Ml 



LORANTHUS. 



LOTA. 



nearly all cam true parasite*, growing upon the branches of tree*, 

 below whoee bark they insert their roots, incorporating them with the 

 wood, and feeding upon the vital juices of the plants which they attack. 

 The principal marks of distinction in the structure of Lormtkacta are 

 a 1 -celled inferior fruit containing a single erect ovule, a fruit con- 

 sisting of a peculiar viscid matter resembling birdlime, and a valvate 

 corolla with the stamens opposite the petals. There is but one species, 

 the Common Mistletoe, Vttcm* album, found wild in England; a 

 species of larmtkta occurs in the south of Europe ; but in the hot 

 dry parU of tropical countries the species abound, swarming over the 

 branches of trees, of which they often form a conspicuous feature, 

 with their long clustered gaily-coloured flowers. As in this country 

 the Mistletoe does not injure in any considerable degree the plant 

 which it attacks unless it exists in unusual quantity, so in India, 

 where Aoran/Ai are common, the injury sustained by vegetation is 

 according to the reciprocal size of the parasite and its stock. Sir. 

 Griffith states that a species called LonuUkut Scumla, which is 

 generally attached to Melattoma malabathrica or other shrubs, fre- 

 quently destroys them to a considerable extent; others which are 

 minute in comparison with the stock, especially such as grow upon 

 trees, produce no appreciable injury. 



Although the nature of the pericarp of plants seldom forms a 

 part of their ordinal distinctions, yet it is here employed for this 

 reason, that the viscidity of the fruit and the parasitical habits of the 

 order are dependent on each other. The seeds sticking by their own 

 glue to the branches on which they fall insure to the young parasite, 

 when it begins to grow, a suitable substance in which to push its 

 roots ; and as the viscidity of the fruit causes the greater part of it to 

 catch upon branches before it falls to the ground, the young plant 

 would die immediately after germination if it were not a parasite, and 

 thus the race would become extinct 



Mr. Griffith has shown (' Linn. Trans.' xviii. 71) that in Loranthu* 

 and ViKtun the ovules are not formed till after impregnation has taken 

 place a most curious and before unheard-of fact. 



The order seems to be equally dispersed through the equinoctial 

 regions of both Asia and America, but on the continent of Africa to 

 be much more rare, only two having been yet described from equi- 

 noctial Africa and five or six from the Cape of Good Hope. Two are 

 named from the South Seas and one from Australia ; but this number 

 requires doubtless to be enlarged. Three only are known in Europe. 

 Xuytoia Jtoribunda, a very beautiful shrub with large thyrses of bright 

 orange-coloured flowers, is a singular instance of a plant of this para- 

 sitical order growing on the ground. Such is the abundance of the 

 orange-coloured blossoms that the colonists at King George's Sound 

 compare it to a tree on fire ; hence it has gained the name of Fire- 

 Tree. The bark of the tree is usually astringent, as in the Common 

 Mistletoe. In medicine they are of little value. There are 23 genera 

 and 412 specie*. 



(Lindley, Vegetable Kingdom.) 



LORANTHUS (from lorum, ' a strip of leather,' and Mot, ' a flower,' 

 in allusion to the long linear shape and leathery substance ot the petals), 

 a genus of Plants the type of the natural order Loranthacta. It has 

 dkcciou* or hermaphrodite flowers, the calyx cup-shaped, adnate, with 

 an entire border; the petals 5 or 6, linear, rcflexed; the stamens 

 inserted into the middle of the petals ; the filaments short, anthers 

 globose ; the style thickish ; the stigma simple ; the berry globose, 

 1 -celled, 1 -seeded. The species are evergreen shrubs parasitical 

 trees. 



L. EurofKTtu, the European Loranthus, is a glabrous much-branched 

 plant ; the branches terete ; the leaves opposite, petiolate, oval-oblong ; 

 the racemes terminal, simple ; the flowers dioecious, of 6 petals. This 

 plant is an evergreen parasitical plant, and has the habit of the 

 Common Mistletoe ( Vitcnm aUnm). It is a native of the southern 

 parts of Europe, and is found on the oak, but inhabits no other tree. 

 "This circumstance," aavs Burnett, "has led some naturalists to 

 suppose the ioronMw to have been the Mistletoe of the Druids, and 

 to believe, as it U not now indigenous to Britain, that when Druidism 

 was supprasMd every vestige of that stupendous superstition was so 

 completely swept away that even the sacred plant was extirpated here." 

 The fact however of the scarcity of the mistletoe upon the oak renders 

 it probable that it was on this account more sought after, and thus 

 contributed to make it an object of superstition Several other specie* 

 of larmmlAtu have been described, but none of them are easily culti- 

 vated on acrount of their parasitical habita. The seeds of the ioranf,,, 

 like those of the Mistletoe, contain tannin, and are astringent 

 t.. Mramdnt is used for dyeing black in Chili. 



(Burnett, OK//IMS; London, Arterttvm tt /VneMeetam.) 



LORICA'RIA, a subdivision of the Linnnan genus tW/ario, pro- 

 posed by Lamouroux. It is also employed by Linmcus to designate a 

 Cras of Malacopterygiona Fishes. 



I.OR1CATA, the name applied by Metmn and FiUingcr to the 

 Crocodiles, Emydoeauriana of De Blainville. [CftocooiLUi/E.] 



