■08 LAC 
has been found only on the rocks of the great cafcade of 
the river Sinemari, the whole always under water, except 
the flowering branches. It is attached to the rocks by 
packets of fmall fibres. 
LACISTE'MA,/i [from the Greek Twms, a flit, and 
dlnp-n, a filament; the filaments being bifid at top.] In 
botany, a genus of the clafs monandria, order digynia. 
The generic charafters are—Calyx: ament; common im¬ 
bricated on all fides; columnar. Scales one-flowered, 
ovate, concave ; two fmall linear fquamules being placed 
at the Tides beneath the corolla within the fcale. Corolla: 
one-petalled, four-parted; tube none; divifions lanceo- 
Jate, tharp, fuberefi. Nedtary one-leafed, rotate, entire, 
fmallerthan the corolla, concave. Stamina: filaments An¬ 
gle, fituated in the middle of the nedlary with the germ, 
upright, incurved above the middle over the germ, bifid 
at the top ; antherre minute, roundifh. Piftillum : germ 
globofe; ftyles two, very fliort, recurved; ftigmas Ample. 
Pericarpium : berry foot-flalked, obovate, oblong, one- 
celled. Seed Angie, oblong.— EJfential CharaEler. Calyx ; 
fcale of the ament; corolla four-parted ; filaments bifid ; 
berry pediceiled, one-feeded. 
Laciflema myricoides, a Angle fpecies. Stem arborefcent. 
Branches round, fomewhat knotty, a(h-coloured, naked, 
fmoothifli, fpreading, branched; branchlets greenifli, 
ieafy, fmooth. Leaves alternate, ovate, acuminate, fmooth, 
Jomewhat wrinkled, with very minute tranfv-erfe veins, 
quite entire, four inches long, fpreading, with a longitu¬ 
dinal waving nerve. Petioles fliort, flattifli, channelled. 
Spikes only two or three lines in length, aggregate, round, 
ftraight, fertile, partly from the axils of the leaves, partly 
lateral from the fears of the branches. Obferved in Suri¬ 
nam by Rolander, and at Jamaica by Swartz. 
To LACK, v. a. f laecken , to leffen, Dut.] To want; 
to need ; to be without.—Every good and holy dertre, 
though it lack the form, hath notwithflanding in itfelf the 
fubftance, and with him the force, of prayer, who regard- 
-eth the very moanings, groans, and flghs of the heart. 
Hooker. 
One day we hope thou (halt bring back, 
Tear Boling-broke, the juftice that we lack. Daniel. 
To LACK, v. n. To be in want. — The lions do lack 
and fuffer hunger. Com. Prayer. —To be wanting.—Perad- 
venture there fliall lack five of the fifty righteous ; wilt 
thou deftroy all the city for lack of five ? Gencfis. —There 
was nothing lacking to them; David recovered all. i Sa¬ 
muel. 
LACK, f. Want; need; failure.—In the Scripture 
there neither wanteth any thing, the lack whereof might 
deprive us of life. Hooker. —He was not able to keep that 
place three days, for lack of victuals. Knolles. 
The trenchant blade, toledo trufty, 
For want of fighting was grown rufly, 
And eat into itfelf, for lack 
Of fomebody to hew and hack. Hudibras. 
LACK, Laak, or Lauk, f. In Eaft-Indian compu¬ 
tation, 100,000. 
LACK, a townfliip in Mifflin county, Pennfylvania. 
LACK'-BRAIN, f One that wants wit.—What a lack- 
brain is this ? Our plot is as good a plot as ever was laid. 
Shakefpeare. 
LACK'-LINEN, adj. Wanting fhirts.—You poor, bafe, 
rafcally, cheating, lack-linen, mate ; away, you mouldy 
.rogue, away. Shakefpeare. 
LACK'-LOVE,yi One that is indifferent to love: 
She durft not lye 
-Elear this lack-love , this kill-courtfy. Shakefpeare. 
LACK-LUS'TRE, adj. Wanting brightnefs: 
And then he drew a dial from his poke, 
And, looking on it with lack-lujlre eye, 
pays very wifely, It is ten o’clock. Shakefpeare , 
LAC 
LACK'AH, a river of Ireland, in the county of Do¬ 
negal, which runs into Lough Glen. 
