493 L E Q 
totle, Proclus’s commentary on the Timseusof Plato, and 
other treaties of the ancient philofophers. He alio wrote 
ten dialogues on fubjetts philofophical and moral; and a 
work De Varia Hijloria. He was the author of foifae Ita¬ 
lian poem$. T'lrabofchi. 
LEON'IDAS I. king of Sparta, a renowned warrior, 
flain in defending the ftraits of Thermopylae againft Xer¬ 
xes, 4S0 B. C. See the article Greece, vol. viii, p. 857- 
Soo. 
LEON'IDAS II. king of Sparta after Areus II. 157 
years before Chrift. He was driven from his kingdom by 
Cleombrotus, his fon-in-law ; but afterwards re-eftablifhed. 
LE'ONINE, adj. \lconinus , Lat.] Belonging to a lion ; 
having the nature of a lion. 
Leonine, in poetry, is applied to a kind of verfes 
which rhyme at every hemiftich, the middle always chim¬ 
ing to the end. In this kind of verfe we find feveral an¬ 
cient hymns, epigrams, prophecies, See. Forinftance; Mu- 
retus, fpeakmg of the poetry of Lorenzo Gambara of 
Brefie, fays, 
Brixia vefhv2<«, qua; condunt carmina vates. 
Non funt no (tvates tergere digna nates. 
The origin of the word is fomewhat obfcure: Pafquier 
derives it from one Leoninus, or Leonius, who excelled in 
this way, and dedicated feveral pieces to pope Alexan¬ 
der III. others derive it from pope Leo; and others from 
the bead called lion, calling it the loftieft of all verfes, 
which it certainly is not. M. Fauchet makes the leonine 
rhyme the fame with what the French call the rich, and 
we the double rhyme , i. e. where two fyllables have the fame 
orthography, accentuation, and pronunciation, with two 
others. 
LE'ONINE, f. A kind of gold coin. 
LEONI'TIS,/. in botany. See Phlomis. 
LE'ONSPERG, a caftle of Bavaria: five miles north of 
Dingelfingen, and thirteen fouth of Straubing. 
LEONTA'RI, a town of Morea : twenty miles north- 
weft of Mintra. 
LEONTEV'KA, a town of Ruftia, in the government 
of Novgorod : forty miles fouth-eaft of Valdai. 
LEONTI'ASIS, f. in pathology, a name given by the 
ancients to the elephantiaf.s, improperly called the Arabian 
leprofy, from a fuppofed refemblance of the tuberculated 
countenance of the patient, in fome inftances, to the vi- 
fage of the lion. See Leprosy. 
LEON'TICA, f. Feafts or facrifices celebrated among 
the ancients in honour of the fun. They were called le- 
ont.ica, and the prieft who officiated at them leones, becaufe 
they reprefented the fun under a figure of a lion radiant, 
bearing a tiara, and griping in his two fore paws the horns 
of a bull, who ftruggled with him in vain to difengage 
himfelf. Critics are extremely divided about this feaft. 
Some will have it anniverfary, and to have made its return 
not in a folar but in a lunar year; but others hold its re¬ 
turn more frequent, and give inftances where the period 
was not above two hundred and twenty days. The cere¬ 
mony was fometimes alfo called Mitkriaca, Mithras being 
the name of the fun among the ancient Perfians. There 
was always a man facrificed at thefe feafts till the time of 
Adrian, who prohibited it by a law : Commodus intro¬ 
duced the cultom afrefli; after whofe time it was again 
exploded. 
LEON'TICE, f. [an abbreviation, by Linnaeus, of the 
Leentopetalon of Tournefort.] In botany, a genus of the 
clafs hexandria, order monogynia, natural order of cory- 
dales, (berberides, JuJfd) The generic characters are— 
Calyx : perianthium fix-leaved, caducous; leaflets linear, 
expanding; the alternate ones fmaller. Corolla: petals 
fix, ovate, twice the length of the calyx. Neftary of fix 
icales, which are ferni-ovate, fpreading, foot-ftalked, in¬ 
ferred into the claws of the petals, equal. Stamina: fila¬ 
ments fix, filiform, very fliort ; antherse upright, two- 
belled, two-valved, gaping at the bafe. Piftillum : germ 
oblong-ovate; ftyle fliort, fomewhat columnar, obliquely 
LEO 
inferted into the germ; ftigma Ample. Pericarpium 1 
bony hollow, globofe, acuminate, inflated, one-celled, fub- 
fucculent. Seeds: few, globofe.-r -Efential Chardffer. Ca¬ 
lyx fix-leaved, deciduous ; corolla fix-petalled ; nedtary 
fix-Ieayed, placed on the claws of the corolla, fpreading. 
