524 
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fcription of certain plants growing at Aftrachan, and in 
the provinces of Perfia which border on the Cafpian Sea ; 
printed in the 5th vol. of the New Tranfaclions of the 
Acad. Nat. Curioforum.; he alto furniftied an account of 
the Nymphasa nelumboof the Cafpian Sea. Haller men¬ 
tions that Lerche made many curious obfervations on the 
agriculture and botany ot the countries through which he 
travelled.] In botany, a genus of the clafs monadelphia, 
order pentandria. The generic characters are—Calyx : 
perianthium one-leafed, tubular, five-toothed, permanent. 
Corolla : pne-petalled, tunnel-form ; tube longer than the 
calyx; border five-parted, rather erect. Stamina: fila¬ 
ments fcarcely any, but the tube of the germ : antherse 
five, oblong, feated on the tube of the germ. Piltillum : 
germ fubovate, fuperior, terminated (within the corolla) 
by an obtufe tube ; ftyle within the tube of the germ, 
filiform, length of the ftamens; ftigmas two or three, ra¬ 
ther obtufe. Pericarpium: capfule fubglobofe, torulofe, 
thi ■ee-celled, fometimes two-celled. Seeds : very many. 
— Effential Character. Calyx five-toothed ; corolla funnel- 
form, five-clett: antherje five, placed on the tube of the 
germ; Ryle one; capfule three-celled, many-feeded. 
Lerchea longicauda, a Angle fpecies. It is an irregular- 
growing fhrub, with jointed branches; leaves oppofite, 
lanceolate, petioled, even, quite entire, a foot long. 
Spike terminating, filiform, a foot in length ; with re¬ 
mote, fcattered, minute, flowers. Native of the Ealt In¬ 
dies. The above defeription is entirely taken from the 
works of Linnaeus, the only perion who ever faw the plant. 
No trace ot it was found in his Herbarium by the gentle¬ 
man who purchafed his collection, (fee the article Lin¬ 
naeus ;) yet it is to be prefumed the fpecimen exifts 
fomewhere in his collection, probably without a name. 
LERE, f. [laspe, Sax. here, Dut.] A leflon; lore; 
doCtrine. Obfolete, but Rill retained in Scotland. : 
The kid, pitying his heavinefs, 
Afked the caufe of his great difirefs ; 
And alfo who, and whence, that he were. 
Though he that had w'ell ycond his lere. 
Thus melled his talk with many a teare. Spcnfcr. 
LERE, adj. [from leojian, Sax.] Kept ready for occa- 
fion.—He had rather have words bear two fenfes imperti¬ 
nently, than one to the purpofe ; and never fpeaks with¬ 
out a lere fenfe. Butler's Chara&ers .—A led horfe was for¬ 
merly called a lere horfe. Tkyer's Note to the foregoing. 
I.EREN'ZA, a town of New Grenada: twenty-five 
miles north of Tunja. 
LER'GE, a town of Sweden, in Weft Gothland : four 
miles north of Gothenburg. 
LE'RI (John de), a French proteftant minifter in the 
fixteenth century, was born at la Margelle, a village in 
Burgundy, and profecuted his academical Rudies at Ge¬ 
neva. In the year 1556, when Charles Durand de Ville- 
gagnon, vice-admiral of Bretagne, applied to the church 
of Geneva for fome paftors, ro join an intended colony 
of the reformed religion in Brafil, under the proteClion of 
admiral de Coligny, he was felefted to accompany two 
minifters on that mifiion. They arrived at the Ifland de 
Coligny, under the tropic of Capricorn, in March 1557; 
but, rinding that the eftabliftiment of the colony met with 
infurmounrable obftacies, Leri returned to France in the 
following year, after luffering aftonifliing hardfhips during 
his voyage. Afterwards he was admitted to the office of 
the miniftry, andexercifed it at La Charite, according to 
De Thou, at the time of the maffacre of St. Bartholomew, 
when he was obliged to fly for his life, and took refuge 
in Sancerfe. He was in that town during the memorable 
fiege of it, and when it was taken in 1573 ; and, having 
been favoured with a pals from the marfhal de la Chatre, 
before the capitulation was (igned, permitting him to re¬ 
tire wherever he pleafed, he went to Bern in Swifierland, 
where he was received in the kindeft manner by M. de Co- 
ligny, fon of the admiral. In the year 1574, he publifhed 
Jais very interefting Hiftoria de Sancerri Obfidione, 8vo. 
