L A 1* 
238 
hair. Florets yellow, from fifteen to eighteen; ftyles 
purplifti, with a dark purplifti green ftigma. Seeds acu¬ 
minate downwards, oblcurely angular, bald, yellowifli, 
dropping fpontaneoufly from the receptacle. Common all 
over Europe in hedges, fhady and wade places, and all cul¬ 
tivated ground ; flowering during molt of tire fummer- 
months. It derives the Englith name from its fuppofed 
efficacy in curing fore nippies. Dr. Withering gives it 
the name of dock-crcjfcs. At Conftantinople it is laid to 
be eaten raw, juft before it Comes into flower. 
2. Lapfana zacintha, or warted nipplewort: calyxes of 
the fruit torulofe, deprefled, blunt, feffile. Native of the 
South of Europe. 
3. Lapfana ftellala, or Harry nipplewort: calyxes of the 
fruit fpreading all round ; rays awl-lhaped, ftem-leaves 
lanceolate, undivided. This is an annual plant; the Items 
are inclined and branched ; the leaves are toothed and 
finuated; the flowers final!. Native of the foutli of 
France, Italy, and Spain. Cultivated here before 1633, 
according to Johnfon in Gerarde’s Herbal. It flowers in 
June and July. 
4. Lapfana kolpinia, or fmall nipplewort: calyxes of 
the fruit fpreading; rays fpreading in a bow, and muri- 
cated ; leaves linear. Refembles the preceding. Native 
cf Siberia and the Levant. Found in the defert of Aftra- 
ehan by Pallas, and in Syria near Aleppo by Patrick Rul- 
fell, M.D. It flowers in July, and is annual. 
5. Lapflina rhagadiolus, or heart-leaved nipplewort: 
calyxes of the fruit fpreading all round; rays awl-fliaped ; 
leaves lyrate. Stem herbaceous, annual, a foot and a half 
high, upright, round, ftriated. Flowers faft’ron-coloured. 
on fubdivided, lmooth, terminating, peduncles. Some of 
the feeds have a hairy down, others none. Scopoli ob- 
i'erves that the fruit is Angular, there being three or four 
roundifli hard attenuated rays bent down, which are the 
calycine fcales involving the feed ; and thefe adhere fo 
firmly to the receptacle, as not to fall off even in dried 
fpecimens. Native of Iftria, the Levant, and Cochinchina. 
It flowers in June and July. Miller received the feeds 
from Portugal. 
Propagation and Culture. The firft fpecies is a common 
■weed. If the feeds of the other forts be permitted to fcat- 
ter, the plants will comeup better than iffown in thefpring. 
They require no culture. See Crepis and Hyoseris. 
LAPSA'RIAN,y. See Infralafsarian, vol. xi. and 
SUPRALAPSARXAN. 
LAP'SE,y. [lapfus , Lat.J Flow; fall; glide; fmooth 
courfe.—Notions of the mind are preferved in the memo¬ 
ry, notwithstanding lapfe of time. Hale. 
Round I favv 
Hill, dale, and (liady woods, and funny plains, 
And liquid lapfe of murm’ring ftreams. Milton. 
Petty error ; fmall miftake; flight offence ; little fault.— 
The weaknefs of human underftanding all will confefs ; 
yet the confidence of mod practically difowns it; and it 
as eafier to perfuade them of it from others lapfes than 
their own. Glanville .—This fcripture may be ufefully ap¬ 
plied as a caution to guard againft thofe lapfes and failings, 
to which our infirmities daily expofe us. Rogers. 
Lapse, in law, is a title given to the ordinary to col¬ 
late to a church, by the negleft of the patron to prefent 
to it within fix months after avoidance. Or a lapfe is a 
devolution of a right of prelenting from the patron to the 
bifbop ; from the bifliop to the archbiftiop ; from the arcli- 
bifhop to the king. The teim in which the title by lapfe 
commences from one to the other fucceflively is lix months, 
or half a year according to the calendar, not accounting 
twenty-eight days to the month, as in other cafes, becaufe 
this computation is by the ecclefiaftical law; and becaufe 
tempus femcftre in the ftat. Welt. 2. ch. 5, is intended of 
half a year, the whole year containing 365 days; which 
being divided, the half year for tire patron to prefent is 
1S2 days. The day in which the church becomes void is 
LAP 
not to be reckoned as part of the fix months. Wood's Inf. 
