Ml 



LUNULITES. 



LUTRA. 



LUNULITES. [ClLLARIJKA.] 



LUPEA. [PoBTi-.xiDi.] 



I.rPI'Xrs, a very extensive genus of hardy annual, perennial, 

 and half-shrubby Plant*, belonging to the natural order Lfyuminotir, 

 commonly cultivated in gardens for the take of their gaily-coloured 

 flnwers. The species inhabit Europe, the basin of the Mediterranean, 

 and the temperate parts of both North and South America, espe- 

 cially of the former, where they are extremely abundant ; but they 

 are unknown in a wild state throughout all the tropics, except on 

 mountains, and in the principal part of Asia, Australia, and South 

 Africa. Figures of great numbers have appeared in the volumes 

 of the ' Botanical Register and Magazine,' and there is a monograph 

 of the genus published at Lund by the younger Agardh in 1835, 

 under the name of ' Synopsis Generis Lupiui.' 



The calyx is profoundly bilabiate; corolla papilionaceous, the 

 vexillum with reflexed sides, and the keel acuminated ; the stamens 

 monadelphous, with the tube or sheath entire, 5 of the anthers are 

 smaller, rounder, and earlier, and the other 5 oblong and later; style 

 filiform; stigma terminal, roundish, bearded; legume coriaceous, 

 oblong, compressed, obliquely torulose ; cotyledons thick, but con- 

 verted into leaves at the time of germination. The species have 

 digitate leaves, constantly composed of from 5 to 15 leaflets, very 

 rarely simple. The leaflets are complicated before expansion, and 

 while asleep, or through the night. The flowers are alternate or 

 verticillate, sessile or pedicellate, disposed in racemes and spikes, with 

 one bractea under each pedicel, and with two bracteoles adhering 

 laterally to the calyx, which are caducous, or wanting. It is a very 

 extensive genus, and many species are cultivated in our gardens for 

 the purpose of decorating flower-beds. 



L. atbiu, the White Lupine, has alternate pedicellate flowers 

 destitute of bracteoles ; the upper lip of the calyx entire, lower one 

 tridentate ; leaflets obovate, oblong, usually 7 or 8, villous beneath. 

 It is a native of the Levant, and is cultivated in the south of Europe. 

 The flowers are white, and almost sessile. It is grown in Italy and 

 some other parts of the south of Europe as food, also in France, on 

 poor dry plains, as an ameliorating crop to be ploughed in for the 

 sake of improving the land. This is an ancient Roman practice which 

 existed in the time of Pliny. 



L. Termit, Egyptian White Lupine, has alternate pedicellate 

 bracteolate flowers; the upper lip of the calyx entire, lower one 

 somewhat tridentate ; leaflets 5 or 6, obovate, oblong, villous beneath. 

 It is a native of Egypt. The flowers are white, but with the vexillum 

 tipped with blue. Tennis is the Arabic name of the plant. The 

 peduncles after being peeled are eaten raw, and the seeds are boiled 

 as other pulse by the Arabians. The Creeks, who called them Thermos, 

 employed Lupines not only as an article of food, but medicinally, 

 esteeming them vermifugal and emmenagogue, &c. (Dioscor., lib. i., 

 c. 132). What species was cultivated by them is unknown ; their wild 

 Thermos is supposed by Sibthorp to be the L. anyiulifoliiu. The 

 two species most common in Greece now ore L. kintUiu and 

 L. jiilona. 



Lupines are said to derive their name from ' lupus,' a wolf, because 

 of their devouring the substance of the land on which they are 

 grown. 



(Don, Dichlamytlcoiu flanti.) 



LUPONIA. ICrpKJtiDje.] 



LUPUS. [CAMS.] 



LU'RID^E, a name given by Linntcus to one of his natural orders 

 of Plant*. It is equivalent to Solanacete of modern botanists. 



LUTRA, a genus of Mammalia belonging to the family Muttdida. 

 The specie* are known by the common name of Otters. They form 

 a natural group of Carnivorous Animals whose habits are aquatic, 

 and whose food is fish. The common term Otter is applied to two 

 form* and nearly allied : the first, including the River-Otters, Lulra 

 of Storr ; the second, the Sea-Otter, Kahytlra of Fleminp. \V,- .<!,;,11 

 first describe the genus Lutra. In the skull ct Lulra the suborbital 

 hole i* larger than 

 it is in the badgers, 

 the grison*, and the 



martens, almost a* K >fcv- , 



large, indeed, as it . aMBD**. V> '. \ 



is in the rodent*; 

 their muzzle is 

 shorter, and the an- 

 terior part of the 

 cranium between 

 and behind the 

 orbit* more com- 

 pact; their tvui- 

 lnic cavities are lea convex ; their entire cranium more depressed, 

 and it* base wider and flatter. The lachrymal bone is entirely within 

 the orbit, and it* aperture is above the interior nuborbit.il hole. The 

 circular aperture is blended externally with the sphcno-orbital hole, 

 bat internally it is separated by a considerable interval from it by 

 a bony plate. The internal pterygoid process is soldered. The 

 whole nknll has a good deal in common with that of the Seal (Pkoca 

 rUulina) ; and its rel Uiouahip is to be traced in the short muzzle, tho 



compression of the interorbital region (which is carried still farther 

 in the seal), the width and flatness of the cranium, and the flatncos and 

 enlargement of the whole inferior region, with the exception of the 

 tympanic cavities, which in the seal are large and convex. 



