low's club moss (L. i. Bigelovii) of Mr. Tuckerman may be mentioned. The species ranges as far southward as Louisiana, according to specimens collected by Drummond. The fox-tail club moss (L. alopecurioides, Linn.) is a stoutstemmed, densely leaved species, found in the pine barren swamps from New Jersey to Virginia and southward. The ground pine (L. dendroideum, Linn.) is perhaps the most beautiful, having upright stems from 6 to 9 inches high, the leaves in 4 or 6 rows, lanceolate linear, acute, entire, appressed, erect, the branches crowded but spreading fan-like; in contour like a little green tree. There are from 4 to 10 cylindrical spikes on each plant. This species is much prized in the composition of bouquets in the winter, furnishing good backs. It can be best found in the richer soils of shaded woods or under bushes. The shining club moss (L. lucidulum, Linn.) grows more sparingly in moister and in occasionally overflowed places in dark woods, or by the margins of rivulets; its stems are thick, 3 or 4 times forked, and its branches grow upward; its foliage is composed of rich, deep green, shining leaves, standing in about 8 rows or ranks upon the stems; it has no distinct spikes of fructification, the sporangia being in the axils of the ordinary leaves. This species is to be found principally at the north, but it also occurs along the higher Alleghanies at the south. On the summits of high mountains to the northward occurs the L. selago (Linn.), similar to the last in its general aspect, but thicker stemmed, closer, fuller branched, and forming a level-topped cluster; the plant is only from 3 to 6 inches high. This form is identical with the European species under the same name.-The moss-like lycopodiums are known as selaginella, the diminutive of selago, an ancient name of a species, and are pretty little plants. The most common is the rock moss lycopodium (S. rupestris), seen upon dry sunny rocks, of a bright green color when young and growing, but turning to a brownish hue when old and dry; the seed vessels, abundant toward the tips of the branches, are of a yellow color, looking like little twovalved pouches. Still another form in this section is seen in S. apus (Linn.), a very delicate flat-stemmed and complanate-leaved species, with pellucid foliage, and the plant looking like a scale moss; it is found in wet fields and near springs. The lycopodiums have a similar geographical range to that of the ferns, mostly abounding in the tropics, and delighting in humid situations. Species occur however far northward, and in Lapland the L. alpinum and the L. selaginoides cover large tracts. Their uses are not very extensive. The yellow powder contained in the spore cases is inflammable, and is employed under the name of lycopode or vegetable brimstone in the manufacture of fireworks, and in pharmacy to roll up pills, which when coated with it may be put into water with out being moistened. L. clavatum is almost the only variety now used in medicine. The earlier German herbalists used it against gravel.

Prof. Rolfink of Jena recommended it against epilepsy in 1670, and Dr. Muralt of Zürich was the first to use it externally in intertrigo and other eruptive diseases in 1730. It always had a domestic reputation against the cardialgia and colic of young children. Dierbach recommends it as a soothing and somewhat anodyne remedy in affections of children, especially in colic, and also in whooping cough and asthma. Hahnemann revived the use of this gentle but efficacious remedy. He and his followers regard it as almost a specific against indigestion and even obstinate constipation, when attended with heat in the face and tendency to redness and eruptions, especially about the eyelids and nose. Given methodically it will often break up a tendency to styes upon the lids, and is useful in many chronic eruptions, both as an external application and internal remedy. In obstinate coughs it often proves efficacious. Its utility in many affections of the kidneys and bladder is also well established. The most remarkable plant of this order is the yatum condenado (great devil or accursed), which appears to be the L. rubrum of Chamisso. Sir William J. Hooker, who calls it L. catharticum, states that it acts vehemently as a purgative, and has been administered successfully in Spanish America in elephantiasis. Vastring says that woollen cloths, boiled with lycopodiums, especially with L. claratum, acquire the property of becoming blue when passed through a bath of Brazil wood. Selaginella denticulata is cultivated as an ornamental plant, and several others with branching forked stems and delicate green leaves, from tropical South America, are prized for their beauty.

