S5Q L y - T 
near the firft turnpike-gate; Feverftiam In Kent; in the 
ditches near the Abbey pond 5 near the Wheat-fheaf, five 
miles beyond Huntingdon on the north road ; about Wil- 
ford in Northamptonshire ; flowering in July and Auguft. 
In Englifh it is called grafs-poly, or fmall hedge-hyjfop. 
xj. Lythrum thymifolia, or thyme-leaved willow-herb: 
leaves alternate, linear; flowers four-ftamened. Root 
annual. Very like the preceding, but only half, or one 
third, of the fize. Stems, according to Villars, creeping, 
five or fix inches long, with others fmaller fpringing from 
their centre, which have feveral alternate branches. 
Krockerfays the ftem is upright, with fometimes a branch 
or two, but commonly fimple. The flowers are much 
fmaller than in the preceding fort. Native of the Couth 
of France, Italy, Silefia, &c. in moift meadows and ditches ; 
flowering in Auguft. Krocker fufpefts that it may be a 
variety of the preceding. 
18. Lythrum Americanum, or South American willow- 
herb : leaves oblong-ovate ; below, oppofite ; above, al¬ 
ternate ;-flowers, fix-ftamened. This has a woody root, 
from which arife two or three (lender ftalks, upwards of 
two feet high. Flowers from the upper axils, Colitary, 
fmall, white, fix-petalled ; they do not appear till the fe- 
cond year from feed. It was difcovered by Dr. Houftoun 
at La Vera Cruz, in fwamps; and was cultivated by Mr. 
Miller before 1733, but has been fince loft. 
Propagation and Culture. The firft, with its varieties, 
may eafily be cultivated by parting the roots in autumn, 
but fhould be planted in a moift foil. It is a handfome 
plant, and deferving of a place in large gardens and plan¬ 
tations. The other hardy foreign forts, N° 2, 4, 5, 6, 
may be increafed in the fame manner. When railed from 
feed, the feeds fliould be fown in autumn ; otherwife they 
will remain a year in the ground. N° 16, 17, being an¬ 
nual, muft be raifed from feeds ; but they are bog-plants, 
and feldom cultivated in gardens. The reft are too ten¬ 
der to live in the open air. Sow the feeds in pots, and 
plunge them into an old hot-bed. They will not rife un- 
lefs they are fown in autumn. Shelter them through the 
winter, and in fpring place them in a frefh hot-bed. 
Treat them as other tender plants from hot countries. 
LYTH'UM, a village in Amoundernefs, Lancafhire; 
here was formerly a priory.—A village in the eaft riding 
«f Yorkfhire, near North and South Cove. 
LYT'TA, f. in entomology, a genus of coleopterous 
Infects. Generic characters—Antennse filiform ; feelers 
four, unequal, the hind ones clavate ; thorax roundifh ; 
head inflected, gibbous ; wing-fhells loft, flexile, as long 
as the abdomen. This genus includes many of the fpe- 
cies included by Linnaeus under that of Meloe, and by 
others among the Cantharides, particularly the famous 
blifter-infefl; though indeed many other fpecies of this, 
and of the other genera, are capable of railing a blilter, 
when reduced to powder and applied to the fkin. There 
are thirty-two fpecies, all of them exotics. 
1. Lytta veficatorius,the proper blifter-infeft, orSpanifh 
fly. This is an infeft of great beauty, being entirely of 
the richeft gilded grafs green, with black antennae. Its 
fhape is lengthened, and the abdomen, which is pointed, 
extends fomewhat beyond the wing-lheaths: its ufual 
length is about an inch. It is fhown on the preceding 
Plate, at fig. 2. This celebrated in feci, the cantharis of 
the materia medica, forms, as is well known, the fafeft 
and moft efficacious epifpaftic, or blifter-plafter, railing, 
after the fpace of a few hours, the cuticle, and caufing a 
plentiful ferous difcharge from the lkin. It is fuppofed, 
however, that the cantharis of Diofcorides, or that ul’ed by 
the ancients for the fame purpofe, was a different fpecies, 
viz. the Meloe cichorei of Linnaeus, an infeft of a black 
colour, with three tranlverfe yellow bands on the vving- 
fnells. Thefe infers were formerly brought only from 
Spain, whence they were called Spanilh flies ; but they are 
met with in France, Italy, and lome parts of Germany, 
and even of England. In the fouthern parts of Europe 
it multiplies exceedingly; fome of the provinces of Spain 
L Y T 
annually receive a large fum for thofe they export to the 
reft of Europe. They are there feen in vaft fwarms, and 
alighting upon trees and fhrubs, whofe leaves they devour. 