In the other parts of the skeleton there is nothing needing a 

 detailed description, the variations being such as might be expected 

 to suit the habits of an aquatic, carnivorous, hairy quadruped. 

 Thus, the articulation of the limbs admits of such freedom of motion, 

 that the animal can turn them in almost any direction, and bring 

 them with ease on a line with the body, so as to act like fins. 



The teeth of the Otters are sharp and strong, and the tubercles of 

 the molars very pointed, a modification necessary to secure the 

 prehension and speedy destruction of their agile and slippery prey. 

 In the length of the intestines there is a difference between the 

 Common Otter and the Sea-Otter ; the latter, like the seal, has very 

 long intestines. Sir Everard Home gives the length of the intestines 

 of the Sea-Otter as twelve times that of the animal; but those of 

 the Common Otter as only three times and a quarter the length of 

 the animal. ('Phil. Trans.'} Professor Owen however informs us 

 that in a female Common Otter dissected by him, the intestines were 

 9 feet 6 inches, the body from nose to vent being 1 foot 5 inches ; 

 and we should expect, physiologically, to find longer intestines in a 

 Common Otter than in one of the land Feree. 



The kidney is lobulated or conglomerated, consisting, in fact, of an 

 aggregation of small kidneys, connected by cellular substance; but 

 these small kidneys are not so numerous as in the seal and porpoise. 

 (Home, on the ' Sea-Otter,' ' PhiL Trans.'). In the Museum of the 

 Roysl College of Surgeons (Physiological Series, No. 2519) is a 

 preparation exhibiting the reproductive organs of a male of the 

 Common Otter. 



The genus Lutra has the head compressed ; eyes rather large ; ears 

 very short; whiskers very stiff; tongue rather rough; body MTV 

 much lengthened ; legs short ; the feet with five toes and webbed ; 

 tail long, stout, flattened horizontally, and covered with short hair. 



6 1-1 fi_5 



Incisors, JT ; canines, j^j ; molars, 5^5 ~ 36. 



L. vitlgaru, Erxleb. (Muttda Lutra, Linn.). This, there can be 

 little doubt, is the "EvvSpls of Aristotle and the Greeks, and the 

 Lutra of the Romans. It is the Lodra, Lodria, and Lontra of 

 the Italians; Nutria and Lutra of the Spanish; Loutre of the 

 French ; Otter and Fisch Otter of the Germans ; Otter of the Dutch ; 

 Utter of the Swedes ; Odder of the Danes ; Dyfigi of the Welsh ; 

 Balgnir, Cu-donu (Brown Dog), and Matadh, of the Northern Celts ; 

 and Otter of the English. 



The head and nose are broad and flat ; neck thick ; body elongated ; 

 tail broad at the base, compressed horizontally, and tapering to a 

 point ; the eyes, which are not laiv c, are placed comparatively near 

 to the nose ; the ears are very short, and the auditory opening rather 

 narrow ; the mouth is small, and the lips are capable of being firmly 

 closed together; the whiskers are very long; the legs very short, 

 strong, stout, and muscular ; the 5-toed feet nrj furnished with strong 

 broad webs, like those of water-fowl which have these accessories best 

 developed. Hence Soinerville terms the Otter ' goose-footed.' 



The colour is brown (deepest on the upper parts), with the 

 exception of two small patches of white on the lips, one on each side 

 of the nose. 



This species varies much in size. The length of one sent to Mr. 

 Bell from Sutherlaudshire was 2 feet 1 inch and 6 lines. Mr. Macgil- 

 livray notes the length f two males; one measured 42 inches, and 

 the other 38 inches. By the same author, the length of a female i> 

 given at 40 inches. These measurements are from the nose to the 

 point of the tail. Mr. Bell states that the usual weight of a fine male 

 English Otter is from 20 to 24 Ibs., and that of the female about 4 Ibs. 

 less; adding however that Pennant records one found, in 171' I, in 

 the river Lea betwi'rii Stratford mid Wiire that weighed 40 Ibs. 

 The natural food f the (_'omi::on Otter in fish, for the chn< 



capture of which 

 its whole frame is 

 beautifully adap- 

 ted. How silently 

 is the water en- 

 tered ! The eyes 

 are so placed that 

 whether the ani- 

 mal is Hwimming 

 below its prey, be- 

 hind it, above it, 

 or beside it, their 

 situation, or, at 

 most, the least motion of the head and neck, brings it within the 

 sphere of the pursuer's vision. The whole frame-work of the ani- 

 mal, its short fin-like legs, oary feet, and rudder of a tail, enable 

 it to make the swiftest turns, nay, almost bounds in the water, 

 according as the rapidity of its agile prey demands a sudden down- 

 ward dive, an upward spring, or a side snap. The short fur, which 

 is close and fine, keeps the body at a proper temperature, and 

 the longer and outer hair.* directed backward? enable it to glide 



Ski It-ton of European Biter-Otter (Lulra tulgarit). 



