L Y C 



L Y C 



EfT, Cli. Corolla four-eleft ; one of its lobes notclied. 

 Stamens dillant. Seeds fmir, naked, blunt. 



■I. L. eurrfteus. Water Horelumnd. Gypfywort. Linn. 

 ■Sp. PI. 30. Engl. Bot. t. Iioj. Curt. Lend. fafc. 3. t. 2. 

 — Leaves very deeply fcrratcd. — Found abundantly on the 

 tanks of pooh and ditclies, in a Tandy foil, Iknvering in 

 July and Auguft. — Rot perennial. Skm fquarc. Leaves 

 oppoiite. Floiucrs white, many in a whorl. Seeds four, 



obovate, blunt, fquarc, fiuTowed The whole herbage is 



inodorous, though the flowers are foraetimes fvveet-fcci-ted. 

 It vanes occafionally in having deeply pinnacifid leaves, more 

 or le«i hairy ; indeed they arc fcarcely ever quite fmooth. 

 Dr. Sniitli reir:arks that " the glandular dots, form of the 

 corolla, and whole habit fhcw the afiinity of this plant ,to 

 Mentha ;" but he thinks tint the feeds would ferve fufli- 

 ciently to dillinguilh it without adverting to the number 

 of its (lamens. 



2. l^. e.valtiilus. Italian Water Horehouad. Linn. Suppl. 

 87. Willd. n. 2. Sm. Fl. Gra;c. Sibth. v. i. 9. t. 12. — 

 Leaves pinnatifid, toothed. Calyx four or five-cleft — A 

 native of Italy, and alfo of Greece in Lupadia and Bi- 

 thynia, flowering in the fummer. — Root perennial, creep- 

 ing. Stem eredl, from four to fix feet high, leafy, hairy, 

 often tinged with red. Leaves oppoGte, crofTnig each 

 other in pairs, deeply pinnatifid, hairy on both fides. IVhorls 

 axillary, fefiile, denfe, many-flowered. Bralieas fmall, linear, 

 lanceolate, acute. Corolla tubular, white, a little longer than 

 the calyx, mouth hairy. Seeds obovate, blunt, covered 

 with refinous dots, aromatic. 



The pinnatifid variety of L. etiropnus has by fome au- 

 thors been confounded with the prefent plant ; but on ac- 

 count of that fpccies having a more h\imble (leni, the 

 fegments of its leaves never toothed, and the calyx inva- 

 riably five-clefr, Dr. Smith thinks they are fufficiently 

 diftmft. 



3. L. virgiiiicus. Linn. Sp. PI. 30. Michaux. Boreal- 

 Amer. V. i. 14. — Leaves ftalked, elliptical, tapering at 

 each end, equally ferrated. — A native of America, from 

 'New England to Carolina. It flowers in the autumn. — 

 The Linnsan fpecimcn of this fpecies has leaves above an 

 inch in breadth, with llrong, though not deep ferratures. 

 It therefore very ill agrees with the definition in Flora Fir- 

 gin'icii, " Leaves lanceolate, very finely ferrated," or with 

 Clayton's account, " Leaves long, narrow, and graffy.'' It 

 anfwers, however, exaftly to Michaux's definition, " Leaves 

 broadly lanceolate, ferrated, contrafted, and entire at the 

 bafe." — The flowers are numerous, in denfe whorls. Seeds 

 angular, each crowned with feveral blunt teeth. 



Befides the three fpecies above defcribcd, Mr. Brown, in 

 his Prodronuis to the Flora of New Holland, mentions 

 another, which he calls aujlralts, with the foDowing cha- 

 racter, " Leaves lanceolate, pointed, ferrated, downy, 

 roughith above, glandular beneath, entire, and attenuated 

 at the bafe : ferratuies remote, equal, very acute. Stems 

 ilriated." - This is found all over New Holland, and in 

 Mr. Brown's opinion is very nearly allied to L. europecus. 

 Michaux has another fpecies under the name of uniflorus, 

 which is thus chnraderized. " Plant very fmall. Root tu- 

 berous. Stems fimple. Lea'oes oval, obtufe, obiolettly 

 toothed. Flowers axillary, foliiary." This is a native of 

 North Am-rica. 



