LOVAGE LUCANID.E. 



merdam and Leeuwenhoeck.two of the raost celebrated 

 of microscopic observers, have made the common 

 louse the object of very elaborate investigation. The 

 former tells us that notwithstanding the great powers 

 of propagation of this insect, " it is no more than a 

 jest that people say in sport that a louse may see its 

 fourth generation in the space of twenty-four hours ;" 

 and Leeuwenhoeck, who put a male and female louse 

 under a stocking which he wore day and night to 

 favour their breeding, found that the female lays from 

 fifty to a hundred eggs, and, computing the natural 

 increase from what he had seen, he says that in eight 

 weeks one louse may see 5000 of its descendants. It 

 is requisite that the eggs should be deposited in a 

 place that is warm and moderately moist to produce 

 any thing, and hence many nits laid on the hairs in 

 the night-time are destroyed by the cold of the suc- 

 ceeding day, and so stick for several months till they 

 lose their external form. In feeding, a constant 

 motion of the intestines may be perceived through 

 the transparent skin, the blood rushing like a torrent 

 into the stomach. We have in our article on the 

 LOCUST shown that from what is recorded of the im- 

 mense swarms of these insects, their appearance, as 

 one of the seven plagues of Egypt, ay be supposed 

 to have been produced without any supernatural effort 

 of Providence ; and indeed their arrival is not recorded 

 in the Holy Bible as the result of a miracle, but in 

 the plague of lice the contrary is expressly said, that, 

 by the order of God, " Aaron stretched forth his hand 

 with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it 

 became lice in man and beast ; the magicians did so 

 with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they 

 could not ; then the magicians said to Pharaoh, this 

 is the ringer of God." This brings us to notice, with- 

 out, however, venturing to speculate upon the precise 

 species, or several species, or even tribes of parasites, 

 of which the Egyptian plague consisted, that the 

 term Phthiriasis has been given to a disease supposed 

 to originate entirely in attacks of the Pediculi. Kirby 

 and Spence have collected much information upon 

 this subject, and conclude their observations by 

 doubting whether there be any real Phthiriasis, and 

 " that it does not appear from any well ascertained 

 fact that the species of Pediculi are ever subcutaneous ;" 

 and that, therefore, the death of the poet Alcman and 

 of Phresydes Syrius, the philosopher, mentioned by 

 Aristotle, must have been occasioned by some other 

 kind of insect ; for, when speaking of the lice to which 

 he attributes these catastrophes, he says, that they 

 are produced in the flesh in small pustule-like tumours, 

 which have no pus, and from which, when punctured, 

 they issue ;' but, according to the more recent observa- 

 tions of Alt, published in his Dissertatio de Phthi- 

 riasis at Bonn, in 18'20, it appears that another species, 

 Pediculus tabcscentium, is the real louse of this disease, 

 which, as cited by Biirmeister, collect in great num- 

 bers upon the skin at particular spots, chiefly upon 

 the breast, the back, and the neck between folds of 

 the skin, making the surface uneven, so that scale- 

 shaped lappets of the epidermis peel off, beneath 

 which the lice conceal themselves. Of the first ap- 

 pearance of these insects much difficulty exists, both 

 positive and negative evidence being recorded of 

 their non-contagiousness. We cannot, however, adopt 

 the opinion of Biirmeister,.thatthey must necessarily 

 be the result of equivocal generation ; and by whom 

 it is supposed that the skin, which has precisely the 

 same structure as the mucous membranes of the in- 



testinal canal, gives rise to parasites peculiar to it. 

 The Pediculis pubis (or Phthirus ingttina/ix, Leach), 

 is a fourth species ; and, according to Fabricius, the 

 louse of the negro is a fifth distinct species, of a black 

 colour, with a large fiat head. 



The Aphides are also called plant lice ; the Xyrti- 

 rib'uc, bat lice ; the Lepisma aaccharina, the sugar 

 louse ; and the Oniscidtz, wood lice. 



LOVAGE. Is the Ligusticum levisticum of Lin- 

 naeus, a large growing plant cultivated as a potherb. 

 It partakes of the qualities of fennel, and is annually 

 raised from seed. 



LOVE APPLE. Is the Lycopersicum etculcn- 

 turn or tomata, of which there are three principal va- 

 rieties, the white, red, and yellow fruited. These 

 are all esteemed by Italian cooks and confectioner?, 

 and certainly make excellent sauces. The generic 

 name is a bastard compound, signifying ihe wolfish 

 peach, and like the English name, love apple, is meant 

 to infer the deceitful character of the specious ber- 

 ries : in appearance they are more tempting than a; 

 peach, but as a fruit they are worthless. 



LOVE LIES BLEEDING. Is the Amarantns 

 caudalus of Linnaeus, a tender annual border flower, 

 seen in every garden. 



LUCANID^E (Leach). A family of coleopterous 

 insects, belonging to the section Pentamcra, and to 

 the subsection Lamellicornet, and comprising the 

 various species of stag-beetles, or the Linnaean genus 

 Lucamts, distinguished by the enormous size of the 

 horny and toothed mandibles in the males, and by 

 the rather long elbowed antenna?, which are termi- 

 minated by a perfoliated club, and are composed of 

 ten joints, the first being very long. The mandiblos 

 of the females are of small size, and hence the dis- 

 parity in the appearance of the sexes is so great that 

 it is only lately that the sexes of the great English 

 stag-beetle have been discovered, Marsham having 

 described the female as distinct. The lower jaws are 

 slender and membranaceous, densely clothed with 

 hair, and forming a kind of pencil, which are protruded 

 by the insect for the purpose of lapping up flowing 

 sap and other fluids, whereon the perfect insects 

 feed. The mode in which the food of these insects is 

 taken has been observed, by Mr. G. R. Waterhouse, 

 who communicated the following remarks to the En- 

 tomological Society. It appeared evident that their 

 mandibles are employed in procuring subsistence, 

 possibly by wounding the bark of young trees, in 

 order to cause the sap to flow, upon which these insects 

 feed. The male specimen of L. cervns, Mr. W. kept 

 alive for several weeks, by feeding it with sugar and 

 water ; it also seemed fond of the juice of raspberries 

 and other saccharine substances. For the purpose 

 of lapping up juices or other fluid matter, it appears 

 to have an extraordinary power of thrusting out the 

 maxilla?, the terminal portion of which is extremely 

 long and flexible, not unlike the tongue of a bee. It 

 carefully avoided touching any thing with the antennas, 

 although these organs were kept continually in mo- 

 tion, as if for the purpose of feeling ; if by chance 

 they became smeared with sugar or any other matter, 

 the insect immediately cleaned them by drawing them 

 between the thigh of the fore leg and the underside 

 of the thorax, in both which parts a velvet-like patch 

 of hair is to be observed, which is well adapted for 

 such purpose. That the mandibles were employed 

 as above mentioned appeared evident, from the insect 

 frequently biting the raspberry to wound it before it 



