Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/559

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LIGNY 483 LI HUNG CHANG other West Indian Islands. When first cut it is soft and easily worked, but on exposure to the air it becomes much harder. It is cross-grained, and contains gum guaiacum. The wood is used for making machinery and for rollers, presses, mills, pestles, mortars, sheaves for ships' blocks, skittle-balls, etc. LIGNY (len'ye), a Belgian village, famous for the defeat of the Prussians under Bliicher by the French under Na- poleon, June 16, 1815, the same day on which Ney's command was engaged with the British under Wellington at Quatre- Bras. The Prussians lost 12,000 men and 21 cannon; the French, 7,000 men. LIGULA, or LIGTJLE. in botany, a strap-shaped petal of flowers of the order with the Carthaginians, commenced hos- tilities by attacking Placentia and Cre- mona, Roman colonies, 200 B. c. A long series of wars, extending over a period of 80 years, ensued between the Romans and the Ligurians. Several tribes were reduced to subjection before 173 B. C. ; others held out, and one tribe in the Maritime Alps was not reduced to obedi- ence till 14 B. c. The Lombards overran the country in 569. LIGURIAN REPUBLIC. The French created a revolution in Genoa early in 1797, and by a convention signed at Montebello, June 5 and 6, this republic placed itself under the protection of France. Napoleon Bonaparte gave it the name of the Ligurian Republic, June SECTION OF U. S. LIGHTSHIP FOR USE ON ATLANTIC COAST Compositx; also the membrane which occurs at the base of the lamina of a grass leaf, as that of millet. Hence the term ligulate, applied especially to the ray florets of Compositae. LIGURIA, a district of ancient Italy, the whole territory of Genoa and Nice, and which, according to the division of Augustus, was bounded N. by the Padus (P6), E. by the Macra (Magra), sepa- rating it from Etruria, S. by the Ligurian Sea (Gulf of Genoa), and W. by the Varus (Var) and the Maritime Alps, separating it from Transalpine Gaul. It was inhabited by an ancient people called the Ligures, of whose origin nothing authentic has been re- corded. They first came into collision with the Romans, 241 B. c, and P. Lentu- lus Caudinus celebrated a tinumph over them 236 B. c. The Ligurians, allied 14, which was incorporated with France by a convention concluded at Milan, June 4, 1805. The Ligurian Republic was dis- solved in 1814, and Genoa was annexed to Sardinia. The inhabitants revolted, and proclaimed the restoration of the republic, April 3, 1849. The revolt was suppressed, April 11. LI HUNG CHANG, a Chinese states- man and diplomatist; born in Ho Fei, province of Anhwei, China, Feb. 16, 1823. In 1850, when the Taiping rebels invaded Anhwei, he joined Tseng Kuo Fan's army as secretary. He was appointed judge of Chekiang province, and in 1861 gov- ernor of Kiang-Su. In conjunction with Colonel (afterward General) Gordon, in 1863, he retook Suchow, and drove the rebels entirely out of Kiang-Su. For these services he was decorated with the Yellow Jacket and Peacock's Plume, and