L A F. 
well received, chiefly from their portable flee, and the 
beauty of Elzevir’s types, and are (fill fought after, under 
the name of the Ref pub lie tie. A more confiderable work 
was his, io. Novus Orbis, feu Defcriptio Indise Occidenta¬ 
ls, fol. Leyd. 1633, which he alfo tranflated into French, 
and publifhed in 1640; it likewife appeared in Flemifh. 
This account of America, though not always exaff, has 
been much ufed by later geographers. De Laet edited 
Pifo’s and Marcgrave’s Account of Brazil, with addi¬ 
tions; and gave a complete edition of Vitruvius, with the 
notes of various critics, and the treatifes of various other 
authorsonarchitectural fubje&s ; folio, Amft. 1649. Moreri. 
LAE'TIA,/! [fo named by Loefling, from the fubjeft 
of the preceding article.] In botany, a genus of the clafs 
polyandria, order monogynia, natural order of tiliaceae, 
(7 U JT) The generic characters are—Calyx: perianthium 
live-leaved; leaflets oblong, concave, reflex, coloured, 
withering. Corolla: none, or elfe five petals. Stamina: 
filaments numerous, capillary, rather fliorter than the ca¬ 
lyx; antheras roundifh. Piltillum : germ oblong, ending 
in a filiform Ityle, longer than theftamens; ftigma headed, 
deprefled. Pericarpium ; berry globofe, three-fided, fur¬ 
rowed with three lines, one-celled ; increafed internally 
by a cartilaginous membrane. Seeds very many, neitling, 
cornered, coated with a pulpy aril. —EJfenlial CharaEler. 
Calyx five-leaved ; corolla five-petalled, or none ; fruit 
one-celled, three-cornered ; feeds with a pulpy aril. 
Species. 1. Laetia apetala, or apetalous laetia : flowers 
apetalous, calyxes five-leaved reflex; leaves oval ferrulate, 
fmooth on both fides. This is an upright tree, about 
twenty feet in height, putting out fpreading branches from 
the very ground. From the tubercles and ends of thefe 
come out oval or obovate leaves, blunt, fometimes emar- 
ginate ; the ferratures ferruginous, and fcarcely vifible ; 
they aye fliining, petioled,alternate,an inch and a half long. 
Common peduncles three-flowered, axillary, fuftaining 
white flowers, like thole of Crataegus oxyacantha, or haw¬ 
thorn, in appearance, fize, and fmell. Native of Cartha- 
gena in New Spain ; flowering in April and May, and 
fruiting in Augufi. 
2. Laetia completa, or petaloid laetia : flowers petaloid 
complete. This is a irnall branching tree, about nine feet 
in height. Fruit reddifh yellow, often obfeurely triangu¬ 
lar. ’ Native of Carthagena; flowering in June, and fruit¬ 
ing in Auguft and September. 
3. Laetia Guidonia, or Guidonia laetia': flowers apeta¬ 
lous peduncles one-flowered, terminating, leaves oblong 
acuminate, ferrate pubefeent. In the fruit of this tree 
the lines between the valves are of a beautiful red colour, 
as well as the placentae. The filaments of the flower are 
very numerous. The tree grows to a confiderable fize, is 
efteemed a fine timber-wood, and is much ufed in all 
forts of buildings. Native of Jamaica, where it is called 
rod-wood. 
4. Laetia Thamnia, or Thamnia laetia: flowers apeta¬ 
lous; peduncles many-flowered, fubdivided, axillary; 
leaves oblong-acute, fuberenate, fhining. This ft rub is 
found in the red hills, above the Angels, in the ifland of 
Jamaica ; but is not common. 
LASTIFIC AN' TI A, f. Cordials; a medical term. 
LiETI'TIA, the name of a woman. 
LAEU'ANGER, a town of Norway, in the diocefe of 
Drontheim : forty-fix miles eaft-north-eaft of Drontheim. 
LAiVI'NUS TORRENTI'NUS, commonly called Van- 
der Bckin, was a native of Ghent, and bred in the univer- 
fity of Louvain. He afterwards made the tour of Italy, 
'•where his virtues obtained him the friendftip of the molt 
illuftrious perfonages of his time. On his return to the 
Low Countries, he was made canon of Liege, and vicar- 
general to Emeft de Baviere, biftop of that fee. At 
length, having executed a fuccefsful embafly to Philip 
II. o! Spain, he was rewarded with the bifliopric of An¬ 
twerp ; from whence he was tranflated to the metropolitan 
cnuich of Mechlin, and died there in 1595. He founded 
a college of jefuits at Louvain, to which he left his libra- 
Vol.XII. No. 8 j2. 