LYCURGUS, the Spartan legislator, concerning whose personal history there is little certainty. According to Herodotus, he lived about 996 B. C. became guardian to his nephew King Labotas of the Eurystheneid line of Spartan kings, and in this capacity transformed the institutions of his country into the order which they retained for centuries. Whether his system of things was revealed to him by the Pythian priestess, whose oracle he visited, or was introduced from Crete, was in the time of Herodotus a matter of dispute, the Spartans themselves taking the latter view. Under his institutions the Spartans became from the most lawless of the Greeks tranquil and prosperous, and they regarded him reverentially, and built a temple to him after his death. This is the oldest statement concerning him. Thucydides, without mentioning Lycurgus, agrees in stating that the political system of the Spartans had been adopted by them 4 centuries before, and had successfully rescued them from intolerable disorders. This would make the introduction of the Lycurgan discipline to have occurred in 830-820 B. C., which Grote accepts as the most probable date. That no certainty was attainable in the 3d century B. C. respecting the date or parentage of Lycurgus appears from the fact that Timæus supposes two persons to have existed bearing the name, and that the acts of both had been as

Icribed to one. The more detailed account of Plutarch is deduced from authorities no more ancient than Xenophon and Aristotle, excepting the poets Alcman, Tyrtæus, and Simonides. He is stated to have been of the Proclid line of kings, 11th in descent from Hercules, son of Eunoinus, younger brother of Polydectes, and uncle and guardian to Charilaus. After the death of Polydectes, leaving a pregnant widow, the latter proposed to Lycurgus that he should marry her and become king. He refused the proffer, though temporarily exercising authority, awaited the birth of Charilaus, and immediately presented the child in the agora as the future king of the Spartans. Accused by the widow of ambitious designs, he left Sparta, and went to Crete, where he studied the laws of Minos and the institutions and customs of the different cities; thence he visited Ionia and Egypt, and, as some authors affirmed, Libya, Iberia, and even India. In Ionia he is said to have obtained from the descendants of Creophylus a copy of the Homeric poems, which had not previously been known in the Peloponnesus; and some authors report that he had even conversed with Homer himself. Meantime, under the weak sway of Charilaus, Sparta was in a state of anarchy. On his return, finding the two kings as well as the people to be weary of their condition, and that he was regarded as the man to correct the disorders of the state, he undertook the task, and with this view consulted the Delphian oracle. Receiving strong assurances of divine encouragement, and also more special instructions, which were the primitive rhetra of his constitution, he suddenly presented himself in the agora, with 30 of the most distinguished Spartans, all in arms, as his guards and partisans. King Charilaus at once consented to second the designs of his uncle, and the bulk of the Spartans submitted to the venerable Heraclid, who appeared both as a reformer and as Delphic missionary. "Lycurgus," says Grote, "does not try to make the poor rich nor the rich poor; but he imposes upon both the same subjugating drill, the same habits of life, gentlemanlike idleness, and unlettered strength, the same fare, clothing, labors, privations, endurance, punishments, and subordination. It is a lesson instructive at least, however unsatisfactory, to political students, that with all this equality of dealing he ends with. creating a community in whom not merely the love of preeminence, but even the love of money, stands powerfully and specially developed." The successful imposition of this discipline upon a state which had grown up without it must have been a work of extreme difficulty, and must have required the combination of great genius and personal authority on the one hand with imminent peril on the other. Having obtained for his institutions the approbation of the Delphic oracle, he exacted from his countrymen a promise not to alter them till his return, left Sparta, and was never again heard from. The immediate effect of his legis

lation, which remained nearly unchanged for 5 centuries, was to raise Sparta from insignificance to great power and comparative eminence as a state. (For an account of the constitution of Lycurgus, see SPARTA.)

LYCURGUS, an Attic orator, born in Athens about 396 B. C., died there in 323 B. C. He first devoted himself to the Platonic philosophy, but afterward became a disciple of Isocrates. In 343 he was sent with Demosthenes on an embassy to counteract the intrigues of Philip. In 337 he was elected guardian of the public revenue for a term of 5 years, and continued in office for 3 consecutive terms. He was also appointed superintendent of the city, and censor, and in the latter capacity caused his own wife to be fined for violating one of his sumptuary enactments. He belonged to the party of Demosthenes, and was one of the 10 orators whose surrender was demanded by Alexander, but the people of Athens refused to give him up. Of the prosecutions which he conducted, the most celebrated was that against Lysicles, who had commanded the army of Athens at Chæronea; Lysicles was condemned to death. There were 15 orations of his extant in the ages of Plutarch and Photius, but all have since perished except that against Leocrates, and some fragments.

