LUNGWORT OF ECONOMIC PLANTS. 253 



more than the following Rliammis Lotus, so named by Linnaeus 

 {see Jujube), nor the Diospyros Lotus (see Date Plum). The 

 Lotos is also described by some as a spiny shrub, and its fruit 

 as possessing intoxicating properties. In an article in Annals 

 of Natural History (1849) Mr. Giles Munby, who resided many 

 years in Algeria, says that in his opinion the spiny shrub 

 Nitraria tridentata is the true Lotos ; that its fruit is a berry 

 sweet to the taste, and has slightly intoxicating properties, 

 quite sufficient to make a man forget his home while under its 

 influence ; it is a thorny shrub of the Desert, common through- 

 out Western Asia and North Africa {see Mtre Bush). As, 

 however. Homer describes the Lotos as a tree, we cannot accept 

 Mr. Munby's opinion that Nitraria was the Lotos tree of Llomer. 

 Linnaeus has further complicated the Lotus by adopting it as the 

 name of a genus of the Bean family (Leguminosae), consisting 

 of herbs and small shrubs, represented in this country by the 

 pretty clover plant Bird's-foot Trefoil {Lotus corniculatus), and 

 in our greenhouses by L. Jacohea, a small shrub, native of Cape 

 Verd, remarkable as being one of the few plants that have truly 

 black flowers. 



Lousy-ar-nut. {See Earth Chestnut.) 



Love Apple. {See Tomato.) 



Lucerne. {See Medick.) 



Lung Lichen {Sticta pulmonacea), a broad foliaceous Lichen, 

 growing in short grass, and called by the English peasant the 

 Lung of the Oak. It is mucilaginous, and is sometimes used as 

 a substitute for Iceland Moss. 



Lungwort {Pulmonai^ia officinalis), a low perennial herb of 

 the Borage family (Boraginaceai). Its leaves are about 6 inches 

 in length, ovate, cordate, somewhat rough, marked with white 

 blotchy spots. These spots being likened to the disease spots on 

 the lungs of consumptive patients, early led it to become a remedy 

 for consumption. The soft mucilaginous nature of the leaves did 

 much to assist in the belief that it was beneficial for that disease. 

 But, like many other plants that had a value under the " doctrine 

 of signatures " of the old herbalists, it is now discarded. 



