LAO 



LAW 



but soft as velvet, shorter than the pe- 

 tioles ; flowers mostly in pairs, sometimes 

 three together, on upright peduncles, an 

 inch and half in length ; corolla purplish 

 red, spreading, bell-shaped, like that of 

 the common mallow, an inch or more in 

 diameter ; petals broader at top than at 

 the base, so that the calyx appears be- 

 tween the claws. The ring or whorl of 

 fruits is seven or eight-capsuled ; com- 

 mon receptacle awl-shaped, with a conoid 

 globule at top, and small crescent-shaped 

 lamellae at the base, and the interstices of 

 the capsules. Native of Italy, the Levant, 

 and Britain. 



LAVENIA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Syngenesia Polygamia JSqualis class and 

 order. Natural order of Composite Dis- 

 coideae. Essential character : calyx nearly 

 regular, style bifid; down three-awnecl, 

 glandular at the tip. There are two spe- 

 cies, viz. L. decumbens, and L. erecta, 

 the former is a native of Jamaica, and the 

 latter of the East-Indies and the Society 

 Isles. 



LAUGERIA, in botany, so called from 

 Robert Laugier, professor of chemistry 

 and botany at Vienna; a genus of the 

 Pentandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Rubiaceae, Jussieu. Es- 

 sential character; corolla five-cleft; drupe 

 with a five-celled nut. There are three 

 species, natives of America, West Indies, 

 and Santa Cruz. 



LAURUS, in botany, bay-tree, a genus 

 of the Enneandria Monogynia class and 

 order. Natural order of lioloracex. Lauri, 

 Jussieu. Essential character : calyx none; 

 corolla calycine, six-parted ; nectary of 

 three two-bristled glands, surrounding 

 the germ; filaments inner, glanduliferous; 

 drupe one-seeded. There are thirty-two 

 species. This genus consists of trees or 

 shrubs ; leaves mostly entire, in a few" 

 nearly opposite, commonly perennial, 

 as in most trees of the torrid zone. 

 L. nobilis, common sweet-bay, has been 

 celebrated in all ages ; with us it appears 

 as a shrub ; but in the southern parts of 

 Europe, it grows from twenty to thirty 

 feet in height ; it has large evergreen 

 leaves, of a firm texture, with an agreeable 

 smell, and an aromatic, bitterish taste ; 

 flowers dioecious, or male and female on 

 different trees, in racemes shorter than 

 the leaves, of an herbaceous colour : co- 

 rollas four-petalled in the male flowers ; 

 stamens from eight to twelve; berry supe- 

 rior, of a dark purple colour, almost black, 

 It is a native of the southern parts of Eu- 

 rope and Asia. L. persea, alligator, or 

 avocado pear, of the West Indies, is about 



thirty feet in height ; the bark is smooth, 

 and of an ash colour ; the branches have- 

 large, smooth leaves, like those of laurel ; 

 the flowers are mostly produced towards 

 the extremities of the branches; the 

 fruit is the size of one of our biggest 

 pears, inclosing a large seed with two 

 lobes. This fruit is held in great esteem 

 in the West Indies; the pulp is of a 

 pretty firm consistence, and has a delicate, 

 rich flavour ; it gains upon the palate of 

 most persons, and soon becomes agreea- 

 ble even to those who cannot like it at 

 first; it is very rich and mild, so that 

 most people make use of some spice or 

 pungent substance to give it a poignancy. 



LAW, (&cuc. lag. Lat. lex, from Lego, or 

 legendo, choosing, or rather a ligando, 

 from binding), the rule and bond of men's 

 actions : or it is a rule for the well govern- 

 ing of civil society, to give to every man 

 that which doth belong to him. 



Law, in its most general and compre- 

 hensive sense, is defined by Blackstone, 

 in the Commentaries, * a rule of action/ 

 and is applied indiscriminately to all 

 kinds of action, whether animate or in- 

 animate, rational or irrational. And it is 

 that rule of action which is prescribed by 

 some superior, and which the inferior is 

 bound to obey. 



Laws, in their more confined sense, and 

 in which it is the business of works of 

 this nature to consider them, denote the 

 rules, not of action in general, but of 

 human action or conduct. And this per- 

 haps (it has been acutely observed) is 

 the only sense in which the word law can 

 be strictly used ; for in ah 1 cases where it 

 is not applied to human conduct, it may 

 be considered as a metaphor, and in every 

 instance a more appropriate term (as 

 quality or property) may be found. When 

 law is applied to any other object than 

 man, it ceases to contain two of its essen- 

 tial ingredients, disobedience and punish- 

 ment. 



Municipal law, is by the same great 

 commentator defined to be "a rule of 

 civil conduct, prescribed by the supreme 

 power in a state ; commanding what is 

 right, and prohibiting what is wrong." 

 The latter clause of this sentence seems 

 to Mr. Christian to be either superfluous 

 or defective. If we attend to the learned 

 judge's exposition, perhaps we may be 

 'inclined to use the words " establishing 

 and ascertaining what is right or wrong;" 

 and all cavil or difficulty will vanish. 



Every law may be said to consist of 

 several parts ; declaratory, whereby the 

 rights to be observed, and the wrong *o 

 be eschewed, are clearly defined and laid 