LYDGATE, JOHN, an English Benedictine monk and poet, born in Lydgate, Suffolk, about 1375, died in Bury St. Edmund's about 1461. After studying at Oxford, and visiting France and Italy, he entered the monastery of Bury St. Edmund's, and established a school for instructing the sons of the aristocracy in versification and composition. He began to write about 1400. The principal of his works are his "Fall of Princes," "Storie of Thebes," and "Historie, Siege, and Destruction of Troye." His minor poems were published by the Percy society in 1840. Ritson, in his Bibliographia Poetica, gives a complete catalogue of his works.

LYDIA, an ancient country of western Asia Minor, bounded N. by Mysia, E. by Phrygia, S. by Caria, and W. by the Ægaan sea or Grecian archipelago. The precise boundaries, however, are uncertain on account both of frequent variation and of want of precision in the ancient descriptions. In the time of the Roman dominion Lydia seems to have extended N. as far as the range of mountains called Sardene, a S. W. branch of the Phrygian Olympus, and S. to the Mæander, or at least to the Messogis range, which forms the N. margin of the valley of that river. The E. boundary is especially uncertain. The western strip on the coast, which contained most of the Greek colonies of Ionia, and a part of those of Æolia, was not generally included under the name of Lydia. The Tmolus, a chain of mountains spreading from the eastern portion of the Messogis to the coast of the Egan, and terminating in a peninsula opposite the island of Chios, divided Lydia into two unequal parts, the northern of which embraced the fertile plain of the Hermus, and the

southern the valley of the Cayster. An affluent of the Hermus was the Pactolus, celebrated in antiquity for its golden sands, though not the only stream in the country which by its gold washings contributed to the extraordinary riches of its kings. The natural wealth of Lydia and its excellent climate made it one of the early seats of civilization in western Asia, and there can hardly be any doubt that in various things it became the instructor of its Grecian neighbors.-The origin of the Lydian people is a matter of controversy among the most eminent critics of our age, the prevailing opinion being in favor of their affinity to the Carians, Mysians, Pelasgians, and other Indo-European tribes; while Bunsen, O. Müller, Lassen, and others are inclined to regard them as Semites. Their connection with the Tyrrhenians or Etruscans by Herodotus will naturally be regarded as a confirmation of the latter opinion by those who contend for a Semitic derivation of that ancient Italian people. Another argument is found in the fact that Herodotus mentions Ninus, son of Belus, both of which names are so conspicuous in Assyrian history, as the ancestor of the kings of the 2d or Heraclidic dynasty of Lydia; but the weight of this statement is destroyed by the strange connection of the same line with Alcæus, son of the Grecian Hercules, which occurs in the same historian. Herodotus remains, however, the principal authority for the early history of Lydia, the few extant fragments of the earlier native writer Xanthus and others being of little importance or historic value. According to Herodotus, the people of Lydia, who were previously called Mæonians, under which name they appear in Homer, received the appellation by which they were later called from their 3d king Lydus, son of Atys, son of Manes. This dynasty, however, which is known as that of the Atyadæ, is entirely mythical. The 2d dynasty, which may be styled semi-mythical, that of the Heraclidæ, descended from Hercules and the slave girl of Jardanus, ruled "for 22 generations of men, a space of 505 years," the first king being Agron, son of Ninus, and the last Candaules, "whom the Greeks call Myrsilus," son of Myrsus. This Candaules perished through a conspiracy of his wife with Gyges, one of the king's body guard, who founded the 3d or historical dynasty, that of the Mermnada (according to Rawlinson, 724 B. C.). Enraged by the murder of their rightful king, the people rose in arms against the usurper, but he came to terms with them, and was confirmed on the throne by a favorable decision of the Delphic oracle. This he rewarded by magnificent presents sent to the shrine of Apollo, which in the time of Herodotus proved the splendor of the court of the early Mermnadæ. Gyges commenced his reign by warlike incursions into the territory of Miletus and Smyrna, and took the city of Colophon, thus introducing the long series of Lydian aggressions which terminated with the subjection of the Greeks of Asia Minor under

