L H E 
563 
of which the firft fafciculus, containing eleven plates with 
their defcriptions, appeared in 1784. Some copies were 
coloured for thofe who chofe to have them; but the au¬ 
thor hirnfelf had a prepoffelfion in favour of uncoloured 
botanical works, from an opinion that painted ones were 
feldom fufiiciently correct to anfwer any good purpofe. 
Contrary fentiments have fmce prevailed; and it is cu¬ 
rious to obferve how the popular tafte for coloured books 
in natural hiftory has extended the fathion. Five more 
fafciculi of the Stirpes Novae followed, amounting to 
eighty-four plates and their defcriptions all together. 
They were all dated either 1784 or 1785, though many of 
them not adually publifhed till feveral years afterwards. 
By this the author gave great offence to the abbe Cava- 
nilles at Madrid, who was at the fame period publifhing 
upon the monadelphous or mallow tribe, which fills one 
of LTIeritier’s laft fafciculi. Some of the labours of the 
worthy Spaniard feemed foreftalled, and the priority of 
his names infringed upon. A paper war enfued, in which 
we cannot but think juftice was on his fide, though we 
are equally certain L’Heritier never borrowed, nor could 
want to borrow, any thing from him, whole knowledge 
and whofe performances could, at that period, bear no 
companion with his own, however eftimable the charac¬ 
ter and the fubfequent labours of the indefatigable Ca- 
vanilles. To fecure to hirnfelf fome of his own dilco- 
veries, and efpecially the eftablifhment of certain new 
genera and their names, L’Heritier contrived a method of 
publifhing fuch in the form of monographs, with one or 
two plates; but the purpofe feems imperfectly anfwered, 
thefe publications not being dated at all. The fubjetts 
were Louichea, Buchozia, Michauxia, Hymenopappus, 
and Virgilia. We have always underftood that twelve of 
each were printed. His biographer, the celebrated Cu¬ 
vier, fays there were only five, and that, “ in order to 
give them the value of rarity,” by which only fome col¬ 
lectors judge of books, “ he diftributed the copies gra¬ 
tuitously to different people, fo that no individual might 
be poflefled of the entire collection.” There is, however, 
a complete fet in the rich library of fir Jofeph Banks. A 
fixth differtation of the fame kind on Kakile was pre¬ 
paring, but never finifhed, fo that one proof-copy only 
was in exiftence, which was fold with his library in 1802. 
The catalogue of this library amounts to 2957 articles. 
Its pofieffor fpared no pains nor expenfe to enrich it; and 
he allowed his friends, and all who had a tafte for the 
fame ftudy, to confult his collection without referve. He 
even propofed at one time to dedicate it freely to public 
ufe, in order to fhame the government of the day, who 
were about to render venal all accefs to the public libra¬ 
ries and collections; and his example had in fome mea- 
fure the eft’eCt of defeating fo fcandalous a projeCt. 
The neighbourhood and the gardens of Paris were, in 
his time at leaft, by far too confined a field for the af- 
piring genius of L’Heritier. Prevented by infurmountable 
obftacles from botanizing in remote regions hirnfelf, he 
exprefled, in the preface to his Stirpes, a with that fome 
traveller might entruff him with the publication of his 
difcoveries. His defire was not entirely fruitlefs. Dom- 
bey returned to Paris in 1786, with the wreck of his vaff 
collections made in Chili and Peru, and in vain folicited 
from M. de Calonne the requisite affiftance to tender his 
difcoveries of ufe to the public. The minifter and the 
government had other things to think of. The horrors 
of impending bankruptcy, the juft fear of reformation and 
revolution, all alike inevitable, left them neither atten¬ 
tion nor money to bellow upon fcience. L’Heritier there¬ 
fore purchafed the herbal of Dombey, with a great col¬ 
lection in natural hiftory 5 and he immediately put every 
thing in order, hired painters and engravers, and would 
loon have prefented his treafure to the world, when the 
court of Spain, being about to publifit the natural hiftory 
of thofe countries which they had caufed to be examined, 
felt defirous that the refearches of Dombey fhoulcl not ap¬ 
pear firft, and fignjfied its wiflies to the court of France. 
