AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HORTICULTURE. 



299 



LOTUS (from Lotos, the old Greek name given by 

 Theophrastus and Dioscorides to some leguminous plants). 

 Bird's-foot Trefoil. Including Pedrosia and Tetragono- 

 lobus. OED. Leguminosas. A large genus (about 100 

 species have been described, although not more than fifty 

 have any claim to specific rank) of greenhouse or hardy 

 herbs or si;b-shrubs, widely dispersed over the temperate 

 regions of the Northern hemisphere in the Old World, 

 the mountains of tropical Asia, and extra-tropical South 

 Africa. Flowers yellow, red, purple, pink, or white, 

 usually several together in an umbel, on an axillary 

 peduncle. Leaves four or five-folioiate ; leaflets entire. 

 But few species are worth growing, and these are of 

 very easy culture in almost any ordinary garden soil. 

 L. jacobceus is a greenhouse sub-shrubby plant, but it is 

 very liable to die off in winter. It can be increased, 

 during early summer, by cuttings, placed in an airy 

 situation, and kept carefully watered. The species can 

 also be raised annually from seeds, which are ripened 

 freely in this country. L. gebelia and L. jacobeeus would 

 probably prove hardy in the open air, if planted in a 

 warm, sheltered spot. 



L. albidus (whitish). A synonym of L. australis. 

 L. australis (Southern).* /. usually pink, but varying from white 

 uly. 1., leaflets narrower than in L. cornicu- 



latus, and the stipulary ones dissimilar, but varying from obovate 

 to linear. Stems diffuse, ascending, or erect, h. 2ft. Australia. 

 Greenhouse perennial. (B. M. 1353.) SYN. L. albidus (L. B. C. 



L. corniculatus (small-horned).* Common Bird's-foot Trefoil. 

 fl. bright yellow, fading to an orange-colour ; vexilhun striped 

 with red at the base in front ; peduncles very long, each bearing 

 three, four, five, or ten flowers at the apex in a kind of flat 

 umbel. Summer and autumn. I., leaflets obovate, acute, entire ; 

 stipules ovate. Northern hemisphere (Britain). Plant pro- 

 cumbent. A very handsome dwarf herbaceous plant, well suited 

 for growing on a rock work. (Sy. En. B. 368.) The double- 

 flowered form is very desirable. 



L. gebelia (Gebel-cher).* fl,. at first red, but ultimately pale rose, 

 large ; heads of long peduncles usually three-flowered. June and 

 July. I., leaflets and stipules ovate, rather glaucescent. Stems 

 decumbent. Asia Minor, 1816. Greenhouse 



FIG. 472. LOTUS JACOB^US, showing Flowering Branch, detached 

 Portion of Stem, with Leaf and Flowers (natural ' 



Pods. 



and 



L. jacobseus (St. Jago).* fl. dark purple, almost black, with the 

 vexillum yellowish, corymbose ; peduncles longer than the leaves. 

 Summer and autumn. I., leaflets and stipules linear or linear- 

 spathulate, rather pilose and canescent, mucronate. h. 1ft. to 

 3ft. Cape Verde Islands. Greenhouse perennial. See Fig. 472. 

 (B. M. 79.) 



L. peliorb.yncb.ns (pigeon's-beak).* fl. loosely crowded on 

 short shoots towards the ends of the branches ; corolla scarlet, 

 lin. long, with a very narrow-lanceolate standard, sharply re- 

 curved, like a hood. May. I. crowded, sessile, having subulate, 

 spreading leaflets (as if fascicled), h. 2ft. Teneriffe, 1884. A 

 singular and ornamental greenhouse shrub. (B. M. 6733.) 



L. pinnatus (pinnate). A synonym of HosacJria bicolor. 



L. Tetragonolobus (Tetragonolobus). /. dark purple, solitary 

 or twin ; bracts longer than the calyx. June to August. 

 1., leaflets obovate, entire ; stipules ovate, h. 6in. to 12in. South 

 Europe. Hardy annual. SYN. Tetraf/onolobus purpurea. (B. M. 151.) 



