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LEP 



lens). Lens-shaped ; small, depressed, 

 and doubly-convex, as the seed of ama- 

 ranth. 



LENTIL-ORE. An arseniate of cop- 

 per, also called the lenticular arseniate. 



LE'NZINITE. A silicate of alumina, 

 found at Eifeld in Prussia, and distin- 

 guished into the opaline and the argilla- 

 ceous varieties. 



LEO WITH COMA BERENICES. 

 The fifth of the zodiacal constellations, 

 containing 95 stars, of which Regulus is 

 the principal. It indicates the second 

 month of winter, and extends from the 

 20th of January to the 20th of February. 

 In Egypt the earth assumes its most 

 beautiful aspect in the month of Fe- 

 bruary; a part of the harvest is already 

 begun. The king of animals was chosen 

 to tjrpify the strength and the magni- 

 ficence of nature at this period. 



LEO MINOR. A modern northern 

 constellation, containing fifty-three stars. 

 LE'PADITES. A designation of the 

 reputed bivalvular opercula of am- 

 monites, found at Solenhofen, and also 

 termed trigonellites, solenites, and apty- 

 chus. 



LE'PADOIDS. A group of Cirrho- 

 pods, named from the typical genus 

 lepa^, and commonly known by the name 

 of barnacles. They are distinguished by 

 their pedunculated character from the 

 other group, or balanodds, which are 

 sessile. 



LEPIDODE'NDRON (AeTrip, Xeiriboi, 

 a scale, 3ev5pc>v, a tree). A genus of 

 fossil plants of the coal measures, inter- 

 mediate in character between the Lyco- 

 podiums and coniferous plants; they ap- 

 pear, from their great abundance, to have 

 contributed in large proportion to the 

 solid matter of coal. The name is de- 

 rived from the trunk of the tree being 

 marked along its whole length with 

 scales or scars. 



LE'PIDOLITE (XeTrJf, a scale, XiOo^, 

 a stone). A name for several beautiful, 

 variously-coloured, scaly varieties of 

 lithia-mica, some of which are, however, 

 referable to the silicates combined with 

 fluorides. They are found at R6zna in 

 Moravia, and other places. 



LEPIDO'PTERA {Xeirk, Xenidof, a 

 scale, TTTepov, a wing). An order of in- 

 sects which have four membranous and 

 scaly wings, and undergo complete meta- 

 morphosis, as the butterfly, the moth, &c. 

 All the Caterpillars are the larvae of lepi- 

 dopterous insects. 

 LE'PIDOTE (AeTTic, a scale). Le- 

 195 



LEU 



prous ; covered with minute peltate 

 scales, as the leaf of elaeagnus. 



LEPI'SMAD^. A family of wingless 

 insects, belonging to the order Thysa- 

 noura, in which the abdomen is termi- 

 nated by long jointed bristles, as in the 

 sugar-louse. 



LE'PORID^ {lepus, a hare). The 

 Hare tribe; a family of the Bodentia, 

 distinguished from all the other families 

 by the presence of two small incisors be- 

 hind the rodent teeth. The hare is a 

 ruminating animal, though destitute of 

 the complex stomach of the ruminantia. 

 LE'PTIDES. A sub-family of dipte- 

 rous insects, of the family Brachystoma, 

 named from the genus leptis. 



LEPTOPHI'NA. A sub-family of ser- 

 pents, belonging to the family Colubridae, 

 and comprising the genera leptophis and 

 dryinus. 



LEPUS. The Hare, a southern con- 

 stellation, containing nineteen stars. 



LERN^IFO'RMES. An order of the 

 edentulous crustaceans, in which the 

 extremities are but little developed, and 

 the body presents great variety of form. 



LETTERS FOR STARS. Towards 

 the end of the sixteenth century, Bayer 

 published the first charts in which the 

 stars were not only constellated, but dis- 

 tinguished in their constellations by 

 letters. Beginning with the Greek alpha- 

 bet, he put a to the star which he con- 

 sidered brightest, (3 to that which was 

 next in brightness, and so on throughout 

 the constellation, using the Roman letters 

 when the Greek were exhausted. His 

 successors added more letters, frequently 

 going through both the Greek alphabet 

 and the Roman, where Bayer had ex- 

 hausted only a part of the Greek, and 

 sometimes even adding another alphabet 

 of capital Roman letters, 



LEUCIN (\ei//c6v, white). A peculiar 

 white principle obtained from muscle. 

 Nitric acid converts it into a crystalliz- 

 able acid, called nitro-leucic. 



LEU'CITE (Xei/K^p, white). Amphi- 

 gen. A mineral allied to felspar, found 

 chiefly at Vesuvius, in separate crystals 

 of various sizes and degrees of trans- 

 parency, massive, embedded in pyroxenic 

 and other lavas. 



LEUCOL. A particular substance 

 produced in the distillation of coal. 



LEU'TTRITE. A greyish-white mine- 

 ral found at Leuttra, near Jena in Sax- 

 ony. It appears to be a recomposed 

 rock, analogous to some of the sandy 

 varieties of domite. 



K2 



