L r N" 



L I N 



ffiving them leffbns at the time of feeding ; for they will pro- 

 fit more while young in a few days, than in a long time after- 

 wards, and will take in the whole method of tlieir notes be- 

 fore they are able to crack hard feeds. Some have attempted 

 to teach them to fpeak, m the manner of the parrot, or othtr 

 birds, and they will arrive at fome fort of perfcclion in it 

 with great pains. 



Mr. Birrington mentions a linnet, which being taken 

 from its nell when only two or three days old, almoil articu- 

 lated the words prMy boy, as well as fome other fhort fentences. 

 See Song of Binh. 



LINNICK, in Geography, a town of France, in the de- 

 partment of the Roer, and chief place of a canton, in tlie 

 dillricl of Aix-la-Chapelle, feated en the Ruhr ; live miles 

 N.N.W. of Juliers. The place contains 2086, and the 

 canton 13,589 inhabitants. N. lat. 50° 57'. E. long. 6" 



i-i • 

 'LINOCARPUM.in Bdany, fo called by Micheli, Nov. 



Gen. 22. t. 21, from the refemblance of its fruit to that of 



L'nium, Flax. See Radiola and Li-\l.m. 



L.IN0C1ERA, a name given by Dr. Swartz, in honour 

 of Geoffrey Linocier, a French phyfician, who flourifhed 

 at the clofe of the fixteenth and beginning of the feven- 

 teenth centuries. Fie pubhflied at Paris in 1584 an ac- 

 count of the officinal aroraatics of the Eaft and Welt Indies. 

 This book is accompanied by wooden cuts. Linocier alio 

 wrote upon the natural hiftory of beads, birds, fi{hes, and 

 ferpents : but on thefe fifejecls he borrowed largely from 

 Gefner and other authors. The prefent genus was adopted 

 by Schreber, from Swartz, who lirit called it Thouinia, 

 in his Prodrcmus. Dr. Smith however fiiggefts that Llno- 

 cJera may probably not be a dillinft genus from Chionan- 

 thus, merely becaufe tney differ in the number cf cells of 

 the fruit : the former having two cells, the latter only one. 

 liut in fome genera of this natural order, the number of 

 cells in the ripe fruit has been difcovered conllantly to be 

 fewer than in the young germen. In Oka, in particular, 

 this was found to he regularly thi? cafe by the late M. Brouf- 

 fonet, though we know not that it had been before fiifpefted. 

 — Swarcz Ind. Occ. v. i. 49. Schreb. 7S4. WiUd. Sp. PI. 

 V. I. 154. (Thouinia; Swartz Prod. 14.) — Clafs and order, 

 Diandria Alonogynii. Nat. Qfd. S^biari^, Linn. Jafmiiuw, 

 JufT. 



Gen. Ch. Cat. Perianth inferior, very fmall, four-toothed, 

 obtufe, permanent. Cor. Petals four, equal, linear, chan- 

 nelled, creft, fpreading at the top, confiderably longer 

 than the calyx. &Mn. Filaments two^ very (liort and 

 broadilli ; anthers linear, two furrowed, the length of the 

 corolla, erect, each adhering ihghtly to ore fide of two of 

 the petals.. Pi/l. Germen luperior, ovate, quadrangular; 

 llyle (hort ; itigma oblong, cloven. Peric. Berry, or 

 rather Drupa, ovate, acuminate, of two cells. Ssei/s foli- 

 tary, oblong. 



EC Ch. Calyx four-toothed. Corolla of four petals, the 

 two oppolite o; es connected at their bafe by the anthers. 

 Fruit of two cells and two feeds. 



L. ligujlrlna is the only fpecies defcnbed by Swartz. 

 It is a native of dry open places in the Weft Indies, 

 cfpecially Jamaica and St. Domingo, flowering in June and 

 July. 



LINONASME, the name of a melancholy and folemn 

 air of the ancient Greeks, on the death of Linus. 



