814 
L Y C 
wrapper burfts, and expands into many fegments, which 
are fleffiy, brittle, and of a pale brown dolour; the fiefli 
may be taken off, and a thin coriaceous jubilance remains. 
The head then becomes globofe, fmooth,cf a bluifh-brown 
colour; and at firft appears feffile, or ftemlefs, owing to 
the rhicknefs of the interior fpongy coat of the wrapper. 
After a few days, this cracks and peels off, the Hem ap¬ 
pears, and the whole affumes the form of fig. 5. Ow¬ 
ing to this, fome authors have defcribed the head as fit¬ 
ting, and others as fupported on a Hem ; and it is there¬ 
fore very difficult to afcertain whether they fpeak of this 
plant or of the L. recolligens. The whole plant generally 
of a dirty white, but the head has fometimes a greyilh 
tinge. The mouth is often fmooth when firft open, but 
in time i’plits into teeth. Head about one inch diameter 
bluilli brown. Wrapper brown within, but bright filvery 
white on the outfide. When kept under a glafs in a moift 
ftate, it gets the cadaverous fmell of the Phallus impu- 
dicus, but in a lei's degree. Found in hedge-banks and 
failures, in April, September, and October. 
A variety of this is figured in the Flora Danica, fhow- 
ing the teeth very evidently. This we have copied at fig. 6. 
and a feftion of'the fame, to Ihow the Item at fig. 7. 
4. Lycoperdon fornicatum, or turret puff-balk: wrap¬ 
per double, four-cleft, arched ; head fmooth ; mouth 
blunt, fringed ; ftem ffiort. This has been often con¬ 
founded with'the preceding, and Bryant regards them as 
one fpecies ; but the double wrapper adhering by the 
points, which is never feen in any of the varieties of the 
L. llellatum, is a grand diltinftive mark; for the outer 
wrapper remains funk in the ground, not being reverfed 
and thrown out as in the llellatum. This plant, in its 
expanded ftate, has a very Angular and fanciful appear¬ 
ance. The outer coat or wrapper remains in the ground, 
■whilll the inner, feparating from it, is raifed up, and bears 
the head upon its moll elevated part, and the points of 
its fegments remain united with thofe*of the quter wrap¬ 
per fo that it is a globe fupported upon four arched rays, 
the four points of the arches relting upon the four points 
of the outer wrapper which form an inverted arch. See 
Linn. Tr. vol. ii. p. 38. for an excellent differtation on 
the llellated lycoperdons, by Thomas Jenkinfon Wood¬ 
ward, efq. 
It mull have been obferved, that the lycogala and the 
lycoperdon borrow part of their etymon from the Greek 
Twxoc, a wolf. What analogy thefe humble and harmlefs 
inhabitants of the dampelt margins of bogs and fens, in 
the lhady bofom of forefts, bear to the deftruftive animal 
whofe name they retain to this day and in many lan¬ 
guages, is not eafy to perceive ; yet we may fuppofe, that, 
in ancient and fuperllitious ages, the idea of a plant, the 
origin of which was perfectly unknown, its generation a 
myltery, its growth nearly kiftantaneotis, and its deftruc- 
tion attended with a fort of explofion, might have been 
connefted, in the imagination of the people, with the ha¬ 
bits of the wolf, whole favourite haunts are the darkeft re¬ 
cedes of the wood, and whofe fudden appearance at night, 
in the neighbourhood of the penfold, is always attended 
with mifehief to the flock, and terror to the Ihepherd. 
LYCOPER'SICON. See Solanum. 
LY'COPHRON, fon of Periander, king of Corinth, 
flourilhed about 550 years before the Chriltian era. The 
murder of his mother Meliffa, by his father, had fuch an 
effeft upon him, that he refolved never more to fpeak to 
him. This refolution was ftrengthened by their uncle 
Proclus, king ofEpidaurus, who took Lycophron and his 
brother under his proteflion. When the infirmities of 
Periander obliged him to look for a fucceflor, Lycophron, 
who was then in the illand of Corcyra, refufed to come to 
Corinth while his father was there, and he was induced to 
promife to fettle in that city, only on condition that his 
father would come and dwell on the illand which he left. 
So fearful, however, were the Corcyrians of the tyranny 
of Periander, that they killed the fon to prevent the me¬ 
ditated exchange from taking place. 
L Y C 
LY'COPHRON, a Greek grammarian and poet, was a 
native of Chalcis in Eubcea, and flourilhed about B. C. 
