L E P 
txro are the origin of fertility amidft the rocks 5 for their 
remains, mixed with the dung of the animals, rotting, in 
the otherwife-barren chafms, create a foil productive of 
vegetables. Thefe ricks are alfo of great fervice to thofe 
men who devote themfelves to the laborious employment 
of fable-hunting. Being obliged to go far from home, 
their horfes would often perifh for want, if not fupported 
by the provifions of thefe induftrious little animals. The 
people of Jakutz are faid to feed both their horfes and cat¬ 
tle with the relics of the winter-(lock of thefe hares. Such 
fupply may be ferviceable to fome in the fpring, when 
their own ftock is exhaufted; but, fhould they depend 
folely on thefe feeble mountaineers, they would deferve 
to lafe both horfes and cattle every hard winter. Thefe 
hares are negleCled as food by man ; but they are the prey 
of fables, and of the Siberian weafel, which are joint in¬ 
habitants of the fame mountains. They are likewife 
greatly infefted by the Oeftrus leporinus, a fpecies of 
gad-fly, which, in Auguft and September, lodges its eggs 
in their fkin, and often proves fatal to thefe feeble and de- 
fencelefs, though induftrious, creatures. 
14. Lepus ogotona, the ogotona hare: body and ears 
pale grey, ears oval, a little rounded. This has fhorter 
w hi fleers than the former fpecies; fur long and fmooth, 
light grey in the middle, white at the ends, intermixed 
with a few dufky hairs, with a yellowilh fpot on the nofe 
and a fpace about the rump of the fame colour; its limbs 
alfo are yellowilh on the outfides, and its belly w'hite. It 
is only about fix inches long. The male weighs from fix 
ounces and a half to feven and a quarter ; the female, from 
four to four and three quarters. It inhabits the fame 
countries as the Alpine hare, lives in the open valleys, 
and on gravelly or rocky naked mountains, under heaps 
of ftones ; but in a fandy foil they burrow, leaving two 
or three entrances. Their holes run obliquely ; in thefe 
they make their nefts of fhort grafs; they wander out 
chiefly in the night; their voice is exceflively Ihrill, in a 
note like that of a fparrow, twice or thrice repeated, but 
very eafily to be diftinguilhed from that of the alpine 
bare ; they are fond of the bark of the fervice-tree, and 
of the dwarf elm. Before the approach of fevere cold, 
they collect great quantities of herbs, and fill their holes 
with them ; directed by the fame inftinft as the former 
fpecies, they form, in autumn, their ricks of hay, of a he- 
mifpherical form, about a foot high and wide; in the 
fpring, thefe elegant heaps difappear. They copulate in 
the fpring. About the end of June, their young are ob- 
ferved to be full grown. They are the prey of hawks, 
magpies, and owls; but the cat manul makes the greateft 
havoc among them : the ermine and filchet are equally 
their enemies. 
LETUS, the Hare, a conftellation of the fouthern he- 
mifphere, and one of the 48 old conftellations. The Greeks 
fabled, that this animal was placed in the heavens near 
Orion, as being one of the animals which he hunted. But 
it is probable their matters, the Egyptians, had fome other 
meaning in this hieroglyphic. The ftars in the conftel¬ 
lation Lepus, in Ptolemy’s Catalogue are 12, in Tycho’s 
jy, and in FJamfteed’s 19. 
LEPYRO'DIA,yi [AsTrcgaSr);, Gr. fcaly, fo called on 
account of the inner fcales at the bafe of each flower.] In 
botany, a genus of the clafs dioecia, order triandria, natu¬ 
ral order tripetaloideae, Linn, (junci, JuJJ. reftiaceas, Brown.) 
Generic effential character—Flowers either dioecious or 
hermaphrodite. Petals fix, nearly equal, prominent, with 
one or two fcales at their bafe, within the proper fcale of 
the fpike, or catkin. Male; ftamens three ; antherre Am¬ 
ple, peltate ; a rudiment of a piftil. Female; ftyles three; 
capfules of three cells, three-lobed, burfting at the promi¬ 
nent angles; feeds folitary. 
This genus in another addition to our botany from Mr. 