LOTUS-TREE, EUROPEAN. See Diospyros 

 Lotus. 



LOTZEA. Included under Asplenium. 

 LOUSEWORT. See Pedicularis. 

 LOVAGE. See Ligusticum scoticum. 

 LOVE APPLE. See Lycopersicum. 

 LOVE GRASS. See Eragrostis. 



LOVE-IN-A-MIST. See Nigella damascena, N. 

 sativa, &c. 



LOVE-IN-IDLENESS. See Viola tricolor. 



LOVE-LIES-BLEEDING. See Amaranthus 

 caudatus. 



LOVE-TREE. See Cercis Siliquastrum. 

 LOWE A. Included under Rosa (which see). 

 LOXANTHES. A synonym of Nerine (which see). 



LOXOCOCCUS (from loxos, oblique, and kokkos, a 

 berry; fruit oblique). OBD. Palm. A monotypic 

 genus, the species being an elegant stove Palm, which 

 flowered, for the first time in England, at Kew, in the 

 spring of 1878. For culture, see Areca. 

 L. rupicola (rock-loving).* fl. and spathe blood-red; inflo- 



rescence produced from the upper part of the stem beneath 



ading, 5ft. 



es lift, long, with a green, 

 caul base ; pinnules from twelve to twenty pairs, spreading, and 



the leaves. I. pinnate, spreading, 5ft. to 6ft. long, 3ft. to 4ft. 

 broad ; petioles lift, long, with a green, smooth, shortly amplexi- 



somewhat recurved. h. 30ft. to 40ft. 

 Ptychosperma rupicola. (B. M. 6358.) 



Ceylon, 1878. SYN. 

 Included under Davallia (which 



LOXOSCAFHE. 



LOXSOMA (from loxos, oblique, and soma, a body; 

 the sporangia are girt by an incomplete ring). OKD. 

 Filices. A monotypic genus, the species being a re- 

 markable and rare greenhouse fern. For culture, see 

 Ferns. 



L. Cunningham! (Cunningham's), cau. long, stout, creeping. 

 frond-s long-stipitate, coriaceous, decompound, glaucous beneath, 

 1ft. to lift. high, sori marginal, in the sinus of the teeth or 



coriaceous, the mouth truncated, entire ; receptacle elongated, 

 much exserted, clothed to the apex with stipitate capsules 

 (mixed with jointed hairs), which have a short, broad, in- 

 complete oblique ring, opening vertically. New Zealand. 

 (H. G. F. 31.) 



LUBINIA. Included under Lysimacliia (which 

 see). 



LUCANUS CERVUS, or STAG BEETLE. This 

 is the largest of British beetles, and the male (see Fig. 

 473) is so strikingly distinguished by the enormously deve- 

 loped jaws, that it could not be mistaken for any other 

 insect. Large individuals are as much as Sin. long, in- 

 cluding the jaws ; but they vary greatly in size of body, 

 and in length of jaws, the smaller males not exceeding 

 half the above size. The female is somewhat smaller than 

 the male, but is like the latter, except in having short, 

 sharp jaws, on a correspondingly smaller head. The head, 

 thorax, and legs are black ; the jaws and wing-covers 

 (elytra) are deep chestnut-brown, with black margins. 

 The beetles feed on the juices of twigs and leaves, which 

 they bruise with their strong jaws. They appear fond 

 of sugary solutions. The female lays her eggs in dead, 

 or dying, trunks and branches of Oaks or Willows ; and 

 in them the larvse live, feeding for three or four years. 

 Though preferring rotten material, they may also eat into 

 the living wood, and thus do considerable damage. 

 The cocoons are made of chips of wood in the tree ; and 

 from them the beetles emerge when mature. Stag Beetles 

 are frequently plentiful, e.g., in Kent, but are local, and 

 do not occur in the North of England or in Scotland. A 

 nearly related, but smaller insect the Small Stag Beetle, 

 Dorcus parallelopipedus (see Fig. 474) often lives along 

 with Lucanus cervus, and is of the same habits. It also is 



