38 



LI C 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



LI G 



that of Orchall. It is prepared by the country people in 

 Ireland, by steeping it in slale urine, adding a little salt to 

 it, and afterwards making it up into balls with lime. Wool 

 dyed with it, and then dipped iu the blue vat, becomes of a 

 beautiful purple. With rotten oak it makes a good daik 

 brown frieze. Wool dyed with red wood or sanders, and 

 afterwards in this, which is called Cork, Corker, or Arcell, 

 becomes of a dark reddish. It has also been used as a styptic 



Lichen Parellus. Litmus is prepared from this species. 

 For this purpose it is gathered from the rocks in the uorlh 

 of England, and sent to London in casks. 



Lichen Plicalus, called Hairy Tree, is a very singular 

 plant of the mosses; it grows to the branches of old oaks and 

 oilier trees, and hangs down from them in tufts composed 

 of long strings, which are frequently a foot or more in length, 

 and the whole of them together two or three inches thick : 

 each cluster consists of a great number of stems and branches, 

 the largest of which do not exceed a small packthread in 

 thickness ; they are of a greyish colour, and consist of soft 

 bark, and a firm white fibre within; the bark often appears 

 crooked, and the branches exhibit an appearance of being 

 jointed. The whole plant, as it grows, appears sapless, and 

 is destitute of leaves, or any other appearance of vegetation. 

 It is found in some of our largest forests, but is seldom to be 

 met with any where else. The powder of this moss is an 

 excellent astringent: it should be dried in an oven, and, after 

 being beaten in a mortar, passed through a sieve; the white 

 fibres will remain after the other parts have gone through the 

 sieve, and are of no manner of use, the other parts possessing 

 all the virtues. It is good against the whites, immoderate 

 menstrual discharges, bloody fluxes, and spitting of blood ; 

 and deserves to be much more regarded than it is at present. 

 The dose is half a drachm, or two scruples. 



Lichen Prunastri, has a remarkable property of imbibing 

 and retaining odours, and is therefore the basis of many per- 

 fumed powders. 



Lichen Pulmonarius. This dyes woollen cloth of a durable 

 orange. In Herefordshire they dye stockings with it of a 

 durable brown : and it has obtained a name for curing the 

 consumption, but probably without reason. 



Lichen Pustulalus. Linneus says, that a beautiful red 

 colour may be prepared from this. It may be converted into 

 an exceedingly black paint.. 



Lichen Pyxidatus. This little plant is common on ditch- 

 banks, by the sides of woods or heaths, and in most other 

 dry barren places ; it consists of a thin leafy substance, which 

 spreads on the surface of the ground, and a kind of little cup, 

 resembling wine-glasses rising from it. The leafy part is-dry, 

 and without juice, divided into several segments or portions, 

 which are irregularly notched, grey or greenish on the upper 

 side, and whitish underneath. The cups are in general about 

 half an inch high, and are each of them supported on thick 

 clumsy stems; they are open at the mouth, of a gray colour, 

 with a mixture of green and other colours, sprinkled over with a 

 fine mealy substance on the surface; sometimes they grow one 

 from the edge of another, three or four stages high, and we 

 frequently see many other accidental varieties; they likewise 

 bear at certain seasons little brown lumps, w hich are supposed, 

 and not without a degree of probability, to be the seeds of 

 the plant. The whole of this moss, when used, is to be taken 

 fresh from the ground, bhaken clean, and boiled in water, 

 till the decoction is very siiong; there is then to be added 

 an equal quantity of milk to the liijuor, which is then to be 

 sweetened with honey; and will afterwards fora an excellent 

 medicine for coughs in children, particularly for the chin- 

 cough or hooping-cough. 



Lichen Rangiferhms. This is well known to be the chief 

 food of the Rein Deer, which will grow fat upon it; and that 

 animal supplies the contented Laplander with every article 

 of life, as is set forth by Linneus in his Flora Lapponica. 



Lichen Rotcella, or Orchall, is of very great importance 

 as an article of commerce, being extremely valuable for dye- 

 ing wool or silk any shade of purple or crimson. For this 

 purpose it is steeped in volatile alkali, commonly distilled 

 from urine. In times of scaicity it has been sold at a thou- 

 sand pounds sterling per torn It conies chit-fly from the 

 Levant, but has been lately discovered to grow in the British 

 dominions. 



Lichen Tartareita. This is common on rocks in the north 

 of F.nsjlaud and Scotland. It may be known by its peculiarly 

 pungent alkaline smell when moistened. Peasants who can 

 collect twenty or thirty pounds a day, gather it for the dyers, 

 and sell it for a penny a pound. They choose such specimens 

 as are of a firm dense texture, and never scrape the same rock 

 oftener than ouce in five years. It is prepared for use with 

 volatile alkali and alum, but the exact process is kept a secret 

 by the manufacturers at Glasgow. When sold to the dyers, 

 it appears in the form of a purple powder, called Cudbear, a 

 corruption of Cuthbert, the name of the inventor. This pow- 

 der, being boiled with woollen yarn", communicates a purple 

 colour to it, hut not to vegetable substances ; and the colour 

 is far from being permanent. 



Licuala; a genus of the class Hexandria, order Monogynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth three-parted, 

 outwardly hairy, permanent. Corolla: three-parted, almost 

 to the base; divisions ovate, acute, concave, deciduous; 

 nectary sertiform, truncated, as short again as the corolla. 

 Stamina : filamenta six, inserted into the nectary, upright, 

 very short ; anther* oblong, twin. Pistil: germen superior, 

 convex, three-parted, sulcated, smooth ; style simple ; stig- 

 mas two. Pericarp: drupe globose, (he size of a pea, one- 

 celled. Seed: a hard nut. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Flowers : all hermaphrodite. Calix and Corolla : three- 

 parted. Nectary: serliform ; drupe. The only known 



species is, 



1. Licuala Spinosa. Trunk an ell in height, scarcely so 

 thick as the human arm, jointed, dividing at top into about 

 six branches, each six ells long, hardly a finger in thickness, 

 triangular, grooved above, flat beneath, the lower half sharply 

 serrate at the angles, and the teeth or spinules closely joined. 

 Each of these has a leaf at top spreading like a fan, and 

 divided into rays, all separated to the base. When the plant 

 is mature, the flower-stalk emerges from the middle of the 

 rays, as long as the branches or leaf stalks, involved in 

 sheaths at the bottom, dividing into five smaller flower-stalks 

 at top, about a hand in length, bearing green heads in three 

 ro\vs expanding Into flowers. Rumphius says, that the nut 

 is oblong, very hard, and striated longitudinally. It is .a 

 native of Macassar and Celebes ; where they make much use 

 of the narrow leaves for tobacco pipes, and of the middle 

 broad one for wrapping up fruit, Ac. The wood is of little 

 use, not being durable. 



JJgktfootia ; a genus of the class Polygamia, order Diwcia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTEH. Hermaphrodite. Calix: peri- 

 anlli four-leaved ; leaflets s>\ate, concave, expanding. Corolla: 

 none. Stamina: filamenta numerous, filiform, seated on the 

 receptacle, permanent; antlierae roundish. Pistil: germen 

 louudish, style none; stigma sessile, somewhat headed, fur- 

 rowed. Pericarp: berry ovate, uinhiliruted, one-celled. 

 Seeds: from three to six, oblong, compressed, cornered, 

 glossy. Males on different individuals. Calix: perianth 

 four-leaved ; leaflets oblong, concave, equal, coloured. Co- 



