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LAYARD tion of partial explorations at Koyunjik, oppo- site Mosul, and Kalah (or Kileh) Shergat, and occasional excursions into the adjacent regions, he prosecuted his labors assiduously at that place, bringing to light sculptures, bass-reliefs, hieroglyphics, specimens of glass and pottery, and other monuments of Assyrian civilization. His excavations were not pursued without con- siderable difficulty, caused by the superstition and intractable character of his Arab workmen, and the petty persecutions of the pasha of Mosul, from which he was finally relieved by a firman from the sultan authorizing him to remove the sculptures. During the progress of the excavations, through the interest of Sir Stratford Canning, the British museum ad- vanced a small fund in aid of the undertaking ; and in 1847 a number of cases of antiquities, including the colossal human-headed lions and bulls and the Mmrud obelisk, which had been floated down the Tigris to Bagdad, and there placed on shipboard, were received in England, and deposited in the Assyrian transept of the British museum. In the same year Mr. Lay- ard returned home, and prepared his " Nine- veh and its Remains " (2 vols. 8vo, 1849), ac- companied by two folio volumes of illustra- tions and a volume of inscriptions in the cune- iform character. In 1848 he returned to Con- stantinople as attache to the embassy there ; and in the latter part of 1849, at the invitation of the trustees of the British museum and under their direction, he resumed the excava- tions at Nimrud, which were carried on for about a year, after which he transferred the scene of his labors to Babylon. The excava- tions at this place produced no important re- sult; but the discoveries at Nimrud, particu- larly the tablets containing Ninevitish records, were of great value. Returning to England, he published the results of his second expedi- tion, under the title of " Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, with Travels in Armenia, Kurdistan, and the Desert " (2 vols. 8vo, 1853). Upon the retirement of Lord Pal- merston from the foreign office in 1851, Mr. Layard was appointed under secretary of state for foreign aSairs, and soon after entered par- liament as member for Aylesbury. He de- clined appointments under the succeeding ad- ministrations, preferring to give his attention chiefly to questions of eastern politics, and soon attracted attention in the house of com- mons as a debater. In 1854 he visited the Crimea, and was subsequently instrumental in procuring the appointment of the committee of inquiry into the state of the British army before Sebastopol. He declined office under the Palmerston administration of 1855, and became a member of the " Administrative Re- form Association." His motion embodying the views of this organization was rejected in the house of commons in June, 1855, by a decisive vote. At the general election of 1857 he was defeated at Aylesbury, and in 1859 at York, but was elected for Southwark in 1860. He 483 VOL. x. 16 LAYERING 239 devoted himself for some years to the pres- ervation of the frescoes and paintings of the early Italian masters. Of these he made a series of elaborate drawings and tracings, a por- tion of which have appeared in the publica- tions of the " Arundel Society." He became again under-secretary of state for foreign af- fairs hi 1861, and retired from the office on the fall of Russell's second administration in 1866. Mr. Gladstone appointed him chief commissioner of works in 1868, and in 1869 minister plenipotentiary at Madrid, a post which he still holds (1874). LAYBACH, or Laibach, a town of Austria, capital of the duchy of Carniola, situated on the river Laybach, near its entrance into the Save, 45 m. N. E. of Trieste, on the railway from Vienna ; pop. in 1870, 23,032. The town occupies both banks of the river, which is here crossed by five bridges. Among the most remarkable buildings are the palace of Prince Auersperg, the town hall, the theatre, and the barracks. The former fortified castle on the Schlossberg, which was destroyed in 1813, has since been used as a provincial penitentiary, and now serves as a military depot and prison. The city has 11 Catholic churches, several monas- teries, a Protestant church, two gymnasia, a Realscliule, a veterinary school, a provincial museum, manufactories of linen, woollen, and silk, a large sugar refinery, and oil, paper, and cotton mills. Laybach is a place of great an- tiquity, the seat of a bishop, of the civil and military government of the province, and of a chamber of commerce and industry. From 1809 to 1813 it was the seat of the French government of the Illyrian provinces. A con- gress of European monarchs was held here in 1821 to regulate the affairs of Italy. LAYERING, one of the processes in horti- culture by which plants are multiplied. In the propagation of plants by cuttings, a portion of the stem is removed and inserted in the soil, where it takes root and becomes a new plant ; in layering, the portion of the stem which is to form the new plant remains attached to the parent plant while the roots are forming. In the cutting there is. sufficient nutriment accu- mulated within its stem and leaves to enable it to throw out roots, through which it can de- rive sustenance ; but in the layer the portion that is to become a new plant is sustained by the old one until it is provided with the means (roots) of self-support. Many plants which it is almost impossible to propagate by cuttings are readily managed by layers. The operation of layering was no doubt suggested by the man- ner in which some plants multiply themselves in the wild state ; many, as the red raspberry and blackberry, throw out stems just below the surface of the earth ; these run along under- ground, sometimes for several feet, when the end turns up and seeks the light; abundant roots are formed, and when the connection with the old plant is severed by decay or otherwise, the new one grows on and in time