LOT 



smd calyx hairy. Legumes round, linear, very flender. — 

 Native of Madeira, and of the fouth coaft of England. It 

 has an affinity to the two laft, but is more delicate and 

 flender, with imaller and piler Jioivers, one or two only to- 

 gether ; for which reafon it ought to be placed in the firft 

 feftion, though it proves fuch a divilion of the genus (by 

 the number of its flowers) to be rather artificial than na- 

 tural. 



The lotus of Africa is rather a thorny ftirub than a tree ; 

 and it abounds in all thofe parts of Africa through which 

 Mr. ''ark travelled ; but it flourillies mod in a fandy foil. 

 Its fruit IS a fmall farinaceous berry, about the fize of an 

 olive ; which being pounded in a wooden velTel, and after- 

 ward dried in the fun, is made into excellent cakes, refem- 

 bling, in colour and flavour, the fweetetl gingerbread. The 

 natives of all deicriptions efteem it hijhly, and fome of 

 them prepare from it a liquor delicioufly fvveet ; the fame 

 perhaps which is fabled to have produced fuch extraordinary 

 effefts on the companions of Ulyfles. 



Lotus, in Garikning, comprizes plants of the herbaceous 

 and under Ihrubby kind, of which the fpecies cultivated are, 

 the winged bird's-foot trefoil (L. tetragonolobus) ; the 

 dark-flowered bird's-foot trefoil (L. jacobeus) ; the filvery 

 bird's-foot trefoil (L. hirfutus) ; and the (hrubby bird's-foot 

 trefoil (L. Dorycnium). 



Method of Culture. — The firft fort is raifed by fowing the 

 feed annually in the fpring, in the open gioiind, in the places 

 where the plants are to remain, in patches in differi;nt parts, 

 of five or fix feeds in each, half an inch deep. The plants 

 foon come up, which remaining m I he fame place for flower- 

 ing, require only occafiunal weeding, being either luffered 

 to trail, according to their natural growth, or tied up to 

 fticks. 



The other forts may be increafed by feeds and cuttings. 

 The fettds (hould be fown in pota of light earth or m a mo- 

 derate hor-bed ; and when the p'ants are about three inches 

 high be planted out in feparate fmall pots of light rich earth, 

 giving water, and placing, them in the ftiade till trelh 

 rooted. 



The cuttings of the young fta'ks and branches may be 

 planted any time in thefpri ig crfummer, in beds or pots of 

 rich mould, giving Ihade and water. They emit roots, and 

 form plants in a few weeks, but may be greatly facilitated by 

 covering them ciofe with hand-irlalT s till they begin to (hoot 

 at top ; then they (hould be gradually inured to the air, and 

 foon after be tranfp a.ted into feparate pots. 



The firft of thefe plants is now chiefly cultivated in flower- 

 gardens for ornament, but was formerly grown for the green- 

 pods which were boiled and eaten. 



The other kinds effeft an agreeable variety in collections 

 of green-houfe plants, both in their foliage and flowers. 

 They all require (helter from froft, the t«o firft in parti- 

 cular ; the two la(l are fomewhat hardier, and fometimes fuc- 

 eeed in the full ground all the year, in warm dry fituations. 

 A few plants (hould however conilantly be kept in the pots, 

 to be proteded in the winter feafon. 



Lotus, Bladder, a name foraetimes given to a fpecies of 

 xulneraria, or anlhvWts. 



Lotus Cornitulatus : this is a plant that has a perennial 

 tapenng root which ftrikes deep ; there are feveral trailing 

 herbaceous ftems, flender, bluntly four-cornered, procum- 

 bent except where fupported, as in meadows.or among bulhes, 

 from fix or feven inches to afoot and a half in length ; vary- 

 mg even more in different foils and fituations. The leaves 

 are ternate, petioled, one at each joint, the leaflets differing 

 extremely in f)rm, in the fever*l varieties, from bluntly 

 ovate to linear-lanceolate. TIk: lbipulas»refemble the leaves, 



L O V 



but they are more pointed, and are rather lanceolate than 

 ovate. The flowers grow in flatted heads refembKng um- 

 bels, on peduncles from two to three inches and a half in 

 length, but on pedicles hardly a line long. There is a fingle 

 feffile ternate leaf at the bafe of each head without any fti- 

 pulas ; and fometimes there is only one leaflet or two ; the 

 number of flowers varies from three or four te twelve or 

 thirteen. 