Croesus. The greatest part of his reign, however, was peaceful. His son and successor Ardys (686-37) took Priene and made war upon Miletus. In his reign the Cimmerians, driven from their homes N. of the Caucasus by other northern nomads, entered Asia Minor, and captured Sardis, the capital of Lydia, all but the citadel. It was not until the 3d generation, under the long reign of Alyattes (625-568), the son and successor of Sadyattes, that the Lydians were able finally to expel the invaders, who had committed frightful ravages all over Lower Asia. Alyattes continued the war with Miletus, which had been resumed by his father, but could not achieve the conquest of that city. He took Smyrna, but met with great disaster in an attempt on Clazomenæ. The most important war of this king, however, was waged against Cyaxares of Media, who, having subverted the Assyrian monarchy, had extended the limits of his dominions as far W. as the Halys. The war was carried on for 6 years with varying success, and was terminated by a peace brought about by the allies of the contending parties after a battle which was interrupted by that eclipse of the sun so renowned in antiquity, and predicted, it is said, by Thales, the Milesian philosopher. The peace was cemented by the marriage of a daughter of Alyattes with the heir apparent to the Median throne, Astyages, who thus became the brotherin-law of Croesus, the last king of Lydia (568'54). This king, whose proverbial riches and mutations of fortune have been immortalized by some of the most interesting narrations of Herodotus, had gradually subdued Ephesus and all other Greek cities in western Asia Minor, and all other territories W. of the Halys, except Lycia and Cilicia, when he determined to revenge the wrongs of Astyages, who had been deprived of his throne by his young grandson Cyrus, and declared war against the Persian conqueror. This ended with the taking of Sardis, the captivity of Croesus, and the subjugation of Lydia. The Lydians, who had long before practised various arts of peace, including the weaving and dyeing of fine fabrics, metallurgy, coining of money, and music, in all of which they excelled, being now deprived of their independence, and forbidden by Cyrus to wear arms, gradually sank into luxury, which afterward proved contagious and pernicious to their conquerors. Together with Mysia, Lydia formed the 2d satrapy of the Persian empire, Sardis being the seat of the satrap. After the conquest of Persia by Alexander, it frequently changed masters, and belonged among others to Antiochus the Great of Syria at the time of his defeat at Magnesia by the Romans. It was given by the victors to the kingdom of Pergamus, and after the death of the last Attalus became a part of the Roman proconsular province of Asia. The effeminate Lydians early disappeared as a people, but the name of the country survived under the Byzantine emperors. Its territories are now chiefly included in the

districts of Sarukhan and Aidin in the Turkish pashalic of Anatolia.

LYDIAN STONE, BASANITE, or TOUCHSTONE, a velvet-black quartz or flinty jasper, used for testing gold alloys. The metal when rubbed upon the stone leaves a portion upon the black surface; and this being touched with a drop of nitric acid indicates to the experienced eye the comparative purity of the alloy by the color. Suitable pieces of quartz for this use were originally obtained in Lydia, whence the name.

LYE, EDWARD, an English clergyman and philologist, born in Totness, Devonshire, in 1704, died in Yardley-Hastings, Northamptonshire, in 1767. He was specially devoted to the Saxon and Gothic languages. His first work was an edition of the Etymologicum Anglica num of Junius, from the unpublished MSS., which appeared in 1743. He next published the "Gothic Evangelists" of Ulfilas; but the chief labor of his life was the compilation of a large dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic languages, which was finished just before his death (2 vols. fol., 1772).

