493 



LOBELIACE.E. 



LOCOMOTION IN ANIMALS. 



491 



grandijtora. 



1, one of the appendages within the stamens ; 2, an ovary with all the sepals 

 cut off except one ; 3, a transverse section of the ovary, showing the parietal 

 placentation. 



debility and cold perspirations, and also paleness of the surface. In 

 large doses it proves decidedly poisonous. It frequently acts as an 

 emetic and expectorant when given in small and regulated doses. 



It has been found eminently useful in warding ofl' or cutting short a 

 paroxysm of asthma, either taken internally iu substance, or in the 

 form of an ;rtheriul tincture, or inhaled as smoke along with aromatic 

 herbs. It hag been found beneficial as an expectorant and relaxant 

 in hooping-cough, but neither in it nor asthma does it prove more 

 than a palliative, or afford more than temporary relief ; as such how 

 ever it is very serviceable in some nervous affections with irregular 

 action of the heart. [LOBELIA, in ARTS AND Sc. Div.] 



L. itphilitica, grows in the United States. It is a bright but rather 

 pale-green perennial growing about 2 feet high ; the stem is erect, 

 angular, very slightly hairy ; leaves ovate-oblong, acute at each end, 

 rather wavy, unequally serrated, slightly hairy ; raceme terminal, 

 leafy, cylindrical, dense; peduncles bracteolate, hairy, shorter than the 

 acuminate hairy bracts ; calyx leafy, with ovate acuminate hairy 

 segments half as long as the tube of the corolla, and reflexed at the 

 sinus ; corolla deep-blue in the tube, paler in the limb, the lower lip 

 of which is convex and white at the base ; all the segments ovate and 

 acute ; the tube of the stamens deep-blue, elevated through and 

 beyond the dorsal slit of the corolla. The whole plant has a rank 

 nmell. Its root is acrid and emetic, and has been used as a remedy 

 for syphilis ; it has the reputation of acting as a speedy cure for this 

 disease, but European practice does not confirm its American 

 reputation. 



L. Dorimanna has linear entire leaves of two parallel tubes, the 

 stem simple and nearly naked ; the root-stock fleshy, with filiforir 

 runners ; leaves blunt, from 1 to 2 inches long ; stem 12 to 18 inches 

 high ; the flowers are light blue, distant, in a simple raceme, slight!; 

 raised above the water, the rest of the plant submersed. It is fouuc ' 

 in lakes with a gravelly bottom in Great Britain. 



L. went has a nearly upright stem, the lower leaves obovate 01 

 oblor>2, slightly toothed, upper ones lanceolate serrate, flowers in lon| 

 terminal racemes ; the stem from 12 to 18 inches high, leafy, branched 

 angular, and roughish ; racemes erect, simple, and lax ; flowers of 

 light-blue colour. It is found on heaths near Axminster, Devonshire. 



(Bubington, Manual of lirituh Botany ; Lindley, Flora Medica.) 



LOBELIA'CE^E, LoMiadi, an important natural order of Mono 

 petalous Exogens, differing from Campanulacece in having irregula 

 flowers and syngenesious stamens, but otherwise resembling them 



ery nearly ; of these two characters the last is the most absolute, 

 r sotoma, a lobeliaceous genus, being so called because its flowers are 

 egular. The species principally inhabit the warmer parts of the 

 world ; in Europe they are rare, in North America much more com- 

 mon, especially in the southern states, and they are abundant in the 

 lotter countries of South America. Many are found at the Cape of 

 Good Hope and in the north of India ; their favourite haunts being 

 amp woods or situations freely supplied with moisture. They abound 

 n a milky juice, which in all is acrid, and in some so intensely so as 

 a produce dangerous or even fatal consequences when applied to the 

 urface of the body or taken internally. Among the most virulent is 

 he Hippobroma longijlorum, a West Indian species, and the Lobelia 

 ^upa, a Chilian plant now common in gardens. Nevertheless certain 

 pecies have proved in skilful hands valuable curative agents, especially 

 he Lobelia inflata, or Indian tobacco. [LOBELIA.] Many of the 

 ilants of this order are cultivated in gardens for the sake of their 

 irilliant blue or scarlet flowers : white and yellow are rare in the 

 rder. There are 27 genera and 375 species of the order. 



LO'BIPES, Cuvier's name for a genus of Wading Birds (family 

 'rtngirostres, Cuvier), the type of which is Tringa hyperborea, Linn. 

 ?he genus is identical with Phalaropua of Vieillot. 



LOBOITE. [IDOCBASE.] 



LOBOPHY'LLIA. A portion of the Animals included in Lamarck's 

 ;enus Caryophyllia is thus named by Blainville. [MADREPHYLLICEA.] 



LOBSTER. [ASTACUS; CRUSTACEA; HOMARUS.] 



LOBULA'RIA, a group of recent Zoophyta, separated from the 

 jinnsean Alcyonia. [ALCYONID.S.] 



LOCOMOTION IN ANIMALS. The constitution of a vast assem- 

 >lage of animals requires that they should possess the power of moving 

 >om place to place in search of food, and for a multitude of other 

 objects incidental to their sphere of action. 



In order to effect this object it is requisite that the framework of 

 animals which are destined to move on the earth should be more 

 lense, and possess greater strength, to enable them to bear the shocks 

 ncidental to terrestrial progression, than that of those species which 

 move in air or water. The bony framework of the higher orders of 

 animals, such as man and other Mammalia, is composed of a great 

 number of pieces which are hinged together at the joints in such a 

 manner as to allow of more or less mobility, according to the purposes 

 ;hey are intended to fulfil. Thus, the legs and arms are united to the 

 trunk by a ball-and-socket joint, a species of union permitting the 

 jreatest possible freedom of motion. The knee, elbow, and ankle, on 

 :he contrary, are furnished with the hinge-joint, which admits of 

 motion back and forward in one plane only ; but, although the move- 

 ments of these joints are thus in some measure restricted, greater 

 precision is secured. 



The vertebral column, which comprehends the bones of the back, 

 is composed of a long chain of bones, acting as a flexible lever to 

 support the head, neck, and trunk, and forming the connecting link 

 between the several parts of the body. For this purpose the move- 

 ments of each of the several bones of the back upon each other are 

 restricted ; but, in consequence of the great number of joints with 

 which the spinal column in man is furnished, it has a considerable 

 degree of motion. The extremities of those bones which terminate in 

 joints are tipped with a very hard, smooth, pearly-white, opaque 

 substance, termed cartilage, lined with a delicate thin membrane, 

 called the synovial membrane, which secretes an oily fluid into the 

 joints ; so that the limbs, in their movements upon each other, are 

 protected from friction throughout the life of the animal. 



The elastic cords which bind the bones together at their joints are 

 termed ligaments, and such is their strength that bones are often 

 broken without the connected ligaments being torn or injured. 



The long bones which support the trunk of an animal above the 

 surface on which it moves are hollow cylinders, a form which presents 

 a longer surface for the attachment of the muscles by which the 

 limbs are moved, and confers greater strength with less expenditure 

 and weight of material than if they were solid. It is found that the 

 lateral strength of two cylindrical bones of equal weight and length, 

 one of which is solid and the other hollow, are to each other as the 

 diameter of their transverse sections. For instance : let a, 6, d, c, 

 fiys. A, B, represent the figures of the two bones ; then, the strength 



of the tube d c is to that of the solid a b as the length of the diameter 

 d c to that of a, b. In consequence of this principle it was long since 