They are laid to prefer the afh-leaf to that of any tree in 
the foreft; but, whatever leaves they devour, they are 
uniformly accompanied with a heavy naufeous_fmel), like 
that of mice, and thence their haunts are difcovered by 
thofe who go in quell of them. In their humid and living 
ftate, the odour exhaled from thefe infefts is fo corrofive 
and irritating, that the gathering them is attended with 
danger; fo that the labourers, who imprudently collect 
them in the heat of the day, and with their hands unco¬ 
vered, are frequently feized with a violent heat of urine, 
and voiding of blood. The fame accidents befal thofe 
who unwarily deep under the trees they frequent. The 
female feems to feel the accefs of amorous defire in a more 
violent degree than the male: it is (he that courts the 
male; and, in the great aft of fecundation, it is (he that 
occupies that place to which in moft animals nature di¬ 
re ft s the other fex. After impregnation, (he depofits her 
eggs in the ground, where they remain till they have un¬ 
dergone the various changes that are to bring them forth 
winged flies. 
The common way of collefting thefe infefts is, to fpread 
cloths under the trees containing them, to fliake them 
down, and then kill them by putting them on a hair fleve 
and expofing them to the vapour of boiling vinegar, or 
elfe (which is the commoneft mode) Amply to immerfe them 
in vinegar and water. They are then dried thoroughly, 
either in the fun or in airy chambers, being frequently 
turned by the hands armed wdth gloves. They are then 
well and carefully packed in clofe wooden barrels lined 
on the infide with paper. Cantharides in this ftate will 
keep well for a confiderable time, and, if in clofe veflels, 
they hardly acquire any fmell; but if in open veflels, and 
in the damp, they putrefy in fome degree. They are liable, 
however, notwithftanding their very corrofive quality, to 
be attacked by very fmall worms, which gradually crum¬ 
ble them to powder in every part ex.cept the wings. The 
acrid quality, however, is not very materially injured 
thereby, and remains for a great length of time, though 
flowly diminifhing in intenfity. 
When thus collefted and dried, thefe infefts become fo 
light, that fifty of them hardly weigh a dram : it is in that 
ftate they are grinded down i^to the well-known powder, 
which conllitutes the bafis of the common blillering-plafter. 
M. Eubiquet (Annales de Chiroie, Dec. 1810) has made a 
fet of experiments, to afcertain whether the veficating 
property, for which thefe infefts are fo remarkable, r»- 
fides in the whole of the animal, or belongs to fome pe¬ 
culiar fubftance capable of being feparated by chemical 
menftrua from the reft. After various attempts more or 
lets fuccefsful, he difcovered the following fimple procefb, 
by which the veficating principle may be obtained in a 
ftate of perfeft purity: Take any quantity of the bruifed 
infefts, and boil them in dillilled water; drain off the 
reddifh-brown decoftion, and digeft the refidue two or 
three times more in boiling water, till the lall decoftiou 
comes off nearly colourlefs. The infoluble refidue affords 
a green tinfture with alcohol, which, being gently evapo¬ 
rated leaves behind a green fluid oil entirely deititute of 
any veficating property. The aqueous decoftion, being 
reduced by evaporation to the ftate of a foft cxtraft, is to 
be repeatedly digefted in boiling alcohol as long as any 
thing is taken up by this menftruum. The infoluble por¬ 
tion is a black matter foluble in water, and incapable of 
veficating. The alcoholic folution is of a yellow colour, 
and exceffively acrid. This latter is to be reduced to a 
foft ftate by gentle evaporation ; and the yellow- refidue is 
to he digelted in cold fulphuric ether, in a well flopped 
vial, and frequently fbaken. In the courfe of a day or 
two the ether will have acquired a pale yellow colour, 
when it is to be poured off from the undifiolved portion, 
and expofed to fpontaneous evaporation. By this method 
there will be deposited a quantity of micaceous-looking 
