loph] 



®%z Crearfurg nf ISatanp. 



696 



LOPHOSTEMON. A genus of Myrtacete, 

 consisting of Australian shrubs, with 

 alternate entire leaves, and white flow- 

 ers in corymbs. The calyx has a roundish 

 tube, and a limb divided into five reflexed 

 deciduous segments provided with append- 

 ages at their base ; petals five ; stamens nu- 

 merous, aggregated into five parcels, oppo- 

 site the petals ; fruit capsular, inferior, 

 three-celled, many-seeded. [M. T. MJ 



LOPHOSTYLIS. A name given by 

 Hochstetter to the African species of 

 Securidaca, in which the style is more 

 dilated at the top than in the American 

 ones. 



LOPSEED. Phryma, 



LOQUAT. Eriobotryajaponica. 



LOQUE. (Pr.) Solanum Dulcamara. 



LORANTHACE.3E. (Viscoidere, Myzoden- 

 drew, Loranths.) A natural order of dico- 

 tyledonous plants belonging to Lindley's 

 asaral alliance of epigynous Exogens. Pa- 

 rasitic shrubs, with articulated branches, 

 opposite exstipulate fleshy leaves, and 

 I hermaphrodite or unisexual flowers. Ca- 

 | lyx tube adherent to the ovary, with 

 i bracts ; petals four to eight, or confounded 

 | with the calyx ; stamens four to eight, op- 

 i posite the petals; ovary one-celled, with a 

 j solitary pendulous ovule. Fruit superior, 

 i succulent. Natives chiefly of the equinoc- 

 I tial regions of Asia and America, but a few 

 are European and African. The mistleto is 

 Viscum album. There are 30 genera and 

 above 400 species. Examples : Loranthus, 

 Viscum. [J. H. B.] 



LORANTHUS. A genus of dicotyle- 

 donous plants belonging to the Lorantha- 

 cece, consisting of dichotomous branching 

 shrubs, usually parasitic, with opposite or 

 alternate entire leaves, and flowers in 

 spikes, corymbs, or panicles, sometimes 

 unisexual. The calyx tube is ovate or top- 

 shaped ; the petals four to eight or five to 

 six, free or united ; the stamens equal in 

 number to the petals and opposite to them, 

 with iutrorse anthers dehiscing length- 

 wise. The berry is ovate or top^shaped, 

 with one seed. They are natives of tro- 

 pical and subtropical regions, and com- 

 prise nearly 300 species. [J. H. B.] 



LORATB. Strap-shaped : the same as 

 Ligulate. 



LORDS-AND-LADIES. Arum macula- 

 turn. 

 LORD-WOOD. Liquidambar orientate. 

 LORICA. The skin of a seed. 

 LOROPETALUM. A genus of the witch- 

 hazel order, having the petals long nar- 

 row and three-nerved ; the lobes of the 

 anther deciduous. L. chinense is a native 

 i of China, with ovate entire leaves, un- 

 1 equal at the base, and covered with fine 

 I down. The plant is placed by some in the 

 I genus Hamamelis. [G. D.] 



I LORULUM. The filamentary branched 

 thallus of some lichens. 



LOTIBR ARBORESCENT (Pr > Car- 

 michmlia australis. — ODORANT Meli- 

 lotus cairulea. —ROUGE. Tetragonolobus 

 purpureus. 



LOTOS. Zizyphus Lotus. 

 LOT-TREE. PyrusAria. 



LOTUS. A genus of Leguminosw, of the 

 suborder Papilionaceae, easily known by 

 its leaves consisting of five leaflets, of 

 which two are close to the stem, and as- 

 sume the appearance of stipules. There 

 are about twenty species known, all herba- 

 ceous, the flowers on axillary peduncles, 

 either solitary or in little umbels, yellow, 

 red, or of a deep purple almost black ; 

 the calyx five-toothed, the corolla remark- 

 able for its very pointed keel, the stamens 

 diadelphous, and the pod cylindrical or 

 somewhat flattened, with several seeds. 

 The species are most of them European or 

 North African, but a few are spread over 

 Asia and Australia. 



L. corniculatus, a decumbent perennial, 

 with umbellate yellow flowers and a cylin- 

 drical pod, is the most common British 

 species, and is found in the greater part 

 of Europe, in Northern Africa, Northern 

 and Central Asia, and in Australia. The 

 larger varieties form a very good ingre- 

 dient in our meadows and pastures. L. 

 purpureus, formerly cultivated in our gar- 

 dens for its dark red flowers, L. biflorus, 

 and some allied species, constitute a con- 

 siderable portion of the meadows of Sicily 

 and other parts of Southern Europe; 

 they, with L. siliquosits, a more common 

 European maritime species, are often sepa- 

 rated as a distinct genus under the name 

 of Tetragonolobus, on account of the ripe 

 pod having four longitudinal ribs or wings. 

 L. Dorycnium, and some allied species 

 from Southern Europe, constitute the 

 genus Dorycnium of some botanists. L. 

 hirsutus, with a few others, also South 

 European, have been detached under the 

 name of Bonjeania ; and L. glaucus, with 

 some other Canary Island species, under 

 that of Pedrosia ■ but all these genera are 

 founded on characters too trifling for 

 general adoption. 



LOTUS. A mythic name for the flower 

 of Nelumbium speciosum. — , EGYPTIAN. 

 Nymphcea Lotus. —.HUNGARIAN. Nym- 

 phcea thermalis. — , INDIAN. Nymphcea 

 pubescens. 



LOTUS-BERRY. Byrsonima coriacea. 



LOTUS-TREE, or LOTE-TREE. Zizyphus 

 Lotus ; also reputed to be Celtis australis. 

 The true Lotus-tree of the ancients is, how- 

 ever, more probably referred to Nitraria 

 tndentata. — , EUROPEAN. Diospyros 

 Lotus. 



LOUDONIA. A genus of Haloragacece 

 from Australia, comprising two or three 

 herbs or undershrubs. L. aurea has the 

 stem leafy at the base ; the leaves alternate, 

 leathery, linear, entire ; the panicles termi- 

 nal, corymbose ; the flowers yellow, with 

 the calyx tube four-winged, and its limb 



