4 
LAB 
LABAT' (Jolin-Baptift), a celebrated traveller, of the 
order of St. Dominic, was born at Paris, taught philofo- 
phy at Nancy, and in 1693 went to America in quality 
of a miffionary. At his return to France in 1705, he was 
Lent by the chapter of his order at Bologna to give an ac¬ 
count of his million, and (laid feveral years in Italy. He 
died at Paris in 1738. His principal works are, 1. A New 
Voyage to the American Illands, 6 vols. iamo. 2. Tra¬ 
vels in Spain and Italy, 8 vols. izmo. 3. A New Ac¬ 
count of the weftern Parts of Africa, 5 vols. nmo. P’a- 
ther Labat was never in Africa, and therefore was not a 
witnefs of what he relates in that work. He alfo publilhed 
the Chevalier des Marchais’s Voyage to Guinea, in 4 vols. 
izmo. and An Hiftorical Account of the Weltern Parts 
of Ethiopia, tranilated from the Italian of Father Cavaz- 
zi, 5 vols. nmo. 
LABA'TA, a town of Spain, in the kingdom of Ara¬ 
gon : ten miles eaft of Hueica. 
LABA'TIA, f. [fo named by Swartz in memory of 
J. B. Labat.] In botany, a genus of the clafs tetrandria, 
order monogynia, natural order of guajacanae, JuJf. The 
generic characters are—Calyx : perianthium four-leaved, 
permanent; the twooppofite leaflets ereCt; the two fmalier 
ones ovate, obtufe, concave. Corolla: one-petalled, fub- 
campanulated ; tube (hotter than the calyx ; border qua- 
drifid ; divifions upright, obtufe, fmall ; with two oppo- 
flte fmalier divifions, fituated in the partition of the co¬ 
rolla. Stamina: filaments four, length of the corolla, up¬ 
right, awl-ftiaped, contiguous to the piftil; antherae (harp- 
pointed, upright. Piftillum : germ roundifli, minute, fu- 
perior; ftyle awl-fltaped, length of the ltamens ; ftigma 
Pimple, obtufe. Pericarpium : capfule large, roundilh, 
rough, four-celled. Seeds folitary, oblong, comprefled.— 
EJfential CharaEler. Calyx four-leaved, inferior 5 corolla fub- 
campanulate, four-cleft, with two minute fegments in the 
divifions of the corolla; capfule four-celled; feeds folitary. 
Species. 1. Labatia feffiliflora, or feilile-flowered laba- 
tia : flowers feflile. Native of Hifpaniola. 
2. Labatia Guianenfis, or Guiana labatia: flowers pe- 
duncled. This is a tree forty feet in height and more, 
and three feet in diameter, with a ruflet-coloured wrinkled 
bark, and a whitiffi, hard, coinpadt, wood. Branches 
ftraight, long, fubdivided. Leaves alternate, heaped, en¬ 
tire, fmooth, firm, ovate-oblong, ending in a blunted 
point; the largeft eight inches long and three wide. 
.Flowers axillary or on the branches in pairs or threes, 
each on its pedicel; corolla greenifli. It is called Pou- 
rama pouteri by the Caribs. Native of Guiana, in the fo- 
refts by the river Sinemari, forty leagues from its mouth; 
flowering and fruiting in November. 
LABATI'E NEU'VE, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Higher Alps, and chief place of a canton, in 
the diftrict of Gap. The town contains 200 and the can¬ 
ton 3130 inhabitants, on a territory of 125 kiliometres, in 
eight communes. 
LAB'BE (Philip), author of many learned works, was 
born at Bourges in 1607. He entered into the fociety of 
Jefuits at the age of fixteen ; and taught Latin, rhetoric, 
and philofophy, in the college of his native place. He 
was then called to the profelforlhip of moral theology, 
firft at Bourges, and then at Paris, which metropolis was 
thenceforth his refidence till his death in 1667. He was 
a man of a prodigious memory, various and extenfive 
reading, and indefatigable induftry. The lift: of his works 
would occupy more room than we can afford, and indeed 
few of them are important enough to deferve recording: 
they are for the molt part compilations, made with no 
great judgment or accuracy, yet feveral were ufeful in 
their time : their fubjects are hiftory, antiquities, chrono- 
logy, genealogy, geography, grammar, and bibliography: 
many of them relate to French hiftory, and particularly 
that of his own order. The greateft of his labours was a 
“ General Collection of Councils,” which appeared, with 
notes, in feventeen volumes folio, in 1672. Of thefe, 
Aiearly fifteen were prepared by father Labbe before his 
LAB 
death; the remainder was fupplied by father Copart, of 
the fame fociety. One of Labbe's grammatical works, 
entitled Erudita pronuntiationis Catholid Indices , cum Differ- 
tationibus Profodicis, is (till ufed as a popular book of re¬ 
ference for the quantity of Latin words. Moreri. 