LINOS is fnppofed to imply the fame air. RoulTeau, 

 however, calls it a kind of rutHc fong among the ancient 

 Greeks ; thty had like wife a funeral long of the fame name, 

 which anfivered to what the Romans called Nisnia. Some 



fay that the Linos was invented in Egypt ; while others 

 afcribe its invention to Linus, the Eubocan. 



LiNOSA, in Geography, a fmall ifland in the Mediterra- 

 nean, not far from the coall of Tunis, near the ifland of 

 Lampedofa. 



LINOTA, in Ornithology. See Linnet, aad Fringilla 

 L'lno'.a. 



LINOZOSTIS, \n Botany, a name given by the ancient 

 Greek writers to two plants very different from one another ; 

 the one is the mercurialis, orEngliili mercury, a plant com- 

 mon in uncultivated places, and eaten by many boiled iri man- 

 Tier of afparagus ; the other the epillnum, or dodder, growing 

 upon the plants of flax. 



Theophraftus, Diofcorides, and the ancient Greeks, ufe 

 the word in the firll fenfe, and the modern Greeks in the 

 latter. 



The Latin authors call this Unozojlis, or epllinum, fome- 

 times angina lim, ^nA podagra lini, looking on it as a dift-afe 

 which choaks the plant it grows on, and caufcs gouty tumours 

 on the llalk?. See Dodder. 



LINQUES, in Geography, a country of Celebes, lying 

 between the two ilates of Binano and Bankale, not far from 

 the bay of Tourattea ; which fee. 



LINSCHOTTEN, a town of Holland ; eight miles- 

 W. of Utrecht. 



LINSDORF, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Ko- 

 nigingratz ; 32 miles E.S.E. of Geveriberg. 



LIN3E, a town of Pruflia, in Oberlar.d ; 15 miles S.E. - 

 of Marienwerder. 



LINSEED, or Line-seed, a fort of grain, being the feeds 

 of the common Jlax, (which lee,) which enters the com- 

 pofition of feveral medicines, and yields, by exprelTion, 

 an oil, that has moft of the qualities of nut oil, and is ac- 

 cording generally ufed, in lieu thereof, in paintings and for " 

 burning. 



Thofe who manufafture it in large quantities have mills 

 turned by horfes or water, for the more expeditious dilpatcli' 

 of their work. See Oil. 



Linseed, in the Materia Mediea. Thefe feeds have aa 

 unftuous mucilaginous fweetidi taile, without any remark- 

 able fmell. The oil which they yield in esprefTion, when 

 carefully drawn without the application of heat, has no par- 

 ticular tafle or flavour : and in fome properties differs con- 

 fiderably from moll other oils of this kind ; as congealing ill. 

 water, not forming a folid ioap with fixed alkaline falts,- 

 acting more powerfully as a menftruum on fulphurous bodies, . 

 than any other exprefi'ed oil that has been tried. 



The feeds, boiled in water, yield a large proportion of a- • 

 ftrong flavourlcfs mucilage ; but to rcdtitied fpirit they give 

 out little or nothing. Thefe feeds have been fometimes ufed, . 

 in a feafon of fcarcity, iiiflead of grain ; but they appear 

 to be an unwholefome as well as an unpalatable food. They 

 afford little nourifliment, impair the ftomach, and produce 

 great flatulence, as Galen long ago ohferved. Tragus relates, 

 that thofe who fed upon tiiem in. Zeal.ind, had the bypo- 

 chondres in a (hort time dillended, and the face and other 

 parts fwelled ; and that not a few died of thele complaints. 



Infufions and decoctions of thefe feeds, like other vege- 

 table mucilages, are ufed as emollients or demulcents in 

 hoarfeneffcs, coughs, and pleuritic fymptoms, which fre- 

 quently prevail in catarrhal affections ; they are alfo recom- 

 mended in nephritic pains and ftranguries ; a fpoonful cf the 

 feeds unbruil'ed is faid, for thefe purpofes, to be fufHcient 

 for a quart of water. The feeds are alio much ufed exter- . 

 nally in emollient and maturating cataplafms. The feeds - 

 from which the oil has been expreffed, boiled in milk, and ap» 

 plied warm, ca a clotb, to heiT.ix, are much recommended 



ia.* 