160. Hob. 30. 4 Rep. 17. 6 Rep. 62. 
Where a patron prefents his clerk before the bifliop 
hath collated, the prefentation is good, notwithftanding 
the fix months are psft, and fhall bar the bifliop, who can¬ 
not take any advantage of the lapfe; and fo if the patron 
makes his prefentation before the archbiftiop hath collated, 
although twelve months are pad; but, if the bifliop col¬ 
lates after twelve months, this bars not the archbiftiop. 
2 Inf. 273. If a bifliop doth not collate to benefices of his 
own gift, they lapfe at the end of fix months to the arch¬ 
biftiop ; and, if the archbiftiop neglefts to collate within 
fix months to a benefice of his gift, the king fliall have 
it by lapfe. And, if a church continues void feveral years 
by lapfe, the fucceffor of the king may prefent. Cro. Car. 
258. But, if the king hath a title to prefent by lapfe, 
the patron fliall never recover his right till the king has 
fatisfied his turn by prefentation ; for nullum tempus occur- 
rit regi. But, to prevent the inconvenience of the church’s 
continuing void for ever, unlefs the king fliall be pleafed 
to prefent, the law has lodged a power in the patron’s 
hands of, as it were, compelling the king to prefent. For 
if, during the delay of the crown to prefent, the patron 
liimfelf prefents, and his clerk is inftituted, the king in¬ 
deed, by prefenting another, may turn out the patron’s 
clerk, or, after induction, may remove him by quare im- 
pedit ; but if lie does not, and the patron’s clerk dies in¬ 
cumbent, or is canonically deprived, the king hath loft 
his right, which was only to the next or firlt prefentation. 
7 Rep. 28. Cro. Eliz. 44. 
If two or more joint-tenants be feized of an advowfon, 
and they prefent different clerks, the bifliop may refufe to 
admit either; becaufe neither joint-tenant hath a feveral 
right of patronage, but each is feized of the whole; and, 
if they do not both agree within fix months, the right of 
prefentation fliall lapfe. But the ordinary may, if he 
pleales, admit a.clerk prefented by either, for the good of 
the church, that divine fervice may be regularly perform¬ 
ed ; which is no more than he otherwife would be enti¬ 
tled to do, in cafe their difagreement continued, fo as 
to incur a lapfe; and, if the clerk of one joint-tenant be 
fo admitted, this fliall keep up the title in both of them ; 
in refpecl of the privity and union of their ftate. Co. Lit. 
185. Blackf. vol ii. 
The right of lapfe was firft eftabliftied in the reign of 
Henry II. when the bifhops firft began to exercife univer- 
fally the right of in flit ution to churches; and therefore, when 
there is no right of inftitution, there is no right of lapfe ; fo 
that no donative can lapfe to the ordinary, unlefs it hath been 
augmented by the king’s bounty. But no right of lapfe can 
accrue when the original prefentation is in the crown. In 
cafe the benefice becomes void by death, or ceflion through 
plurality of benefices, there the patron is bound to take 
notice of the vacancy at his own peril ; but in cafe of a 
vacancy by refignation, or canonical deprivation, or if a 
clerk prefented be refufed for infufficiency, thefe being 
matters of which the bifliop alone is prefumed to be cog¬ 
nizant, here the law requires him to give notice thereof 
to the patron ; otherwife he can take no advantage by way 
of lapfe. 4 Rep. 75. 2 Inft. 632. If the bifliop refufe or 
neglect to examine and admit the patron’s clerk, without 
good reafon affigned or notice given, he fliall have no ti¬ 
tle to prel’ent by lapfe ; and, if the right of prefentation be 
litigious or contefted, and an adtion be brought againft 
the bifliop to try the title, no lapfe fhall occur till the 
queftion of right be decided. If the bifliop be both pa¬ 
tron and ordinary, he (hall not have a double time allowed 
him to collate in. Gibf. Cod. 769. 
To LAP'SE, v. n. To glide (lowly ; to fall by degrees. 
—This difpolition to fhorten our words, by retrenching 
the vowels, is nothing elfe but a tendency to lapfe into 
the barbarity of thole northern nations from whom we are 
defcended, and whofe languages labour under the fame de¬ 
feat Swift. —Tafail in any thing; to Hip j tocommitafault. 
To 