L E It 
giving an account of the tranfadions of that fieo-e, and 
of the cruel famine to which the proteltants fubmTtted in 
defence of their religion, and all that was dear to them ; 
which was widely difperfed, and underwent repeated im- 
preflions. In 1577, he publifhed an Account of his Voy¬ 
age to Brafil, in 8vo. containing, befides other curious 
matter, obfervations on the ftate of religion in that 
country ; which has been frequently reprinted. Leri died 
at Bern in 1611, greatly efteemed and regretted by all 
who knew him. 
LE'RIA, in ancient geography, an ifland of the -fEgean 
fea; one of the Sporades, according to Strabo. _Alio, a 
town of Spain, in the Tarragonenfis, and in the interior 
of the country of the Edetani. Ptolemy. 
LE'RIA, or Lei'ria, a ftrong town of Portugal, in 
Eftiemadura, with a cattle and biffiop’s fee. It contains 
about 3500 inhabitants ; and was formerly the refidence of 
the kings of Portugal. Lat. 39. 40. N. Ion. 7. 50. W. 
LER'ICI, a town of Genoa: four miles fouth-weft of 
Sarflma. 
LER'IDA, a town of Spain, celebrated in hiftory, un¬ 
der its ancient name llerda, as the feene of the malterly 
operations carried on by Caefar againft Petreius and Af- 
ranius, who commanded an army in the intereft of Pom- 
pey, during the civil ..wars of Rome; is fituated in the 
vveltern part of Catalonia near to the bprdersof Arragon, 
upon the great road from Madrid into France, about 
twenty-tw'o Spanifli leagues,'or above eighty Englilh miles, 
to the eaftward of Suagolla, and no miles to the weft- 
ward of Barcelona. It Hands on the Rope and along the 
foot of a fmall infulated hill, waflied on the eaft fide by 
the river Segre, the ancient Sicoris, over which is a ftone 
bridge, in length four hundred feet, confifting of feven 
unequal arches, having been repaired at various periods. 
The fummit of the hill, which, although affording very 
little room, was probably the whole fpace occupied by the 
ancient llerda, is Rill covered with the old cathedral and 
other buildings, with fortifications of different ages and 
modes of conftrudion ; and correfponds perfectly with 
the defeription given of it by Lucan : 
Colie tumet modico, Unique excrevit in altum 
Pingue folum tumulo ; Juper hunc fundata vetujla 
Surgit llerda manu ; placidis pralabilur undis 
Hefperios inter Sicoris non ullimus amnes, 
Saxeus ingenti quem pons ampletlilur arcu, 
Hibernas pajfurus aquas. Pharfalia, iv. 
Where rifing grounds the fruitful champaign end, 
And unperceiv’d by foft degrees afeend. 
An ancient race their city chofe to found, 
And with Ilerda’s walls the fummit crown’d. 
The Sicoris, of no ignoble name, 
Fall: by the mountain pours his gentle ftreain. 
A liable bridge runs crofs from fide to fide, 
Whofe fpacious arch tranfmits the pafling tide. 
And jutting piers the wint’ry floods abide. Rowe. 
In another paffage of the flame book, the poet ftyles 
llerda as lofty in its fituation ; and fo it is, if confidered 
with refped to the plain extending to the fouth, weft, 
and north, on its own fide of the river, as well as to the 
eaft on the oppofite fide ; for, although the fummit of the 
hill may not be elevated more than three hundred and fifty 
feet above the river, yet for feveral miles in all diredions 
there is no ground of an equal elevation. The fides 
of this hill are on all parts fteep, and on the northern 
parts inacceflible ; but on the fouth fide the Hope is the 
moft gentle, fo that it is occupied by part of the prefent 
town ; and from the middle of the weft fide a fpur pro- 
jedts into the plain, narrow towards the fummit of the 
hill, but widening as it goes down, and of eafier accefs 
than the neighbouring parts on either hand. This fpur 
of the hill is a charadleriltic feature of llerda, as will ap¬ 
pear from a confideration of the account of Ctefar’s ope¬ 
rations at this place, contained in the Commentaries of 
the Civil Wars, beginning at cap. 37. 
Although 
