LECx 
tube of the corolla, upright, five-cleft; 
berry five-seeded. Tliere are three species, 
natives of the East Indies, Africa, and New 
South Wales. 
LEECH. See Hirudo. 
LEEK. See Alliu.vi. 
LEERSIA, in botany, so named from 
John Daniel Leers, a genus of the Triandria 
Digynia class and order. Natural order of 
Gramina or Grasses. Essential character; 
calyx none; gliiine two-vaived, closed. 
There are three species. 
LEGACY, is a bequest of a snm of money, 
or any personal effects of a testator, and 
these aisi to be paid by his representative, 
after all the debts of the deceased are dis- 
charged as far as the assets, or property 
liable to payment of debts and legacies, 
will extend. All the goods and chattels of 
the deceased are by law vested in the re- 
presentative, who is bound to see whether 
there be lel't a sufficient fund to pay the 
debts of the testator, which, if it should 
prove inaderjuate, the pecuniary legacies 
must proportionably Abate ; a specific lega- 
cy, however, is not to abate unless there be 
insufficient without it to pay debts, that is, 
the general legacies must all be. exhausted 
first. If the legatee die before the testator, 
it will in general be a lapsed legacy, and fall 
into the general fund, as it will also where 
it is given upon a contingency, as to A B, if 
he shall attain twenty-one. Where, how- 
ever, from the general import of the will, it 
can be collected that the testator intended 
it a vested legacy, it will go to tlie repre- 
sentative of the deceased legatee. Thus, 
if a legacy is made payable, or to be paid, 
to the legatee at a certain age, and he die, 
under that age, it is a vested and transmis- 
sible interest in him ; but it is otherwise if it 
is generally to him at or when he attains such 
age. If tire legacy is to bear interest, it is 
vested though t he w'ords payable are omitted. 
So; if it is to A for life, and after the death 
of A to B, tlie legacy to B is vested in B 
npon tlie death of the testator, and will not 
lapse by the death of B in the lifetime of A. 
In case of a vested legacy due immediate- 
ly, and charged on land, or money in the 
funds, which yields an immediate profit, in- 
terest shall be jiayable from the death of 
tlie testator ; but if it be charged on the 
personal estate only of the testator, which 
cannot be collected in, it will carry interest 
only from the end of tlie year after the 
death of the testator. A legacy to an infant 
ought not to be paid to his father ; a legacy 
to a mairied woman can only be paid to her 
LEI 
husband ; and executors are not bound to 
pay a legacy without security to refund. 
When all the deb Is and particular legacies 
are discharged, the residue or surplus must 
be paid to the residuary legatee, if any be 
so appointed in the will ; but if tlicre be 
none appointed or intended, it will go to 
the executor or next of kin. Wlien this 
residue does not go to tlie executor, it is to 
be distributed among the intestate's next of 
kin, according to the statute of distribu- 
tions, except it is otherwise disposeable by 
particular customs, as those of Loudon, 
York, &c. See Executor. 
LEGNOTIS, in botany, a genus of the 
Polyandria Monogynia class and order. 
Essential character : calyx five-cleft ; petals 
five, jagged, inserted into the receptacle ; 
capsule three- celled. There are two spe- 
cies, tsi;;. L. elliptica and L. cassipoiirea. 
- LEGUMEN, in botany, that species of 
seed-vessel termed a pod, in which the seeds 
are fastened along one suture only. In this 
the seed-vessel in question differs from tlie 
other kind of pod, termed by botanists sili- 
qua, in which the enclosed seeds are fiisten- 
ed alternately to both the sutures or Join- 
ings of the valves. The seed-vessel of ail 
the pea-bloom or butterfly-shaped flowers, 
the Diadelphia of Linnams, is of the legu- 
minous kind ; such is tlie seed-vessel of the 
pea, vetch, lupine, &c. See Papiliona- 
ceous. 
LEIBNITZ (Godfrey William), an 
eminent mathematician and philosopher, 
was born at Lcipsic, in Saxony, in 1646. 
At the age of fifteen, he applied himself to 
mathematics at Leipsic and Jena ; and in 
1663, maintained a tliesis de Principiis In- 
dividuationis. The year following he was 
admitted Master of Arts. He read with 
great attention tlie Greek philosophers, and 
endeavoured to reconcile Plato withAiis- 
totle, as he afterwards did Aristotle with 
Des Cartes. But the study of tlie law was 
his principal view ; in which faculty he was 
admitted Bachelor in 1665. The year fol- 
lowiiig he would have taken tlie degree of 
Doctor, but was refused it on pfeteqee 
that he was too young; though, in reality, 
because be bad raised liimself many ene- 
mies by rejecting the principles of Aristo- 
tle and the schoolmen. 
Upon this he repaired to Alforf, where 
he maintained a thesis de Casibiis Perplexis 
with such applause, tliat he had tiie degree 
of Doctor conferred on him. 
In 1672 he went to Paris, to manage 
some aft'airs at the Erench court for the Ba- 