L H W 
L’Heritier heard by chance at Verfailles that an order had 
been given to Button to take the herbal of Dombey into 
his poffeffion. Alarmed at the news, he haftened to Paris; 
confuited iiis friend Brouffonet; aflembled twenty or 
thirty carpenters, whom he employed all night in making 
boxes; then, with the aid of his wife, Brouffonet, and 
Redoute, packed lip the herbal, and, early in the morn¬ 
ing, fet out for Calais, with his valuable luggage, and 
never refted till he touched Englifli ground. 
L’Heritier did not return to Paris till after the revolu¬ 
tion ; and then accepted the office of a judge in the civil 
tribunals of the department of the Seine, and is recorded 
to have fulfilled its duties with the molt exemplary recti¬ 
tude and incorruptibility. He alfo fat from time to time 
as a member of the reprefentative body. His views were 
always thofe of a true patriot, the correction ef abufes, 
the maintenance of the laws in their genuine force and 
purity ; and the darling objeCt of his emulation was the 
uncorrupted Britifh conftitution. “ In a Ihort time,” 
laid he, in 1787, to Dr. J. E. Smith, “ we may polfibly 
hope to be governed as you are.’’ It is with pain that we 
advance towards the dreadful cataftrophe of his life. He 
had married, in 1775, an eftimable woman of the name of 
Dote, with whom he palled nineteen years in domeltic 
happinefs. She died in 1794, leaving him five children. 
He devoted hirnfelf to their education ; but, with refpeCt 
to one of them, a fon, his parental folicitude was attended 
with little fuccefs, and his hopes were blalted in a cruel 
manner, by the molt refraCtory and unprincipled conduCt. 
The parent, returning very late one evening in Augutf, 
we believe of the year 1800, from a meeting of the Na¬ 
tional Inllitute, never again reached his own domeltic cir¬ 
cle. His children expeCted him all night in the greateft 
anxiety and uncertainty. Some favage cries of infult or 
exultation were overheard in the filence of the night, but 
their objeCt was not difcovered till the dawn of morning, 
wdien the murdered body of the father of the family was 
found near his own threlhold, with the money and other 
valuables which he carried about him untouched. No¬ 
thing certain was ever difcovered, or at leaft publilhed, by 
the police or government, though the molt horrible fufpi- 
cions arofe, which even in thofe days of murder and atro¬ 
city excited curiofity, if not feeling, in the mind of the 
Parifians. “Vague and contradictory conjectures,” fays 
Cuvier, “arofe.” He declined to repeat them; nor can 
we throw any frelh light on this difaltrous hiftory. The 
wretched fon is now no more. 
L’HERITIE'RA,/. in botany. See Heritiera, voL 
ix. p. 809. 
LHO'TA, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Konig- 
ingratz : fix miles fouth-eaft of Trautenau. 
LHOT'KA, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Ko- 
nigingratz : fourteen miles weft of Konigingratz. 
LHWYD, or Llhwyd (Edward), an eminent anti¬ 
quary, born in Wales about 1670, was admitted of Jefus- 
college, Oxford, in 1687. Having applied hirnfelf to the 
ftudy of natural hiftory, and efpecially of foffils, under 
Dr. Plot, he was appointed, on the refignation of that 
learned man, to be his fucceffor as keeper of the Alhmo- 
lean Mufeum. One great objeCt of his ftudies was the 
elucidation of the languages, manners, and hiftory, of 
the original inhabitants of this ifland ; and for this pur¬ 
pofe, befides a diligent perufal of all the records and do¬ 
cuments of public libraries, he made feveral journeys into 
Wales, and extended his travels into Cornwall, Scotland, 
Ireland, and the province of Brittany in France. He had 
amaffed a great treafure of materials, and railed a high 
reputation by his publications, when he was cut off by 
an untimely death in 1709. Mr. Lhwyd diftinguifhed him- 
felf both as a naturalilt and antiquary; and, although his 
principal attachment was to the ftudies of the latter, yet 
he did not fail in his journeys to attend to every thing 
remarkable in the departments of natural knowledge. 
To the Royal Society he made feveral communications, 
chiefly of this -kind, which have been pubiifhed in their 
■2 TranfaCtions, 
