58 



LOCUST TREE LOPHIRE.E. 



food of St. John in the wilderness consisted only of 

 insects or their productions being locusts and wild 

 honey. The writer hereof has tasted locusts cured 

 in the Levant, and found them rather sweet, but of 

 an insipid taste. According to some travellers, they 

 are roasted or fried on a hot fire, thrir legs and wings, 

 and, as some say, also their entrails, being first re- 

 moved. In many parts of Arabia they are strung in 

 rows by the women and children, and sold. By some 

 they are seasoned, and by others boiled ; and really, 

 when we remember the vegetable nature of their food, 

 there must, be less real ground of objection to use 

 them in this manner, than there is to eat shrimps, 

 prawns, crayfish, &c., which feed upon the grossest 

 impurities. Certain it is, many nations do eat 

 locusts cooked in one way or another, and have thence 

 obtained the name of Acridop/iagi. It is also true 

 that travellers have differed in their opinion as to the 

 taste of this kind of food. Some have also asserted 

 that a continued use of it produces ill effects ; but the 

 observations upon this subject are too vague to allow 

 us to be certain on this point. 



In this country we possess about twenty-five native 

 species belonging to the genus Locustu, of compara- 

 tively small size, and which are found on grassy batiks 

 and commons, &c. ; about eight species of Gompho- 

 cerus, Leach (in which the antenna? are thickened at 

 the tips), and several species of Acrydium (Tetrix, 

 Latreille), in which the prothorax is produced into a 

 long point behind, covering the remainder of the body. 

 These last are the smallest species of the family. The 

 exotic species are very numerous, and often very 

 brilliantly coloured. 



LOCUST TREE is the Hymeneea courbaril of 

 Linnaous, an ornamental West Indian tree, belonging 

 to LcgumlnuscE. 



LODDIGESIA (Dot. Mag.). An under-shrub 

 from the Cape of Good Hope, named in honour of 

 Conrad Loddiges, a celebrated nurseryman of Hack- 

 ney. It belongs to Leguminosce, is grown in loam and 

 moor-earth, and increased by cuttings. 



LOGWOOD is the Ileematoxylon Campechianum 

 of Linnaeus. It is used medicinally, and also as a 

 dye stuff ; for which latter purpose many thousand 

 tons are annually imported into this country. 



LOLIGO (SEPIA LOLIGO, Linnaeus). A mol- 

 luscous animal, whose description will be found under 

 the article SEPIA. 



LOLIGOPSIS (Lamarck) A molluscous ani- 

 mal, whose description will be found under the article 

 SEPIA. 



LOLIUM (Linnaeus). A genus belonging to the 

 Grmiunca, and one of our best cultivated grasses 

 commorrly known by the name of rye-grass It is an 

 early shooting plant, and is, therefore, chiefly used in 

 laying down permanent meadow, or pastures. It is 

 also sown among clover to improve the quality of 

 the forage ; and sown and made into hay by itself, is 

 the most valuable of all forage for horses. The seed is 

 a very considerable article in the seedsman's ware- 

 house, vast quantities being purchased by farmers 

 every year The L. temulentum is a noxious plant, 

 and deleterious among wheat. 



LOMATIA (R. Brown). A genus of greenhouse 

 plants, introduced from New South Wales, belonging 

 to the fourth class of Linnaean botany, and to the na- 

 tural order Proteacece. The species succeed in moor- 

 earth, with a mixture of loam, and are increased by ' 

 cuttings. 



LONCHOCARPUS (Humboldt). A genus of 

 South American trees, belonging to the class Diadcl- 

 jtfiia, and to the nattfral order Lfgnniinomx. These 

 plants were called Dalbcrgia and Rolrinia by other 

 authors. They are sr/>vo plants, thrive on sandy 

 loam, and may be increased by cuttings in the usual 

 way. 



LONDON PRIDED the Sajrifraga umbrosa of 

 Linnaeus, a well known ^ant, common in every cot- 

 tage garden. 



^LONDON ROCKET is the Siymbrium irio of 

 Linnaeus, common on every old wall. 



LONGICORNES. A very extensive subsection 

 of coleopterous insects, belonging to the section Tc- 

 tramera, and distinguished by tho great length of the 

 antennae, and the generally elongated form of the 

 body and short head. By the latter characters it is 

 at once distinguished from the lostrated Rhyncvphora, 

 and the more or less rounded Cyc&ea. The subsec- 

 tion corresponds with the Linna-an genera Cerambyjc, 

 Nccydalix, and Leptura, which see, and more espe- 

 cially the first of these articles under its family name 

 of CERAMBYCID^E. 



. LONGIPENNES. The second of the four fami- 

 lies into which Cuvier divides the web-footed birds, 

 and including those which are most discursive over 

 the waters. They are in fact the characteristic 

 winged inhabitants of the high seas, and sailors meet 

 with them at almost every point from the one pole 

 to the other. The character from which they get 

 their family name is the great length of their wings. 

 Their feet also have the hind toe free of the web, or 

 altogether wanting. Those of the former character 

 are, generally speaking, good walkers, resort occa- 

 sionally to the shores at other than their breeding 

 times, and some of them proceed inland, though none 

 of them reside permanently there. Those which 

 have the second character do not in general walk so 

 well, are less commonly seen on land, and many of 

 them skim along the surface with level wings, |and 

 tip the water with the webs of their feet to assist 

 them in their motion. The family includes the 

 petrels, the puffins, the gulls, the skuas, the albatross, 

 the terns, the noddies, and the storm petrels. 



LONG1ROSTRES. Cuvier's third family of 

 Echassiers or stilt birds, which comprises a great num- 

 ber of those birds which frequent the margin of the 

 waters. The whole of them have a strong family 

 likeness ; their bodies are similar in form, in the dis- 

 tribution of their colours, and also in their manners!. 

 Cuvier divides them into two great genera, snipes and 

 avocets, of which notices will be found under their 

 respective names. See also the article BIRD. 



LONICERA (Romer and Schultes). A genus 

 of deciduous shrubs, natives of various parts of the 

 globe. They belong to Pentandria and to the 

 natural order Caprifoliacece . These plants were form- 

 erly associated with the honeysuckles (now called 

 Caprifaliuni), but as they differ in the shape of their 

 flowers and habit of growth, they have been sepa- 

 rated. 



LOPEZIA (Cavanelli). A genus of perennial 

 and annual herbs, natives of Mexico. The flowers 

 are monandrious, and belong to the natural order 

 Onagrarue. These plants are very handsome when in 

 flower, and are desirable for the green-house when 

 fresh imported seeds can be obtained. 



LOPHIRE^E. A natural order containing only 

 one genus, and of that one species only, namely the 



