In 1848 he removed to Boston, and in the following year was appoint- ed by President Taylor United States district attorney for Massachusetts, and held the office till March, 1853. In 1857 he became editor of the " Boston Courier," a democratic daily journal, which he conducted for many years. He has published a volume of poems entitled "The Dove and the Eagle" (1851); "Lyric Poems " (1854) ; " Julia" (1855); "Eastford, or Household Sketches " (a novel), under the pseudonyme of Westley Brooke (1855) ; " Three Eras of New England, and other Writings" (1857); "Radicalism in Keligion, Philosophy, and Social Life" (1858); and "Origin of the Late War " (1866). LUPERCALIA, the ancient Roman festival of purification and expiation, celebrated annually on the 15th of February (a month called from Februa, another name for the festival), in honor of Lupercus (surnamed Februus, from februum, a purgation), the god of fertility. The appropriate sacrifices were goats and dogs, after the offering of which two patrician youths were led forward to. the altar, and one of the priests touched their foreheads with a sword dipped in the blood of the victims; another immediately washed off the stain with wool and milk. The priests next partook of a ban- quet, at which they were plentifully supplied with wine. This over, they cut the skins of the goats that had been sacrificed into pieces, with some of which they covered parts of their bodies, in imitation of Lupercus, who was rep- resented half naked, and half clad in goat skins ; with the other pieces, cut into thongs, they ran through the streets, striking every person whom they met, especially females, who courted the flagellation from an opinion that it averted sterility and the pangs of par- turition. Antony, on the day when he offered Caesar the diadem, was officiating as a priest of Lupercus. The ceremonies of this festival are supposed to have symbolized the purifica- tion of the people. The order of the Luperci, said to have been instituted by Romulus and Remus, formed a college of which none could originally be members save the noblest patrician youths. This college at first consisted of two classes, styled the Fabiani and Quintiliani, to which Cassar added a third, named Juliani ; and hence the two former classes are termed by later writers Luperci veteres. LUPINE, the common name of plants of the genus lupinus. There is some doubt as to the origin of the name, but most authors regard it as coming from lupus, a wolf, and as having reference to the voracity of the plants in de- vouring the fertility of the soil. The genus belongs to the papilionaceous suborder of the great family of leguminosce, and contains about 80 species, some 56 of which are North Amer- ican ; the remainder are South American, with a few in the Mediterranean region. The coun- try between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific is so rich in these plants as to be known to botanists as the lupine region. The species are herbs or half-shrubby plants, and comprise both annuals and perennials, with simple or digitately compound leaves, and flowers mostly in terminal racemes ; the flow- ers are usually showy, mostly blue, though some are white, yellow, and variegated ; the stamens are united into a tube by their fila- ments; the pod flattened, with thick valves, and often constricted between the rather large seeds. One species, the common wild lupine (L. perennis), is found from Canada to Flori- da, and as far west as the valley of the Platte ; it is common in sandy soils, and is sometimes found in such abundance as to exclude almost all other vegetation. Its stem is erect and somewhat hairy; its leaves are digitate, con- sisting of from eight to ten lanceolate wedge- shaped leaflets, arranged around the end of the petiole; its flowers, on a terminal spike, are blue, or sometimes rose-colored, and specimens have been found with pure white flowers. The root is perennial, and throws up each succes- sive season increasing flowering stems ; it grows readily from the seeds. A natural patch of these charming plants overspreading a large area of sand, clothing the barren waste with beauty, cannot fail to attract the eye. Artificially propagated, the wild lupine suc- ceeds best when raised from seeds, and in such Many-leaved Lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus). cases blossoms in the second or third year. The other eastern species are L. mllosus and L. dif- fusus, both perennials with simple and very silky leaves; these are not found north of Georgia and North Carolina. The most wide- ly known species of the Pacific coast is the