Species. 1. Leontice chryfogonum, or oak-leaved le¬ 
ontice: leaves pinnate, common petiole Ample. 2. Le¬ 
ontice leontopetalum, or decompound-leaved leontice, or 
lion’s-leaf. Leaves decompound, common petiole trifid. 
Thefe two plants have large tuberous roots about.the fize of 
thofe of Cyclamen, or fow-bread, covered with a dark brown 
bark. Leaves on flender petioles from the roots, about 
fix inches long. Thofe of the firft are Angle, having many 
leaflets ranged along the midrib; but the petioles of the 
fecond are branched into three fmaller; upon each of 
thefe are ranged feveral leaflets, in the fame form as pin¬ 
nate leaves. The flowers are on naked peduncles; in the 
firft fort they are yellow; in the fecond they are fmaller 
and paler. Natives of the iflandsof the Archipelago, and 
of the corn-fields about Aleppo, flowering at Chriftmas. 
Here they do not flower till the beginning of April; and 
they do not produce feeds. The fecond fpecies was cul¬ 
tivated, before 1597, by lord Zouch, as appears from Ge¬ 
rard’s Herbal. Rauwolf obferved it about Aleppo; it has 
been found in feveral parts of the Levant; and Matthi- 
olus fays, that he remarked it in the fields of Tufcany, 
See. and that it is common in Apulia. 
3. Leontice thaliflroides, or columbine-leaved leontice: 
ftem-leaf triternate ; floral leaf biternate. Native of North 
America; introduced, in 1784, by Mr. William Young. 
4. Leontice leontopetaloides. See Tacca. 
Propagation and Culture. When feeds are procured from 
abroad (which fliould be fent in fand), fow them as foon 
as they arrive, and cover them with glafles in the winter. 
In fpring, when the plants begin to appear, admit free air 
to them whenever the weather is mild. If they are not 
too clofe, let them remain unremoved till the fecond year; 
but, where they are very clofe, take up a part of the roots 
in Oftober, and plant them clofe to a warm wall ; and in 
November lay fome old tanners’ bark over the furface, 
three or four inches thick. Take this off again in March, 
before the roots begin to pufh, leaving a thin covering to 
prevent the fpring-winds from drying the ground. Thefe 
roots fnould have a dry loofe foil, and mult be feldom re¬ 
moved. Otftober is the beft time for removing them. 
The plants are very difficult to preferve in England; for 
the roots will not thrive in pots, and in the full ground 
the froft mod frequently deftroys them in winter, efpeci- 
ally when the roots are young. Before the fevere winter 
of 1740, Mr. Miller had fome of the roots in a fouth-weft 
border, that flowered feveral years without any fhelter. 
LEONTI'NI, or Leontium, in ancient geography, a 
town of Sicily on the fouth fide of the river Terias, twenty 
miles north-weft of Syracufe. The territory, called Campi 
Leontini, was extremely fertile : thefe were the Campi 
Laeftrigonii, anciently fo called ; the feat of the Laeftri- 
gons, according to the commentators on the poets. The 
name Leontini is from leo, the impreflion on their coins be¬ 
ing a lion. Now called Lentini, which fee, p. 482. 
LEONTIUM, one of the twelve towns of Achaia, whe¬ 
ther on, or more diftant from, the bay of Corinth, is un¬ 
certain. 
LEON'TIUM, a celebrated courtezan of Athens, who 
ftudied philofophy under Epicurus, and became one of 
his moft renowned pupils. She proftituted herfelf to the 
philofopher’s fcholars, and even to Epicurus himfelf, if we 
believe the reports which were raifed by fome of his ene¬ 
mies. Metrodotus fhared her favours in the moft un¬ 
bounded manner; and by him fhe had a fon, to whom 
Epicurus was fo partial, that he recommended him to his 
executors on his dying bed. Leontium not only pro- 
fefled herfelf a warm admirer and follower of the doftrines 
of Epicurus, but fhe even wrote a book in fupport of them 
againft Theophraftus. This book was valuable, if we be¬ 
lieve the tefiimony and criticifm of Cicero, who praifed 
