Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/463

LA BBUYEBE 387 LACCADIVES LA BBUYEBE, JEAN DE (la brii- yar'), a famous French moralist and satirist; born in Paris, August, 1645. Appointed tutor of the dauphin, he spent a large part of his life at the court of Louis XIV. His great v/ork, on which his reputation rests, is "The Characters of Theophrastus, Translated from the Greek, with the Characters or Manners of this Century" (1688). It abounds in wit, shows him to have been an excellent judge of men, and is written in an ad- mirable style. He died at Versailles, May 10, 1696. L ABU AN (la-bo-an'), an Island six miles from the N. W. coast of Borneo; area 30 hi square miles ; pop, about 7,000, Malays and Chinese. Besides possess- ing a good harbor (Victoria), it has an extensive bed of excellent coal. Labuan is an active market for the products of the neighboring islands (Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago) — sago, edible biids'- nests, camphor, gutta-percha, india-rub- ber, rattans, pearls, tortoise-shells, and beeswax. The island became British in 1846. In 1907 the territory was annexed to Singapore, an island of the Straits Settlements. Capital of Labuan, Victoria. LABURNUM (-bur'-), a tree of the genus Cytisus, the C. Laburnum, natural order Legiiminosse, a native of the Alps, much cultivated by way of ornament. It is well and widel known for the beauty of its pendulous racemes of yel- low pea-shaped flowers. The seeds con- tain a poisonous substance called cytis- ine, and are violently emetic. The wood is much prized by cabinet-makers and turners, being wrought into a variety of articles which require strength and smoothness. The Scotch laburnum of gardens is a form with larger leaves and flowers, which is known as C. alpinus. LABYRINTH, the name of some cele- brated buildings of antiquity, consisting of a series of intricate chambers or pas- sages. Of these the most celebrated v/ere the Egyptian, the Cretan, and the Samian. The Egyptian was visited by Herodotus and Strabo, and was reckoned one of the wonders of the world, con- taining 3,000 chambers. The Cretan labyrinth was supposed to have been built by Daedalus for King Minos, to con- tain the Minotaur. The only mode of finding the way out of it was by means of a hank or skein of linen thread, which gave the clue to the dwelling of the Minotaur. The Samian labyrinth was constructed in the age of Polycrates (540 B.C.). Other inferior labyrinths existed at Nauplia, at Sipontum in Italy, at Val d'Ispica in Sicily, and elsewhere. Labyrinths called mazes were at one time fashionable in gardening, being imi- tations, by hedges or borders, of the Cretan; the best known in modern times is the Maze at Hampton Court, near London, England. LABYRINTHODON (-rinth'-), a ge- nus of fossil amphibians, whose remains are found in the Carboniferous Permian, and Trias formations, those of the Trias being found in England, India, and Af- rica. They were allied to the crocodile and to the frog, and were 10 to 12 feet long. The name is derived from the labyrinthine structure of a section of the tooth, when seen under the micro- scope. The hypothetical cheirotherium has been identified with the labyrinth- odon. LAC, or LAK, from the Sanskrit lak- shd or laksha, that is, 100,000. In the East Indies it is applied to the computa- tion of money. Thus, a lac of rupees is 100,000. LAC, in botany, etc. : (1) A resinous incrustation caused by the parasitic in- sect Coccus lacca. The incrusted sticks are called stick lac. Lac is called also East Indian kino. (2) A white, orange, or other-colored fluid occurring in many plants. (3) A gummy substance pro- duced by Aleurites lac. In pharmacy, a decoction of shell lac is much used in India in the preparation of several medicinal oils. LAC AMMONIACUM (-nl'a-kum), milk of ammoniacum, from its resem- bling that fluid in appearance. A mix- ture prepared by rubbing, slowly and perfectly, down a certain quantity of the ammoniacum with wa^'^r, till the whole, by steady and careful trituration, is sus- pended in the water. This makes one of the best expectorant mixtures in the pharmacopoeia for coughs, colds, and hoarseness. LACCADIVES (lak'a-divz) , a group of 14 coral islands in the Arabian Sea; about 200 miles W. of the Malabar coast; between lat. 10° and 14° N.; area, 744 square miles; pop. about 10,000. The cocoanut is the chief plant, and coir (cocoanut fiber) the staple product; this and jaggery, cocoanuts, copra, tor- toise-shell, and cowries are carried over to the mainland by the men. The group was discovered by Vasco da Gama in 1499. The N. islands are attached to the Madras district of South Kanara; the rest belong to the rajah of Canna- nore, but since 1877 have been admin- istered by the collector of Malabar. The people are Mohammedans of Hindu de-