LAB'BOCK BA'Y, a bay on the north-eaft coaft of the 
illand of Borneo. Lat. 6.2.N. Ion. 117. 55 -E. 
LAB'DA, a daughter of Amphion one of the Bacchi- 
adse, born lame. She married ECtion, by whom (lie had a 
fon, whom (lie called Cypfelus, becaufe (lie faved his life 
in a coffer. See Cypselus, vol. v. p. 546. 
LABDA'CIDES, a name given to CEdipus, as defeended 
from Labdacus. 
LAB'DACISM, f. [Greek.] The frequent repetition 
of the letter /; as, Sol et luna luce lucebant. 
LAB'DACUS, a fon of Polydortis by Nydteis, the 
daughter of Nycteus king of Thebes. His father and 
mother died during his childhood, and he was left to the 
care of Nycteus, who at his death left his kingdom in the 
hands of Lycus, with orders to reftore it to Labdacus as 
foon as of age. He was father to Laius. It is unknown 
whether he ever fat on the throne of Thebes. 
LAB'DANUM, or Ladanum. See Cistus Creti- 
cus, vol. iv. 
LABDA'RA, a fmall ifland in the gulf of Venice. 
Lat. 44. 14. N. Ion. 15. 19. E. 
LABDAS'SEBA, a tribe of favage Arabs inhabiting 
the defert of Sahara in Africa. They are confidered as 
the molt powerful of all thofe tribes except the Ouadelims, 
and very much refemble them in every particular. See 
Sahara and Ouadelims. 
LABEA'LIS, a lake in Dalmatia, now Scutari, of which 
the neighbouring inhabitants w’ere called Labeates. 
LABEFAC'TION, f [from labefy.} The a£t of weak¬ 
ening; a decay, a downfal. Scott. 
To LAB'EFY, v. a. [labefacio , Lat.] To weaken; to 
impair. Didl. 
LA'BEL, f. \labdlum, Lat.] A fmall flip or ferip of 
writing: 
When wak’d, I found 
This label on my bofom ; whofe containing 
Is fo from fenfe in hardnefs, that I can 
Make no collections of it. Shakefpeare's Cymbeline. 
A ribbon hanging from one fide of a crown or mitre. 
Any thing appendant to a larger writing.—On the label of 
lead, the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul are imprefled 
from the papal feal. Ayliffes Parergon. —In law, a narrow 
flip of paper or parchment affixed to a deed or writing, in 
order to hold the appending feal. So alfo any paper, an¬ 
nexed by way of addition or explication to any will or 
teftament, is called a label, or codicil. Harris. 
God join’d my heart to Romeo’s; thou our hands; 
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo’s feal’d. 
Shall be the label to another deed, 
Or my true heart with treacherous revolt 
Turn to another, this (hall flay them both. Shake/peare, 
In heraldry, a kind of fillet with pendants, ufually placed 
at the top of an efcutcheon to diftinguiffi the coat of the 
fecond brother. In mathematics, a long brafs ruler, with 
a fmall fight at one end and a centre-hole at the other, for 
taking altitudes. 
LA'BEO (C. Antiftius), an eminent Roman lawyer, 
fon of a perfon of the fame name, alfo a lawyer, and a con- 
fpirator againft Julius Caefar, was a difciple of Trebatius, 
and lived under Auguftus. He was not only excellently 
(killed in the civil law, but was converfant in other ttu- 
dies, particularly thofe of grammar and dialectics, and 
the antiquities of language. He preferved the free fpirit 
of a republican under the rule of a matter, and (bowed on 
various occafions that he had not forgotten the ancient li¬ 
berty of his country. Suetonius, praifing the lenity of 
Auguftus, mentions that once, upon a nomination of fe- 
nators, when each fenator named another, Labeo cliofe 
M. LepidtiSj 