LORIS. [LracBlDJLl 



LORY. [PUTTACIDA] 



LOSS, a peculiar loamy deposit in the Valley of tho Rhine, and 

 ttawttnc to *om* breadth beyond that area, which may be conjectured 

 to be analogous with accumulations in valUys of South America con- 

 tuning the Jfr^oMmsM, and with other 'valley formations' In 



different parts of the world. It borders the valley-plain of the Rhine, 

 reaching, though not continuously, from Schaffhauaen to Cologne, 

 enters many of the lateral dales, lies against the hills, and constitutes 

 nills itself. In the line between Basle and Bingen it occupies the left 

 bank by Worms, Oppenheuu, Flonheim, Ac., and the right bank by 

 the Schwarzwald to Basle. Compared to the usual character of 

 diluvium, the Loss is a fine-grained deposit; fine sand, clay, and 

 calcareous earth, easily pulverised, and containing some nodular 

 concretions, constitute the mass of the deposit. It sometimes (at 

 Heidelberg) alternates with gravel 



Principally in the upper parts of the Loss are found shells of land, 

 fresh-water, and marsh Molliuca now living in the vicinity. These 

 sometimes retain their colour. Bones and teeth of quadrupeds 

 usually met with in diluvium occur locally in Loss, as at Weinlieim 

 and Bensheim. These bones appear sometimes to have been drifted to 

 their present repositories, as at Rixheim, where upon and in cnvitim 

 in the fresh-water tertiaries bones of stag, rhinoceros, hytena, elephant, 

 horse, &c., occurred. Cannstadt yielded bones and teeth of elephant, 

 rhinoceros, tiger, hyicna, wolf, bear, stag, roebuck, oxen, horses, boar, 

 mouse, hare, birds, and remains of vegetables. (Meyer, ' Pakoologica.') 



Between Strasburg and Sulzbad the Loss reaches 600 French feet 

 above the sea, and on the Kaiserstuhl 1200 feet, an elevation supposed 

 to be explained by the volcanic character of the vicinity. The thickness 

 of the Loss is stated to reach 200 or even 300 feet Near Andernach, 

 Loss alternates with volcanic sediments (Trass), but generally over- 

 lies them, and in some places fills old craters (as the Roderberg, 

 near Bonn). 



The deposition of LOBS in the upper Rheiuthal has been often viewed 

 as the effect of a lake supposed to have extended from Basle 'to 

 Mayence, and to have been drained by the opening of the narrow 

 gorge at Bingen ; but from the continuation of this deposit below that 

 gorge, the elevation it has attained on the flanks of the Siebengebirge, 

 and other circumstances, Mr. Lyell, who has specially examined the 

 subject, proposes a different hypothesis. He thinks that the whole 

 country drained by the Rhine has undergone changes of level, such 

 that after having formerly stood for some unknown period with nearly 

 its actual height and physical features, it experienced a great and 

 general depression, so as to receive river deposits in great abundance ; 

 and that it was again raised, so as to permit the partial re-excavation 

 of the ancient valleys, and the removal of much of the fluviatilo 

 sediments : what remains is the Loss. 



(Meyer, Paltroloyica ; Lyell, in Edinb. Philotophical Journal, 1834, 

 and PrmcipUt of Geology.) 



LOTA, a genus of Subbrachial Malacoptcrygious Fishes belonging 

 to the tribe Oadidce. It ia distinguished by having an elongated 

 body, with dorsal fins and one anal fin, a chin with one or more 

 barbules. 



L. molra, the Ling, is a very valuable fish, scarcely less so than the Cod. 

 Large quantities are taken among the Western Islands, the Orkneys, on 

 the Yorkshire coast, and the Scilly Islands ; and may be traced nearly all 

 round the Irish coast The fishing for them is by hand-lines and long- 

 lines ; and besides a portion that is consumed fresh, the fish are split 

 from head to tail, cleaned, salted in brine, washed, and dried, but the 

 demand generally falls short of the quantity cured, and the hardy 

 fishermen are but poorly requited. The ports of Spain are the 

 markets supplied ; and so valuable an article of commerce was Ling 

 considered formerly that an Act for regulating the price of Ling, Cod, 

 &c., was passed as early as the reign of Edward HI. The air-bladders, 

 popularly called Sounds, are prepared separately, and with those of 

 the Cod-Fish are sold pickled. The roes, which are of large size, are 

 also used as food, or preserved in brine, are sold to be used for 

 attracting fish. The liver produces oil, which is used by the poor to 

 supply the cottage lamp, also as a medicine. In Zetland the principal 

 fishing for Ling is from May to August. On the Yorkshire coast the 

 young are called Drizzles. In Cornwall they are caught in January 

 and February, and their favourite haunts are about the margins of 

 the rocky valleys of the ocean. 



The Ling is exceedingly prolific, and has a most voracious appetite, 

 feeding on young fish, not sparing anything that has life, and the prey 

 is swallowed whole, so that no great art is required to catch it It is 

 > tenacious of life, and survives great injury. Mr. Couch says he once 

 saw a Ling that had swallowed the usual largo hook, shaft foremost, 

 of which the point had fixed in the stomach, and as the line drew it, 

 it turned round, entered the opposite side of the stomach and fastened 

 the organ together in complicated folds; yet having escaped by 

 breaking the line, it survived to swallow another hook and was taken 

 several days after. 



The most usual length of the Ling Is from three to four feet; Pennant 

 mentions having heard of one which measured seven feet ; and Mr. 

 Couch has known them weigh 70 Ibs. 



The body of the Ling is slender, more elongated than that of the 

 Hake ; roundish ; head flat ; gape large, lower jaw shorter than the 

 upper, with a single barbule at its extremity j teeth in the upper jaw 

 email, and very numerous, those in the lower jaw longer and larger, 

 forming but a single row ; lateral line straight, scales small, firmly 

 adhering to the skin ; two dorsal fins of equal height, the first short, 

 commencing near the head, not pointed as in the Hake, but with most 

 of the rays even ; second long, immediately behind the first, reaching 