L A F g 1 
ry, medals, and curiofities. He w r rote feveral poems that 
obtained him the character of being, after Horace, the 
prince of lyric poets. 
LAS'VIUS, a Latin poet. It is not well known at what 
time he lived, but probably before the age of Cicero. A 
poem of his, entitled Erotopagnia, i. e. Love-Games, is 
quoted by Aulus Gellius. Apuleius alfo quotes fix lines 
from the fame poet; but he does not t-ell from what work 
he borrowed them. Larvius had alfo compofed a poem 
entitled The Centaurs, which Feftus quotes under the ti¬ 
tle of Pctrarum. 
LAFEL'DT, or Laveld, a village of France, in the 
department of the Ourthe, late in thfe bifliopric of Liege ; 
where a battle was fought in 1747 between the allies un¬ 
der the command of the duke of Cumberland, and the 
French under marflial Saxe, in which the former were de¬ 
feated : four miles well: of Liege. 
LAFE'RE. See Fere (La). 
LAFITAU' (Jofeph-Francis), born at Bourdeaux, en¬ 
tered into the fociety of Jefuits, and was employed as a 
miflionary among the North-American favage's. On his 
return he publifted a work entitled Les Meurs des Sau- 
vages Americains compares aux meurs des premiers terns, 
2 vols. 4to. 1723 ; which is regarded as one of the mod 
exaft accounts that have been given to the public of the 
manners of the aboriginal tribes in the new world. He 
wrote alfo, 2. A Hiftory of the Difcoveries of the Portu- 
guefe in the New World, 2 vols. 4to. 1733, and 4 vols. 
121110. 1734, which is efteemed; and, 4. Remarks upon 
Ginfeng, limo. 1728. This author died about 1740. 
LAFITAU 1 (Peter-Francis), a French prelate, and 
author of various works, was the fon of a wine-cooper at 
Bourdeaux, where he was born in the year 1685. When 
very young he was admitted among the Jefuits, and exhi¬ 
bited proofs of geniusand talents, which were judicioufly 
cherilhed by his fuperiors. The firft line in which he dif- 
tinguiftied liimfelf was that of pulpit-eloquence, which 
he praftifed a confiderable time with very high reputation. 
Afterwards he was deputed to Rome, to negociate on the 
fubjefl of the difputes in France relative to the bull Uni- 
genitus-, where his addrefs and lively converfation rendered 
him a great favourite with pope Clement IX. He did 
not negledt the opportunity which this circumftance af¬ 
forded him to puft his fortune ; and, after quitting the 
fociety of Jefus, obtained from his holinefs the bifliopric 
of Sifteron in Provence. Over this diocefe he prefided, 
difeharging his epifcopal duties in the moft faithful and 
exemplary manner, till his death, which took place at the 
cattle of Lurs, 1764, when he was about feventy-nine years 
of age. He was through life a zealous enemy to Janfenilrn, 
which he aflailed more with the weapons of ridicule than 
of ferious argument or learning. He was the author of, 
1. A Hiftory of the Conftitution Unigenilus , 2 vols. umo, 
2. The Hiftory of Clement IX. 2 vols. 3. Sermons, 4 
vols. and feveral devotional and pratftical treatifes. Nouu. 
D>tt. Hijl. 
LAFOR'CE. See Force (La), vol. vii. 
LAF'ORDSWIC,./. [Saxon; from hlapopb, lord, and 
j~pic, treachery.] The betraying of a lord or matter. 
This word is found in king Canute’s laws, and in thofe 
of Henry I. 
LAFOS'SE, father and fon, were farriers to the French 
king’s ltables. The former died in 1753. The latter dis¬ 
covered the true feat of the glanders to be in the pituitary- 
membrane, and invented the method of trepanning for 
that diforder: hepubliflied in 1749 a Treatife upon Glan- 
dered Horfes, and afterwards feveral other pieces upon 
farriery. Dr. Bracken tranflated into Englifli the treatife 
on the glanders, and inferted it in his work on the Dif- 
eafes of Horfes : the other pieces were tranflated in the 
year 1759, an( l pdblifhed in 8vo. with plates. His works 
were tranflated into Spanift in 1760, and dedicated to 
king Charles III. He died Jan. 24, 1765. 
LAFOS'SE (D.D.), fon of the preceding, was regularly 
bred from his youth to the veterinary art. “ Having wil- 
¥ ling!*- 