Brown’s Prodr. Nov. Holl. It is very near Elegia, (vol. 
vi. p. 449.) but differs in the prefence of inner fcales to 
the flowers, and in the male flowers being like the female, 
with nearly equal petals, as well as in having the fheaths 
L E R 523 
of the ftem permanent, not feparating juft above their 
bafe, and in the fmaller fize of the fpathas. The Caloro- 
phus of Labillardiere nearly anfwers to the above charac¬ 
ter, but is a totally different plant. 
Species. 1. Lepyrodiagracilis: Itemsfomewhat branched ; 
fheaths tight; fpike compound ; its lower branches rather 
diftant; three outer petals fhorteft. Gathered by Mr. 
Brow n at Port Jackfon, New South Wales. 
2. Lepyrodia ltriCta: Items perfectly Ample; fheaths 
tight; fpike compound ; its branches rather crowded ; pe¬ 
tals all nearly equal. Native of the fouth coaft of New 
Holland. 
3. Lepyrodia fcariofa : Items perfectly Ample ; fheaths 
lax ; fpike compound ; its branches imbricated, divided ; 
three inner petals fmalleft. Found at Port Jackfon. 
4. Lepyrodia hermaphrodita : Items perfectly Ample; 
fheaths lax ; fpikes nearly fimple ; flowers herinaphodite. 
Found on the fouth coaft of New Holland. 
LEQUE'SE, a clutter of iflands near the coaft of China, 
or between that and Japan. Earl Macartney did not vifit 
them in the courfe of his embaffy, in the year 1792, 3; 
therefore fir G. Staunton could not deicribe them parti¬ 
cularly. He merely obferves, that, “from the geographi¬ 
cal pofition of thofe iflands, they fhould, if dependent, na¬ 
turally belong to the Chinefe or the Japanefe. The lat¬ 
ter were indifferent about them ; but the former firft fent 
an embaffy to them to explore their ftrength and fitu- 
ation, and afterwards an expedition againft them, which 
reduced them to a tributary ftate. Upon the deceafe of 
the prince, his fucceflor receives a fort of inveftiture or 
confirmation from the emperor of China.” If thefe (as 
we fuppofe) are the fame iflands that are called in his ta¬ 
ble of contents the Licu-kieu iflands, and on his map the 
Quee-fan, the moft foutherly of them lies in lat. 29. 22. N. 
Ion. 120. 52. E. 
During the progrefs of the embaffy along the Han-choo- 
foo river, earl Macartney had a vifit from tw'o genteel 
young men who called themfelves ambaffadors from the 
king of thefe iflands. Their drefs was a very fine fort of 
fhawl, manufactured in their own country, dyed of a 
beautiful brown colour, and lined with the fur of fquir- 
rels ; the fafhion was nearly Chinefe. They wore tur¬ 
bans, one of yellow, the other of purple, filk, neatly fold¬ 
ed round their heads. They had neither linen nor cot¬ 
ton in any part of their drefs that could be perceived. 
Thefe young men were well-looking, though of a dark 
complexion, well-bred, converfible, and communicative. 
They had juft arrived at Ran-choo-foo in their way to 
Pekin, where their chief fends delegates regularly every 
two years, charged to offer the tribute, and pay homage 
from their mafter, to the emperor. They landed at the 
port of Emouy in the province of Fo-chen, which alone 
was open to thofe ftrangers. They underftood Chinefe ; 
but had alio a proper language of their own. They faid, 
that no European veflel had, to their recollection, ever 
touched at any of their iflands ; but that, fhould they 
come, they would be well received ; that there was no 
prohibition againft any foreign intercourfe; that they had 
a fine harbour capable of admitting the largeft veffels, at 
a little diftance from their capital, which w-as confider- 
able in extent and-population ; that they raifed a coarfe 
kind of tea,-but far inferior to that of the Chinefe ; and 
had many mines of copper and iron, but none of gold or 
filver had been difeovered. 
LERANG' POI'NT, a cape on the north coaft of the 
ifland of Java. Lat. 6.37. S. Ion. 111.27. E. 
LERAY', a town of France, in the department of the 
Cher: eight miles north of Sancerre, and feventeen eaft 
of Aubigny. 
LER'BA. See Lorbus. 
L’ER'BA. See Tezzouti. 
LERCHE'A,yi [fo named by Linnaeus, as a tribute of 
refpeft to John James Lerche, principal phyfician to the 
Ruffian armies, who was born at Potfdam in the year 1703, 
and died at St. Peterfburg in 1780. He publifhe'd a de- 
3 feriptiotl. 
