laph] 



CI;c CrcaSitrji of 38ntattg, 



660 



not near so showy as many otlier Ixia-like 

 plants. The same genus has been described 

 by Sprengel under the name of Ovieda ; 

 and the name of Lapeyrousiawns also given 

 by Thunberg to a genus of Composite, 

 which De Candolle altered to Peyrousia. 



LAPHAMIA. A genus of Composite, 

 connected in many respects with the tribe 

 Asteroldea?., but the leaves are usually oppo- 

 site, and it has not exactly the style of that 

 group. It consists of five species, low herbs 

 or undershrubs, from Texas or New Mex- 

 ico, with small discoid or radiating yellow 

 flower-heads, and offering no particular in- 

 terest except to botanists. It is in many 

 respects very near Perityle. 



LAPIDOSE. Growing in stony places. 



LAPIEDRA. A small genus of pancra- 

 tiform AmaryUidacrrp, consisting of a sin- 

 gle species, L. Placiana, found in Spain. 

 Its leaves are linear obtuse* striped longi- 

 tudinally with white, and its flowers, white 

 in a many-flowered umbel, have a spreading 

 limb, an imperfect staminal cup, with the 

 filaments short, and dentately winged on 

 each side ; a curved and tapering style, and 

 a small trifid stigma. According to Herbert 

 it is the same as Vagariaparviflora. [T. M.] 



LAPLACEA. . A name given by Kunth 

 to a genus of Ternstriimiacece, which has 

 proved to be the same as Hcemocharis. 



LAPPA. Arctium. 



LAPPACEOUS. Having the appearance 

 of a lappa or bur ; that is to say, of a round 

 body covered with small hooks. 



LAPP AGO. A genus of grasses, belong- 

 ing to the tribe Panicece. The inflorescence 

 is in close bundles or heads ; spikelets two to 

 five-flowered, with the rudiments of neuter 

 florets. There are three species, natives of 

 the south of Europe and Africa. [D. M.] 



LAPSANA. A genus of herbaceous plants 

 mostly annual, belonging to the tribe Ci- 

 choraceoe of compound flowers, and distin- 

 guished by having compressed striated 

 fruit destitute of pappus, a naked recep- 

 tacle, and the involucre composed of a sin- 

 gle row of erect scales, with, smaller ones 

 at the base. L. communis, a hedge weed, is 

 our common Nipplewort. [C. A. J.] 



LARANGA DA TERRA. A wild orange 

 of Brazil. 



LARBREA. A section of the caryo- 



phyllaceous genus Stellaria, of which S.uli- 

 ginosa, the Larbrea aquatica of St. Hilaire, 

 is the type ; also a synonym of Malachium, 

 M. aquaticum being the Larbrea aquatica 

 of De Candolle. [J. T. S.] 



LARCH. Abies Larix. — , CORSICAN. 

 Pinus Laricio. 



LARDIZABALACE^E. (Lardizabalads.) 

 A natural order of dicotyledons, belonging 

 to Lindley's menispermal alliance of dicli- J 

 nous Exogens. Twining shrubs, with al- 

 ternate exstipulate leaves, ternary sym- | 

 metry, and unisexual flowers. They re- . 



semble Menispermacerr, but differ in their 

 compound leaves. Natives of the cooler 

 parts of South America and China. The 

 fruit of some of the plants is eaten. Ex- 

 amples : Lardizabala, Ilolbullia. [J. H. BJ 



LARDIZABALA. One of the two Ame- 

 rican genera, belonging to the small order 

 Lardizabalacece, and' consisting of two spe- 

 cies, both climbing shrubs, with rather 

 large compound leaves, the six or nine leaf- 

 lets disposed in two or three sets contain- 

 ing threeeach. The flowers are of separate 

 sexes, borne on distinct plants, the males 

 in many-flowered racemes, and the females 

 solitary. Both sexes have a calyx of six 

 fleshy egg-shaped sepals, arranged in a 

 double series, the inner ones narrower than 

 the outer. The ovaries ripen into many- 

 seeded berries. Both species are found in 

 Chili, extending as far south as Concep- 

 tion. One, L. biternata, which generally 

 has leaves composed of six leaflets, is 

 sufficiently hardy to withstand the cold of 

 our winters, when trained against a wall, 

 and its dark glossy evergreen foliage, and 

 drooping spikes of deep purple flowers, 

 render it very ornamental. In Chili, a 

 very tough fibre is obtained from its 

 stems and made into cordage ; and its 

 fruit, containing a sweet-tasted pulp, is 

 sold in the markets. [A. S.] 



LARIX. See Abies, under which head 

 information is given respecting the well- 

 known European Larch ; hence, it is here 

 only necessary to add what is there omitted, 

 viz. that the American Larch, fifties or Larix 

 pendula, is the tree known to the Cana- 

 dians as the Tamarack, and which furnishes 

 an important feature in the appearance of 

 the Canadian forests. [M. T. M.] 



LARKSPUR, LARKHEEL, LARK'S- 

 CLAW. Delphinium. 



LARME DE JOB, or LARMILLE. (Fr.) 

 Coix Lachryma. 



L ARNAX. Peruvian and Mexican herbs, 

 constituting a genus of Solanacea; closely 

 allied to Phy sails, with which genus, among 

 other things, they concur in the fact that, 

 as the berry-like fruit ripens, the calyx 

 increases in size and assumes the appear- 

 ance of a bladder surrounding the fruit. 

 The points of distinction are to be sought 

 for in the shape of the calyx, which is here 

 tubular, angular, and five-toothed ; and in 

 that of the corolla, whose limb is somewhat 

 bell-shaped, and divided into five acute 

 spreading lobes. [M. T. M.] 



LAROCHEA. Eochea. 



LARREA. A genus of Zygoplxyllaceoz, of 

 which four species, three of them found 

 in Chili and Paraguay, are known. They 

 are~strong-scented evergreen shrubs, with 

 low branched stems, knotty jointed branch- 

 lets, opposite leaves, consisting usually of 

 a single or rarely of several pairs of un- 

 equal-sided leaflets, and terminal flowers, 

 with five sepals, five yellow petals, ten 

 stamens, and a five-celled ovary, each cell 

 maturing a single thin-shelled seed. 



L. mexicana, the Creosote plant of the 