LACKANWAD'DY, a town of Hindooftan, in the 
circar of Aurungabad : forty-five miles eaft of Jafflerabad, 
LACK'AR, an ifland in the Eaftern-Indian Sea, about 
thirty miles long, and fix broad. Lat. 8.18.S. Ion. 128. 
14. E. 
LACKARA'GO, a town of Africa, in the kingdom 
of ICafTon. 
LACKA'RI, a town of Perfia, in the province of Irak? 
129 miles weft-north-weft of Ifpahan. 
_ LACK'ER, or Lacquer., A varnifh applied upon 
tin, brafs, and other metals, to preferve them from tarnifli- 
ing, and to improve their colour. 
The bafis of lacquers is a lolution of the refinous fub¬ 
ftance called feed-lac, or rather fhell-lac, in fpirit of wine. 
This fpirit ought to be very much dephlegmated in order 
to diffolve much of the lac. For this purpofe, fome au¬ 
thors direct dry pot-afh to be thrown into the fpirit. 
This alkali attrafts the water, with which it forms a li¬ 
quid that fubfides diftinifily from the fpirit at the bottom 
of the veffel. From this liquid the fpirit may be feparated 
by decantation. By this method the fpirit is much de¬ 
phlegmated : but at the fame time it becomes impreg¬ 
nated with part of the alkali, which depraves its colour, 
and communicates a property to the lacquer of imbibing 
moifture from the air. Thefe inconveniences may be pre¬ 
vented by diftilling the fpirit; or, if the artift has not an 
opportunity of performing that procefs, he may cleanfe 
the fpirit in a great meafure from the alkali, by adding to 
it fome calcined alum, the acid of which uniting with 
the alkali remaining in the fpirit, forms with it a vitrio- 
lated tartar, which, not being foluble in fpirit of wine, 
falls to the bottom together with the earth of the decom- 
pofed alum. To a pint of the dephlegmated and purified 
fpirit, about three ounces of powdered (hell-lac are to be 
added ; and the mixture to be digefled during fome days 
with a moderate heat. The liquor ought then to be 
poured off, ftrained, and cleared by fettling. This clear 
liquor is now fit to receive the required colour, from cer¬ 
tain refinous colouring fubftances, the principal of which 
are gamboge and anotto, the former of which gives a yel¬ 
low, and the latter an orange colour. In order to give a 
golden colour, two parts of gamboge are added to one of 
anotto ; but thefe colouring-fubftances may be feparately 
diffolved in the tinffure of lac, and the colour required 
may be adjufted by mixing the two folutions in different 
proportions. When filver-leaf, or tin, are to be lac¬ 
quered, a larger quantity of the colouring materials is re- 
quifite than when the lacquer is intended to be laid on 
brafs. The following compofition for brafs-work, defigned 
to refemble gilding, has been much recommended: Take 
of turmeric ground, as it may be had at the dry-falters, 
one ounce, and of faffron and Spanifh anotto each two 
drams: put them into a bottle, with a pint of highly-rec¬ 
tified fpirit of wine, and place the bottle in a moderate 
heat, occafionally fhaking it, for feveral days; then drain 
off the yellow tinfture thus obtained, through a coarfe 
linen doth, and, putting it back into the bottle, add 
three ounces of good feed-lac grofsly powdered ; place 
the bottle again in a moderate heat, and fhake it, till the 
feed-lac be diffolved. The lacquer ftrained as before will 
be fit for ufe, and mull be kept in a bottle carefully flop¬ 
ped. By increafing or diminifhing the proportion of 
anotto, the lacquer will be rendered warmer and redder, 
or cooler and nearer a true yellow. A cheaper compofi- 
tion, little inferior to the former, may be formed of one 
ounce of tumeric-root ground, half a dram of the belt 
■dragon’s blood, and a pint of fpirit of wine, managed as 
the former. 
The varnifli for tin may be made of one ounce of tur¬ 
meric-root, two drams of dragon’s blood, and one pint 
of fpirit of wine, prepared in the fame manner with the 
other. The dragon’s blood may be increafed or diminiih- 
3 wi* 