LYELL, SIR CHARLES, a British geologist, born in Kinnordy, Forfarshire, Nov. 14, 1797. At Midhurst in Sussex he was prepared for Exeter college, Oxford, at which he received in 1819 the degree of B.A., and in 1821 that of M.A. He then entered upon the practice of the law, but soon abandoned it in order to devote himself to geological pursuits, his natural taste for scientific studies being stimulated by the lectures of Dr. Buckland, professor of geology at Oxford. At this period mere geological speculations, for which the previous half century had been distinguished, had given place to a sounder system of investigation, and geologists were busily engaged in collecting materials, out of which theories might afterward spring forth. Lyell entered earnestly into this work, and his early papers, published in the "Transactions of the Geological Society" and in "Brewster's Journal of Science" in 1826 and 1827, chiefly upon the recent deposits of Forfarshire, Dorsetshire, and Hampshire, display remarkable powers of observation; while his use of the phenomena to illustrate and explain the mode of formation of similar deposits of a more ancient period exhibit a readiness to detect points of resemblance for which his subsequent writings are especially distinguished. In Jan. 1830, appeared the first volume of his "Principles of Geology." (See GEOLOGY, vol. viii. p. 162.) It rapidly went through several editions, and was received with the greatest interest for the variety of instructive facts brought together from the observations of the author and from others gathered from all parts of the world, for the clear and attractive style in which these were presented, and more than all for the skill with which the operations now going on were made to explain those of past periods, and to account for the present condition of the surface of the earth. In successive editions the work so increased, that in 1838 the author divided it into

two distinct treatises, retaining in one, which he called "Elements of Geology," the description of the formations of past epochs; and giving in the other, "The Principles," the description of processes now going on by which the phenomena of the older formations are explained. In the edition of 1851 the "Elements" appeared with the title of "Manual of Elementary Geology.” These works placed their author in the first rank among geologists, and gave to the science itself a new character, removing from it all dependence upon visionary speculations by showing how its principles should be deduced in the true system of inductive philosophy from well observed facts.-In 1841 Lyell visited the United States, having been invited to deliver a course of lectures on geology in Boston. He availed himself of the opportunity to travel over a large portion of the northern and middle states, and as far south as Kentucky, giving especial attention to the geological features of the country, and learning also by intercourse with the geologists and naturalists of the several states the results of their investigations. He also studied the different institutions of the country, particularly those of learning; and in a year thus spent in the United States, in Canada, and Nova Scotia, he gathered a vast fund of information, some of the fruits of which are presented in his work entitled "Travels in North America in the years 1841-'2" (2 vols. 8vo., London, 1845; 2d ed., 1855). The scientific matter contained in this book was prepared chiefly for the general reader; his more extended observations were presented in numerous papers published in the "Proceedings" and "Transactions" of the geological society of London, the "Reports of the British Association," and the "American Journal of Science." This work contained the most complete geological map of the United States ever published, in the compilation of which Lyell was greatly aided by Prof. James Hall of Albany, and the various state geological reports.-In Sept. 1845, he again embarked for the United States, and remained in the country until June, 1846. He visited portions of the northern states which he had not before seen, and devoted nearly 6 months to a tour through the southern states. He examined the most interesting localities of the tertiary formations in the states bordering the Atlantic and the gulf of Mexico, passed up the Mississippi river, making many interesting observations of the deposits upon its banks and the influence of so mighty a stream as a geological agent, and in southern Missouri visited the sunk country of New Madrid devastated by the earthquake of 1811-'12. In 1849 he published "A Second Visit to the United States" (2 vols. 8vo., London; 3d ed., 1855). Everywhere his observations were extended beyond the geological structure of the country, and included the manners and customs of the people he met with, and their various institutions; and his criticisms upon these are expressed in a liberal and philosophical spirit.-In the modern

progress of geology Lyell's name is more identified with the arrangement of the tertiary formations than with any other department. He first classified them into groups distinguished by the relative proportion of living and extinct species of fossil shells which they contained, and gave them the names of eocene, miocene, pliocene, and pleistocene, founded on this distinction, as described in the article GEOLOGY. He has investigated with especial care all those great natural phenomena in progress which involve long periods of time, and has undertaken to give approximate estimates of the time already expended, based upon the results produced and the rate at which these are now developed. Thus, in visiting active volcanoes (see ETNA), he sought to approximate the age of the successive piles of lava from data afforded in modern times of their rate of increase. In examining the region of extinct volcanoes of central France, he applied the same method of reasoning to show that vast periods must have elapsed while the successive volcanic and fluviatile deposits were produced. In the United States he at once sought Niagara to trace the work of the mighty cataract in wearing back its way toward Lake Erie, and to estimate the time this has been going on; and in his second visit he found in the Mississippi river, and the vast delta of its sediments deposited near the gulf, material for another class of calculations of the same general character. In 1848 the merited distinction which Lyell had attained was recognized by the crown in conferring upon him the honor of knighthood; and in 1855 he received from the university of Oxford the degree of D.C.L. He is one of the most active members of the British association, as also of the geological society, of which he was elected president in 1836 and again in 1850.

