LAN
LAP.
back brown while young, but afterwards of a pale grey ; its rump is white, and its breaft and belly of a pale greyifh hue. Its beak is ftrait all the way to the point, where it is a little hooked. It is common in Italy and elfewhcre, and is a very great deftroyer of the wrens, and other fmall birds. Ray's Omithol. p. 5 5.
LANNARET, in zoology, a hawk of the long winged kind, the male of the lannarius, which being fmallcr than the female, is called lannarct, while that is called limply the lannar. Ray's Ornitbol. p. 48. See Lannarius.
LANNARIUS, in zoology, the name of a bird of the long winged hawk kind, called in Englifh the lannar, and the male the lahnaret. Its beak and legs are blue, and its head and neck variegated with large ftreaks of black and white. Its back, wings, and tail are not variegated, unlcfs with a few fmall white fpots, and its wings, when extended, are feen fpeckled underneath with finafl round white fpots. Its neck is very fhort, as are alfo its legs. It is common in France, and abides the whole year there, and is very docile, and ferves to all the purpofes of hawking. In Italy the fpecies feems fomething different, having much of a yellowifli brown about the fboulders, and being indocile, and of no ufe in fporting. Ray's Ormthol. p. 48.
LANNIERS, or Lanniards, in a fhip, are fmall ropes reeved into the dead mens eyes of all the fhrowds and chains. Their ufe is to flack en, or fet taught the fhrowds. The frays alfo of ail marts are fet taught by larmiers. That rope, which fallens the flapper of the halliards to them, is alfo called a lannier.
LANSPESSADE, in military affairs. See the article An- spassade, Cyd.
LANTANA, in botany, the name given by Linnaeus to a genus of plants comprehending the camara of Plumier, and the mynbatindum of Vaillant, with the pfeudaviburnum of Rivinus. The characters are thefe. The cup is a very fhort one leaved perianthium of a tubular clofe figure, very lightly divided into four fegments at the edge, and remaining after the flower is fallen. The flower confifls of one petal. The tube is cylindric and (lender, and longer than the cup ; it is a little oblique ; the verge is plain, obtufe, and very flightly divided into five fegments. The flamina are four extremely minute filaments ; they fland in the center of the flower, and two of them are a little fhorter than the other two. The anthers are roundifh. The germen of the piftil is roundifh. The flyle is capillary, and of the length of the flamina, and the fligma Hands like a wedge en the top of the ftyle, in an oblique manner. The fruit is an unilocular drupe of a roundifh figure. The feed is a nut of a roundifh, but fomewhat pyramidal figure, con- taining two cells, in each of which there is an oblong ker- nel. The effcntial character of this genus is in the very remarkable figure of the fligma. Ltnnai Gen. PI. p. 303. Plum. z. Dillen, Hort. Elth. p. 56, 57. Vaillant) A. G. 1722. Rtvin. 1. 172.
LANTERNS (Cyd.) are ufed at fieges in the night time, upon the batteries; but thefe mufl be blind or dark lanterns. There is always great provifion of them in all ftore- houles.
Lantern fijh, the Englifh name of a fifh of the foal kind, but fmallcr, and fmoother to the touch, called in Latin amogiJJ'us. JVillughby, Hift. Pifc. p. 102-
Lantern^, in natural hiftory, the name of a very' fingufer kind of infec-l produced. in the Wefl-Indies, and carrying a ftrong light with it in the night. The flrudture of the trunk in this infect is of the fame kind with that of the cicada, and as it wants the power of making the noile for which the cicada is fo famous, it belongs, according to Mr. Reaumur's diftinctions, to that fpecies of infect called the procigale, or procicada.
The glow-worm, and the luminous beetles, with all the other luminous infects we are acquainted with in this part of the world, diffufe their light from a part which is near the extremity of the body, and under the belly, but the lantern fly gives it from its head. It differs alfo greatly in the degree of light ; for this, in all the infecls we are ac- quainted with, is very feeble ; whereas, in this fly it is fo . ftrong, that Mrs. Mori an, who is the firft that well deferr- ed it, fays flic could read a fmall print in a dark night by the light that one of them gave. The eyes of this creature are placed very near the part from which the light iffues, and it is commonly fuppofed, that the uk of the light is to fhew the creature the objects it paffes by in its flight; but if we confuler the efi'ect of a light fo placed, in regard to ourfclves, we fhall find that it would by no means anfwer the fame purpofe to us. If our whole forehead was cover- ed with a lambent flame in the night, it would rather blind us, than fhew us any diftant objects. The head of this creature, ftridtly fpea'king, is very fhort, not exceeding the length of one of the rings of the body, if it be meafured from its joining with the corcelct to 'its joining with the lantern ; but if that part be accounted a portion of the head, then the bead is equal in length to the whole body. This Idnfern is wider than it is deep, or thick, and has near its origin a large protuberance, which gives it a bunched or
humped look. There are feveral tubercles and lines on It of a reddifh colour. The ground- colour is an olive brown, and underneath it has one large rib running all the way along it, from end to end, and dividing it into two, and by the fides of that there are fome others. Thefe are all red- difh, and thofe neareft the edges have fmall rows of fpines running along thern. Over each of the eyes there is a round granulated prominence, which feems to have been a collection of fmaller eyes ; and if fo, the animal is fupplied with the organs of vifion in a different manner from all other known creatures. But there requires an examination of the creature^ on the fpot, and while alive, in order to find out this. The upper pair of wings are not perfectly tranfparent, they are dotted with white in fome places, and are variegated near their origin with feveral blackifh fpots. The under pair are more tranfparent than the upper, they are much fhorter, and are broader than the others. Theie have each a large and beautiful round fpot near the extre- mity, refembling that on the wing of the peacock butterflv. The colours of the circles of thefe eyes are brown and olive ; the laft colour very bright and clear, the other very dufky and obfeure. The fpots are fo large, that they ap- pear very beautiful. Reaumur, Hill. Inf. Vol. 9. p. 247.
