LAX 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



LEG 



27 



fresh berries as a sauce for fish ; the smell is fragrant, the 

 taste aromatic and warm ; they have the size, colour, and form 

 of black pepper ; and being fastened to a long slender pedun- 

 cle, are not unaptly called piper caudatum, or Tailed Pepper 

 Native of Cochin-china; probably also of China. 



32. Laurus Pilosa. Leaves nerveless, oblong, hairy ; 

 racemes wide, terminating. A large tree with spreading 

 branches ; flowers polygamous, greenish-yellow. The wood 

 is yellow, durable, and fit for building and turning. Native 

 of the mountain-woods in Cochin-china. 



Lawsonia; a genus of the class Octandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth four- 

 cleft, small, permanent. Corolla : petals four, ovate-lanceo- 

 late, flat, spreading. Stamina: filamenta eight, filiform, 

 length of the corolla, in twin pairs between the petals ; 

 antherse roundish. Pistil: germen roundish; style simple, 

 length of the stamina, permanent; stigma headed. Pericarp: 

 capsule or berry globose, with a point, four-celled. Seeds: 

 many, cornered, pointed. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Ca- 

 lix: four-cleft. Petals: four. Stamina: in four pairs. 

 Capsule: four-celled, many-seeded. The plants of this 

 genus are all propagated by seeds sown on a hot-bed early 

 in the spring, that the plants when they come up may have 

 time to acquire strength before winter. When fit to remove, 

 plant each in a small pot of light sandy earth, and plunge them 

 into a hot-bed of tanner's bark, where they must be screened 

 from the sun until they have taken new root; then treat 

 them as the Coffee-tree, only giving them less water, especi- 

 ally in winter : they are too tender to thrive in the open air, 

 they must therefore constantly remain in the stove, having 

 plenty of air in hot weather. The species are, 



1 . Lawsonia Inermis ; Henna, or Smooth Lawsonia. 

 Branches unarmed ; leaves subsessile, ovate, sharp at both 

 ends. Stem shrubby, eight or ten feet high ; flowers in 

 loose terminating bunches, yellowish-white, with purplish 

 stamina. This is supposed to be the henna, or al-henna, of 

 the scriptures, translated camphire in Solomon's Song, and in 

 other places rendered cypress and myrrh. The leaves of 

 this shrub are used by the Egyptian women to colour their 

 nails yellow, as an ornament. Native of India and Egypt. 



2. Lawsonia Achronychia. Branches unarmed; leaves on 

 long petioles, wedge-shaped. A smooth shrub, with round 

 branches. Native of New Caledonia. 



3. Lawsonia Spinosa; Prickly Laivsonia. Branches spiny. 

 This rises with a woody trunk, about eighteen feet high ; wood 

 hard and close, covered with a light gray bark; flowers white, 

 in racemed terminating corymbs ; others say of a pale yellow- 

 colour, and disagreeable scent. Native of the East Indies 

 and Spanish West Indies. 



4. Lawsonia Falcata. Leaves sickle-shaped, slightly 

 orenate. This is a shrub or small tree six feet high, very 

 much branched ; flowers white, in a racemed terminating 

 corymb. Native of Cochin-china. 



Laxmannia ; a genus of the class Hexandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one- 

 leafed, bell-shaped, compressed, four-toothed, rather acute, 

 inferior, very small. Corolla: petals four, linear, feathery, 

 long, upright at the base, spreading, with inflected tip, a 

 villose line on the upper part, two more approximated than 

 the rest. Stamina: filamenta six, linear below, upright, 

 awl-shaped at the tip, spreading, rather shorter than the 

 corolla; antherse roundish, affixed to the back. Pistil: ger- 

 men roundish, extremely villose; style shorter than the stamina, 

 thick, cornered; stigma simple. Pericarp: subglobose, 

 tetragonal at the top, four-celled ; the cells covered by a 

 membrane. Seeds: solitary, oblong, compressed. ESSEX- 

 VOL. ii. 68. 



TIAL CHARACTER. Calix: one-leafed, four-toothed, infe- 

 rior. Corolla: four-petalled. Berry: four-celled. Seeds: 

 solitary. The species are, 



1. Laxmannia Cuminosma. Fruit globose, slightly depress- 

 ed; petals twice the length of the calix. Native of Ceylon. 



2. Laxmannia Ankeenda. Fruit ovate, pointed ; petals 

 many times longer than the calix. A shrub about four feet 

 high, with round leafy branches; flowers greenish-white; 

 berry ovate, -pointed, dark green, with an aromatic flavour of 

 Cumin. Native of Ceylon and Malabar. 



Laying of Trees and Shrubs is thus performed. First : 

 having well dug the ground, and made it very light, take 

 some of the most flexible boughs, and lay them into the 

 ground about half a foot deep, pegging them down with 

 forked sticks if necessary, leaving the end of the layer a 

 foot or a foot and a half out of the ground ; keep them 

 moist during the summer season, and they will probably 

 have taken root and be fit to remove in autumn, or, if not, 

 they must remain another season. Secondly : tie a piece of 

 wire hard round the bark of the bough, at the place you 

 intend to lay in the ground, and twist the ends of the wire 

 securely; prick the part above the wire through the bark 

 with an awl in several places, and then lay it in the ground as 

 before directed. This method will often succeed when the 

 other fails. Thirdly: cut a slip upwards at a joint, as is 

 practised in laying Carnations ; which gardeners call 

 tonguing the layers. Fourthly: twist the part of the branch 

 designed to lay in the ground like a withy, if it be pliable, 

 and lay it in the ground as directed above. Fifthly : cut the 

 bark all round at a joint, taking out small chips all the way 

 below the cut, and lay that part in the earth. Though 

 branches may be laid at any time, yet the proper season for 

 laying hardy trees that shed their leaves, is October; for 

 such as are tender, the beginning of March; for evergreens, 

 June or July. When the boughs cannot be bent down into 

 the ground, lay them in baskets, boxes, or pots, filled with 

 fine mould mixed with a little rotten willow dust, and elevated 

 by blocks or tressels. Too much of the -head must not be 

 left on ; and the smaller the boughs are, the less way they 

 should be left out of the ground. In trees of a hard wood, 

 the young shoots ; but in trees of a soft wood, the older 

 boughs will take root best. Many trees and plants will not 

 put out roots from the woody branches, yet if the, young 

 shoots of the same year be laid in July, they will often put 

 out roots very freely; but as these shoots will be soft and 

 herbaceous, they must not have too much wet, which would 

 cause them to rot ; cover therefore the surface of the ground 

 with moss, which will prevent it from drying too fast, and 

 a Irttle water will suffice. To raise a quantity of trees by 

 layers, the required number should be headed down for 

 stools, within a few inches of the ground, in autumn ; and 

 the summer following, they will afford plenty of young shoots 

 proper for laying in the autumn. In many trees, however, 

 it will be better to wait two years; the ground in the mean 

 time may be dug in winter, and constantly hoed as the 

 weeds rise in summer. After the layers are taken up, the stools 

 must have all the wounded parts' taken away, and the old 

 branches should be cut off pretty close to the stem ; in the 

 spring they will shoot out fresh branches, which may be 

 laid the second year after. 



Leadwort. See Plumbago. 



Leatherwood. See Dirca. 



Lechea ; a genus of the class Triandria, order Trigynia. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth three-leaved; 



leaflets ovate, concave, extremely spreading, permanent. 



Corolla: petals three, linear, narrower than the calix, but 



H 