LYCOSTAPHYLjE, tvolf's grapes, a name given by. 

 fome of the Greek writers to the poinum amoris, a kind of 

 efculent night ftiade, which we have much more properly 

 catted lyeoper/ieon, ihe iuolj''speacL (See SoLANUM.) JEm'i- 

 Jius Macer tells, that the nightlhades, in general, were called 

 by the name morella ia his time : his words are, " herbara 



quam Grxci ilrychnum dixcrc, Latini morellam dicunt.'' 

 The name mbrelli leems to be fornicd upon the word morioiif 

 a name given both by the Greeks and Latins to one of the 

 fleepy night (liades, and to the male mandrake of Diof- 

 corides, vviuch the fliepherds were fond of eating ; but 

 which brought on fleepy diforders, if taken too largely. - 



LYCOS rOMUS, in Ichthyology, the name given by 

 vElian, and many other of the Greek authors, to the an- 

 chovy, called by others the eticraulus and encraujuholus, and 

 by the late writers f«f;-(7y7ro/«/. See CL\}l')i.\ Encrafi col us, 

 and Anchovy. 



LYCTOS, in yliicient Geography, a town fituatcd in 

 the interior of the ifle of Crete, and not far from Gnof- 

 fus to the fouth-eall. Of this town Polybius lays, that it 

 was a colony, originally of Lacedsemonians, and the moll 

 ancient of the Cretan towns, which produced ir.en who were, 

 without contradiction, the bravell and moll virtuous in the 

 whole iflaid. The priority of its exiftence to Gnon"us and 

 Cortyna, however, has been doubted. 



LYCURGIA, Xi/wugyHia, in Jnt'iquhy, a fettival cele- 

 brated by the Spartans in menjory of Lycurgus, wiiom they 

 honoured witli a temple, and an anriverfary lacrilice. 



LYCURGUS, m Biography, the celebrated legiflator of 

 Sparta, fuppofed to have been born about the year 926, 

 was fon of Eunomud, king of that country, and brother to 

 Polydeftes. He might have fucceeded to the throne liini- 

 I'elf on the death of PolydeCles, but knowing that the de- 

 ceafed .king's widow was pregnant, he publicly declared that 

 he would only hold the crov. n m trull for the clii d, provided 

 it fltould prove a fon. The queen, ambiiious ofretaining her 

 place and dignity, propofed to marry I^ycurgus, and dellroy 

 the infant before its birth. Lycurgus took mealures to 

 prevent the completion of her wicked propolals : flie was, 

 in due time, delivered of a boy, which being brought to 

 him, as he was fitting at the table with the magillratcs, 

 he took it in his arms, placed it in tiie chair of Hate, and 

 exclaimed, " Here Spartans is your king." Lycurgus 

 faithfully difchargcd the duty of regent and guardian 

 during the minority of his nephew Charilaus, and as loon 

 as the young prince came to years of maturity, he readily 

 refigned all authority into his hands, left Sparta, and tra- 

 velled into feveral foreign countries, with the view of ob- 

 ferving their laws and cuftoms. He lirll vifited Crete, at 

 that time governed by the laws of Minos : thefe laws he 

 ftudied moll carefully, and contradied a friendlhip with 

 Thales, whom he perfuaded to fettle at Sparta. He thence 

 paffed over to Afia, making obfcrvatio::s on the principal 

 Ionian cities, which were overwhelmed in luxury and efte- 

 ininacy. Here he met with the works of Homer, which 

 he tranfcribed and brought into Greece. The coiilufion 

 which followed his departure from Sparta, made his pre- 

 fence again ncceffary, and he returned home at the ear- 

 ned folicitations of his countrymen. Perceiving tiiat the 

 diforders of the Hate admitted no other cffcftual remedy 

 than a total change of the laws and conftitution, he pre- 

 pared to give a new iegiflative fyflem to Sparta. He took 

 care to fortify his authority with the faniiions of religion, 

 and obtained from the oracle of Delphi a declaration, that 

 the :onllitutiun he was about to eftablifh, would be ihc moll 

 excellent in the world. [For an account of his inllitu- 

 tions fee the article LacyTLDemonians. ] His principal oh- 

 jedl, as a patriot, was to render his country great and re- 

 fpeftable among furroundiiig nations ; this he attained, and 

 Sparta, under the laws of Lycurgus, became a nation of 

 invincible warriors, who, for a feries of years, bore the 

 greatell fway in the affairs of Greece, and were the bulwark of 

 their friends, and the dread of their foes. Lycurgus has 



been 