This fort of lotus is found in meadows, paflures, and heaths, 

 flowering in June. It is faid to be cultivated in Hertford- 

 (hire as pafturage for fheep ; and it makes extremely good 

 hay ; growing in moift meadows to a greater height than the 

 trefoils, and leems to be of a quality equal, if nofcfuperior to 

 moft of them. In common with feveral other leguminous 

 plants, it gives fubftaiicc to the hay, and perhaps contributes 

 to render it more palatable and wholefome for cattle. Dr. 

 Andcrfon affirms, that every fort of domeftic ammal eats it 

 in preference to every other plant : it feldom comes to flower 

 in pailure gronnds, unlefs where they have been faved from 

 cattle for fome time. What firft recommended it to his no- 

 tice was, the having obferved it to grow and flourifh in poor 

 ground ; as in the midft of a barren moor, where the foil 

 was fo poor that even heath could hardly grow ; upon bare 

 obdurate clays ; in dry and barren fands. Jt certainly flou- 

 ri(hcs not only in thefe, but alfo c'nalky foils ; and on moors, 

 heaths, and downs hard ftocked with flieep, the furface may 

 be feen to be yellow with- the flowers of it ; which is con- 

 trary to what has been aflerted above, namely, that it feldom 

 comes to flower in paftures. But a greater number of trials 

 are ftill wanting to fully afcertain the utility of this plant for 

 field purpofes, thoui;h it certainly promifes well. 



Lotus hlycy calamus, a name given by the ancient 

 Greeks to an Egyptian plant according to fome, and ac- 

 cording to others, 'o a rare plant, found only in few places, 

 and only met with by accident, by the people who made 

 long and uneonimnn voyages. The whole account given of 

 it, by the earlieil writers, is no imore than that it was of a 

 very fweet and pleafant tafte. Myrepfus ufes the term fre- 

 quently, and his interpreters underftand him to mean the 

 Cdffia fiftula by it. But we have accounts from Homer, 

 that the followers of Ulyfliss were detained by eating the 

 lotus glycycalamus ; and it is not at all probable that the 

 calTia fillula could be the thing meant by the word in this 

 place ; neither will tlie words of the author allow it to be 

 any thing of tins ki-id. The caflia fiftula is the fruit of a 

 tree: but this t'lycycalamus, we find in Homer himfelf, 

 was an herbaceous plant. Quintilian calls it exprcfsly a 

 kind of grafs, gramen ; and from the other accounts of its 

 growing m form of reeds, and in wet places, it feems very 

 probable that it was the fugar-cane that they called by this 

 name. 



Lotus, in Agriculture, a fort of plants of the birds-foot tre- 

 foil kind, of which there are feveral fpecies, fome of which may 

 be cultivated for the purpofe of cattle food with advantao-e. 



LOTZEN, in Geography, a town, wuh a caftle, of 

 PrulTij, in the province oi Natangen, feaicd on a canal 

 which joins the Angerburg and Leventin lakes ; 56 miles 

 S.E. of K5nigfberg. N. lat. 53 53 . E. long. 21 57'. 



LOVA, a town of Hungary ; 20 miles W. of St. Crot. 



LOVAGE, m Botany and Gardening. See LlGUS- 



TICUM. 



L0V.1GE, Biijlard. See Lasicrpitium /tier. 



LOUAR, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, in Dow- 

 latabad ; to miles W.N VV. of Kondur. 



LOVAT, a town of European Turkey, in Bulgaria; 

 64 miles E. of Sofia. 



LOVATINl, Giovanni di Ravenna, in BiograpJiy, 



a burletta 