304. He appears to have attained a confiderable degree 
of poetical reputation, as his name occurs among the fevert 
who formed what is called the Pleias at the court of Pto¬ 
lemy Philadelphia, Suidas has preferred the titles of 
twenty tragedies compofed by him ; but the only work of 
Lycophron’s which has come down to modern times is a 
very Angular poem entitled “Alexandra,” or Caffandra, 
the fubjeft of which is a feries of predictions feigned by 
him to have been uttered by that daughter of^Priam. 
This obfeure topic is treated in a more oblcure Ityle ; and 
it is thought that the writer’s purpofe was to puzzle the 
critics. It would perhaps have been wife to have defeated 
his defign by total negleft; but the pride and curiofity 
of learned men has not fullered the work to fink into 
merited oblivion. On the contrary, it has furniflied a 
frequent trial of Ikill to Greek fcholars. Ovid, who terms 
Lycophron cotkurnatns , (the bulkined or tragic,) mentions 
that he is recorded to have been llain by an arrow. The 
Caffandra of Lycophron has been feveral times edited. The 
bell edition is accounted that of bilhop Potter, Oxon. fo¬ 
lio, 1697 and 170a. VoJ/ii Poet. Grcec. Bibliograph, Did. 
LYCOPODIOI'DES. See Lycopodium. 
LYCOPO'DIUM, f. [from the Gr. Avxor, a wolf, and 
war, the foot, from the incurved, and often finger-like, 
fhape of the fpikes or extreme branches.] Club -moss, 
or Wolf’s-claw; in botany, a genus of the clafs cryp- 
togamia, order mufei, Linn. (Alices, Smith,) natural order of 
mufei, Linn, (tnufei fpurii, JuJf. lycopodineas, Brown.) Ge¬ 
neric effential charatter—Capfules axillary, feffile, naked, 
mollly folitary,of one cell; fome kidney-lhaped,of two elaftic 
valves, and full of fine powder; others two or three-lobed,of 
two or three valves, lodging from one to fix globofe bodies: 
This genus holds as it were an intermediate place be¬ 
tween the ferns and mofles. Some botanills have there¬ 
fore been moll inclined to refer it to one tribe, others to 
the other. Its habit, mod like the mofles, does yet by no 
means ItriClly accord with that order; and their fruflifi- 
cation, being now well underltood, feparates them difi- 
tinClly from Lycopodium, whofe nature in that refpeCt is 
almolt totally in the dark, agreeing fo far with ferns. 
The feeds of the latter, however produced, agree as nearly 
as can be with the powder found in the comprefled or 
kidney-fhaped capfules of the genus in queltion, which 
powder moreover has been likewife proved, by experi¬ 
ment, to be real feed. But the globular bodies found in 
peculiar capfules upon L. denticulatum and other fpecies, 
proved themfelves feeds by germinating, according to 
Brotero, (Linn. Tranf. v. i6a.) yet fuch fpecies are fur¬ 
niflied befides with what feetns to be the genuine fruit of 
the genus. In this difficulty, Swartz and Brown have pru¬ 
dently contented themfelves, in the generic character, 
with mentioning thefe two kinds of apparent capfules and 
feeds, without pofitively afferting either to be fuch. Jo- 
feph Fox, a poor journeyman weaver of Norwich, is the 
firft perfon upon record who ever raifed plants of Lycopo¬ 
dium felago from the duft of the kidney-fhaped capfules. 
See Linn. Tranf. ii. 314. where Mr. Lindfey’s account of 
having fucceeded equally well with the duft of L.cernuum 
in Jamaica, is alfo to be found. Sprengel cites the au¬ 
thority of profeffor Willdenow in confirmation of this. 
We cannot but admit therefore that this duft, fo exactly 
refembling the known feed of ferns, is real feed. This is 
the pulvis lycopodii, formerly kept in the apothecaries’ (hops, 
on account of fome reputed qualities long fince difbelieved. 
It is ftill ufed in Germany to produce the appearance of 
lightning upon the ftage ; for, being very light and high¬ 
ly inflammable, it takes fire inftantaneoufly, with a fort of 
luffing explofion, while floating in the air. The duft of 
L. clavatum is collefted and fold on the continent, for 
this purpofe. With refpeil to the globular bodies, whofe 
bulk is beyond all meafure greater than that of thefe mi¬ 
nute feeds, it is impoffible to doubt the affertion of Bro¬ 
tero, who in the fifth volume of the Linn. Tranf. de- 
i'enbis 
