L Y R 



L Y R 



at Port Jackfon, and hi Van Diemen's land. A climbing 

 /tirub, with oppofito haves. Cymes terminal, three forked. 

 Flowers among the fmalleft of this tribe, their limbs bearded. 



LYPERANTHUS, from Av-., fadnefs, and a.9o5, a 

 Jlawer, becaufe of the very dark-red gloomy hue of the 

 blvjIToms, which is unufual in this tribe. — Brown Prodr. 

 Nov. Holl. V. I. 325. — Clafs and order, Gynandrla Monan- 

 dria. Nat. Ord. Orch'idea. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth fuperior, ringent, of three leaves, 

 the upper one vaulted, the reft flattifli. Cor. Petals two, 

 nearly equal and fimilar to the flatter calyx-leayes. Neclary 

 fliorter, its edges afcending, hood-hke, with a taper point, 

 the didv glandular or papillary. Slam. Anther terminal, 

 permanent, its cells clofe together ; mafles of pollen two in 

 each cell, powdery. Pift- Germen inferior ; ilyle columnar, 

 linear. Peric. Capfule. Seeds numerous. 



Efl". Ch. Calyx ringent ; its upper leaf vaulted. Lip 

 (horter, hooded, glandular, with a taper point. Style li- 

 near. Anther vertical, permanent. 



A genus of fmooth Orchide<e, growing on the ground. 

 Bulbs naked, undivided, tarminating the defcending caudex, 

 which throws out roots above them. Stem bearing a fingle 

 leaf clofe to the root, and two brafteas above, befides what 

 accompany each flower. Flowers racemofe, very dark red, 

 moftly reverfed. 



1. 'Li.fuaveohns. Leaf linear, elongated. Petals afcend- 

 ing. Difli of the nedlary bearing rows of feffile glands ; 

 its margin naked. — Found near Port Jackfon, New South 

 Wales. 



2. L. elUpltcus. Leaf lanceolate-elliptical. Diflc of the 

 neftary papillary ; its margin naked. -- Gathered by Mr. 

 G. Caley in the fame neighbourhood. 



- 3. L. nigrkans. Leaf ovate, fomewhat heart-fhaped. 

 Petals divided. Lip fringed; its dilk papillary. — Found 

 by Mr. Brown near Port Jackfon, as well as in the fouthern 

 part of New Holland. 



LYRA, in yinafcmy, a name applied to a certain part of 

 the brain. See Braix. 



Lyr.\, in AJlronomy, a conftellation in the northern hc- 

 mifphere. 



The number of its ftars, in Ptelemy's catalogue, is ten ; 

 in Tycho's, eleven ; in Hevelius's, feventeen ; artd in the 

 Britannic catalogue, twenty-one. See Constellation. 



Lyr.a, Nicholas de, in Biography, a learned French 

 monk and commentator on the fcriptures in the thirteenth 

 and fourteenth centuries, was born in a fmall town in the 

 diocefe of Evreux, in Normandy. He was defcended from 

 Jewifh parents, but becoming a Chriilian, he embraced a 

 religious life in a monaftery at Verneuil, in 1291. Having 

 remained there forae time, he was fent to Paris, where he 

 applied with the greateft diligence to his ftudies, and was 

 admitted to the degree of doftor. He died in this city in 

 the year 1340. He was author of " Poftills," or a com- 

 pendium of the whole bible, which he began in 1293, and 

 iinilhed in the year J330. The firft edition of this work 

 was publifhed at Rome in 1472, in feven volumes folio, and 

 is now become rare ; but it has fince undergone various im- 

 preflions at Bafil, Lyons, Doway, Antwerp, &c. of which 

 the bed is faid to be that of Antwerp in 1634, in fix vo- 

 lumes folio. De Lyra was alfo the author of " Moral 

 Commentaries upon the Scriptures ;" " A Difputation 

 againft the Jews ;" and other pieces. Moreri. 