LANTERNISTS, a name affumed by the academicians of Touloufe. See Acade_my, Cyd.
LAPACTICS, a term ufed by the old writers in medicine to exprefs fuch things as purged by ftool, or at leafl gently loofened the belly. It was fometimes applied to the cathar- tic medicines, and fometimes to thofe foods which were of this tendency. Cajl. Lex. Med. in voc.
LAPARA, a word ufed by fome writers to exprefs the flanks, or that part which is fituated on each fide the body, between the fpurious ribs and the hips. Cajl. L. Med. in voc.
LAPATHUM, dad, in botany, the name of a genus of plants; the characters of which are the fame with thofe of forrel, [fee Sorrel] but that the leaves of the dock kind have not that acid tafte which thofe of the forrel have. The fpecies of dock enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. 1. The common garden dock with oblong leaves. 2. The fharp pointed dock with plane fmooth leaves. 3. The (harp pointed dock with curled leaves. 4. The fharp pointed dock with red, or red veined leaves, commonly called the blo.dy dock. 5. The fharp pointed dock with gold yellow flowers. 6. The leafl dock. 7. The water dock with diers weed leaves. 8. The dock with lefs pointed leaves. 9. The broad leaved garden dock, called monks rhubarb. 10. The round leaved Alpine dock. n. The round leaved Alpine dock, with the pedicles, and the middle ribs of the leaves, of a beautiful green. 12. The great water dock. 13. The leffer water dock. 14. The elegant finuated dock, called the fiddle dock, from the fhape of its lower leaves. 15. The fiinking fea deck. Town. In ft. p. 504.
The great water dock has been long famous in medicine. Muntmgius wrote a whole treatife on it, under the title of de Britannlca antiqucrum vera. The roots are principally ufed, and are faid to be of great fervice In the jaundice, in the herpes, and eryfipelas, and in the difpofing inveterate ulcers to heal.' It is alfo faid to be a fovereign remedy in quinzies. Lemery, Diet, des Drog.
The lapatbum acutum, or fharp pointed leaved dock> is as eminent, as an antifcorbutic, and a cleanfer of the blood. It is alfo ufed externally in ointments againft the itch, and other cutaneous foulneffes.
The common forrel, which is anothsr fpecies of the lapa- tbum, is well known as a gentle acid, a cooler, and fuba- ftringent. It is excellent in fevers, in which it cools the mouth, and allays thirft. Schroder goes fo far as to recom- mend a conferve of the frefh leaves in the plague, and in all peftilential, petechial, and malignant fevers. Dale. See Sorrel.
LAPHIATI, in zoology, the name by which the people of Lemnos call a fpecies of ferpent, fuppofed by Bellonius to be the fame with the elaps, or elapbis of the antients. See Elaps.
LAPIS (Cyd.)— Lapis Arabicm, in the natural hiftory of the antients, the name of a flone of a fine white colour, re- fembling the puretl ivory, and which, though naturally of a firm, folid, and compact texture, yet, when burnt, became light, porous, and fpungy, and affumed the figure and ap- pearance of a pumice ; and was ufed like it in the compe- titions of the anticnt phyficians for cleaning the teeth. HUH Thcophraft. p. gr.
Lapis arofus, in natural hiftory, a name given to feveral forts of ftones, and other foffils, which had lain in the neighbourhood of copper mines, and been impregnated with particles of copper, though not in a fufficient degree, to be thought worthy the name of copper ores. See Lapis atramentarius, infra.
The fame fort of ftones were alfo fometimes called cbalcites, which made fome confufion, as it gave occafion to confound them with the true chaldth. SeeCHALciTis.
Lapis ajjius, in the natural hiftory of the antients, the name of a (tone, called alfo farcopbagus, from its power of con- fuming; flefh.