LYGODIUM, the generic name of a beautiful plant known as the climbing fern. The species common to the United States is L. palmatum (Swartz), with slender, flexile, and twining stalks growing 3 or 4 feet long; its leaves are rounded, heart-shaped, palmately manylobed fronds; these as they grow on the upper portions of the plant become narrow, several times forked, and make a sort of terminal panicle bearing abundant seed dots (sori). Its habit is to twist itself upon bushes, and thus to climb several feet high. It may be found from Massachusetts to the southern states, though sparingly in the latter.

LYING TO, a nautical manoeuvre by which in a heavy sea a vessel has her sails and helm so adjusted as to bring her head close to the wind, and thus receive the full force of the waves upon her bow. This is resorted to as a measure of safety when the vessel is likely to be endangered by keeping her course; she is put under such canvas as she will best bear, and lying close to the wind rides the waves more securely than in any other position, and makes comparatively little headway. It is also frequently used to merely retard the progress of a vessel for VOL. X.-18

some temporary purpose, or in the evolutions of a battle.

LYKINS, an E. co. of Kansas, bordering on Mo., and drained by the Osage river and its branches; area about 600 sq. m.; pop. in 1859, 3,012. The principal town is Osawatamie, at the confluence of the Osage and Potawatamie creek. LYLY, JOHN. See LILLY.

LYMAN, PHINEAS, an American soldier, born in Durham, Conn., about 1716, died in West Florida in 1775. He was graduated at Yale college in 1738, and subsequently practised law in Suffield. In 1755, being commander-in-chief of the Connecticut militia, he served with Sir William Johnson at the battle of Lake George, and, after his commander had been disabled, conducted the engagement to a prosperous conclusion. He was present at the unsuccessful attack upon Ticonderoga by Abercrombie, and at the capture of Crown Point and the surrender of Montreal; and in 1762 he commanded the provincial troops in the expedition against Havana. Subsequently he passed many years in England in efforts to procure a grant of land on the Mississippi for the purpose of establishing a colony, and in 1775 embarked with his eldest son and some others for the country in question. He died in West Florida on his way thither, a short time after his son. The emigrants who followed him encountered many misfortunes, and after the subjugation of the country by the Spaniards in 1781-2 were obliged to take refuge in Savannah.

LYMPH, the fluid found in the lymphatics, or the absorbent vessels distributed abundantly over the body, and especially to the skin and subcutaneous areolar tissue. (See ABSORPTION.) The lymphatics are found in all animals which have a lacteal system, the two forming one set of vessels; but, while the lacteals begin on the intestinal walls for the purpose of taking up the nutrient chyle, the lymphatics arise in fine plexuses in most of the vascular tissues, both superficial and deep-seated; generally accompanying the veins, and like them converging to larger and larger trunks, they pass through a series of glandular bodies (see GLAND), and finally empty their contents into the thoracic duct with the elaborated chyle, which thence pass into the venous circulation near the heart. Lymph nearly resembles chyle, containing, however, only a trace of fatty matter and less albumen and fibrine; this resemblance and its ultimate passage into the blood show that it is a nutritious fluid, and not excrementitious as maintained by Hewson and Hunter; the effete matters are probably carried off by the venous system, as we find very little trace of lymphatics in the muscles and nervous centres in which the greatest interstitial changes are continually going on; there is also no trace of excrementitious matter in lymph. Lymph resembles diluted liquor sanguinis, and is doubtless chiefly derived from this portion of the blood which has transuded through the walls of the capillaries in a comparatively crudo state, and requires the elaborating action of the