Lyk.\, in Ichthyology, the name of a fifh of the trigla 

 kind, of which there are two varieties, reckoned by Artedi 

 and Linnaeus two different fpecies. The one is the plpir 

 (fee Trigl.a Lyra), the other, the lyra ccrnuta, or horned 

 Iiarp-fifh. This lail is a filh of an octangular form, covered 



Vol. XXL 



all over with bony fcales ; thefe are of a rhomboidal figure , 

 and each has in its middle a rtiarp and ftrong prickle bending 

 backwards : it is of a red colour, and its head is very large ; 

 its fnout divides towards the extremity into two long horns, 

 on which are placed two perpendicular fpines, and a third 

 above makes an acute angle with thefe ; it has one very long 

 fin on the back, and another anfwering to it behind the anus : 

 alfo two large ones at the gills, and two fmaller on the belly 5 

 it has only two filaments, called fingers, behind its gill-fins ; 

 its mouth is large, but has no teeth, and there are feveral 

 beards on its under jaw ; two of which are longer than the 

 reft, and are branched : it is caught in the Mediterranean, 

 and brought to market at Rome ; it is a fcarce fifti in other 

 places, and at Montpellier was once (hewn to Mr. Ray for 

 the remora. See Triola Catapbrada. 



Lyra is alfo a fpecies of CalUonymus ; which fee. See 

 Dragonet, under which article the other fpecies of the 

 callionymus are defcribed. 



Lyra is alfo the name of a beautiful fea-fliell of the 

 genus of the concha globofa, or dohum. There are three 

 fpecies of the lyra, or harp-fliell. i. The common lyra, 

 which has thirteen rofe-coloured ribs running along its body. 

 2. The eleven-ribbed lyra ; and 3. The noble harp, or /jra 

 noiilis. This is a moil elegantly variegated {hell ; its ground 

 colour is a deep brown, and its variegations very elegant and 

 black. See Coxchology'. 



Lytije Lucida. See Lucida. 



LYRATUM Folium, in Botany. See Leaf. 



LYRE, Avp, Lyra, in the Ancient Mujic, a mufical in- 

 ftrument of the ftring kind, fo dear to the Greek-, that they 

 have by turns attributed it« invention to Mercury, Apollo, 

 Linus, Orpheus, and Amphion ; making it the fymbol of 

 all excellence in poetry and mufic. The poets and hifto- 

 rians of fabulous times, however, feem moft to agree in 

 afcribing the invention to Mercury. And among the ac- 

 counts of the feveral writers of antiquity v. ho have men- 

 tioned this circumftance, and confiised the inventio.T to the 

 Egyptian Mercury, that of Apollodorus (Bibliotheca, hb.ii.) 

 feems the moft intelligible and probable. " The Nile," 

 fays this writer, " after having overflowed the whole coun- 

 try of Eg^-pt, when it returned within its natural bounds, 

 left on the (hore a great number of dead animals of various 

 kinds, and, among the reft, a tortoife, the flelh of which 

 being dried and wafted by the fun, nothing was left within 

 the (hell but nerves and cartilages, and thefe being braced 

 and contradled by deficc^tion, were rendered fonorous ; Mer- 

 cury, in walking along the barks of the Nile, happening to 

 ftrike his fqct againft the (hell of this tortoife, was fo 

 pleafed with the found it produced, that it fuggefted to him 

 the firft idea of a lyre, which he afterwards conftrudled in . 

 the form of a tortoife, and llrung it with the dried finews of 

 dead animals." 



Cenforinus, however (De Die Nat. cap. 22.), attributes to 

 Apollo the firft idea of producing i'ound from a ftring, which 

 was fuggefted to him by the twang of his fifler Diana's 

 bow. faXXsiv is ftriclly K.A twang a Itring, and 'ixX^c; the 

 found which the bow-ftring produces at the cmiflion of the 

 arrow. Euripides in Bacch. v. 782. ufes it in that fenfe. 



i'aAAasu vEi/ja-r." 



" Who twang the nerve of each elaftic bow." 



Father Montfaucon fays it is very difficult to dctermin? 



in what the lyre, cithara, chelys, plaltery, and harp differed 



from each other ; as he had examined the reprefentations of 



fix hundred lyres and citharas in ancient fculpture, all which 



4 X h- 



