FOOTNOTE:

[1] From the Portuguese _llavrador_ (a yeoman farmer). The name was

originally given to Greenland (1st half of 16th century) and was

transferred to the peninsula in the belief that it formed part of the

same country as Greenland. The name was bestowed "because he who

first gave notice of seeing it [Greenland] was a farmer (_llavrador_)

from the Azores." See the historical sketch of Labrador by W. S.

Wallace in Grenfell's _Labrador, &c._, 1909.

LABRADORITE, or LABRADOR SPAR, a lime-soda felspar of the plagioclase

(q.v.) group, often cut and polished as an ornamental stone. It takes

its name from the coast of Labrador, where it was discovered, as

boulders, by the Moravian Mission about 1770, and specimens were soon

afterwards sent to the secretary in London, the Rev. B. Latrobe. The

felspar itself is generally of a dull grey colour, with a rather greasy

lustre, but many specimens exhibit in certain directions a magnificent

play of colours--blue, green, orange, purple or red; the colour in some

specimens changing when the stone is viewed in different directions.

This optical effect, known sometimes as "labradorescence," seems due in

some cases to the presence of minute laminae of certain minerals, like

göthite or haematite, arranged parallel to the surface which reflects

the colour; but in other cases it may be caused not so much by

inclusions as by a delicate lamellar structure in the felspar. An

aventurine effect is produced by the presence of microscopic enclosures.

The original labradorite was found in the neighbourhood of Nain, notably

in a lagoon about 50 m. inland, and in St Paul's Island. Here it occurs

with hypersthene, of a rich bronzy sheen, forming a coarse-grained

norite. When wet, the stones are remarkably brilliant, and have been

called by the natives "fire rocks." Russia has also yielded chatoyant

labradorite, especially near Kiev and in Finland; a fine blue

labradorite has been brought from Queensland; and the mineral is also

known in several localities in the United States, as at Keeseville, in

Essex county, New York. The ornamental stone from south Norway, now

largely used as a decorative material in architecture, owes its beauty

to a felspar with a blue opalescence, often called labradorite, but

really a kind of orthoclase which Professor W. C. Brögger has termed

cryptoperthite, whilst the rock in which it occurs is an augite-syenite

called by him laurvigite, from its chief locality, Laurvik in Norway.

Common labradorite, without play of colour, is an important constituent

of such rocks as gabbro, diorite, andesite, dolerite and basalt. (See

PLAGIOCLASE.) Ejected crystals of labradorite are found on Monti Rossi,

a double parasitic cone on Etna.

The term labradorite is unfortunately used also as a rock-name, having

been applied by Fouqué and Lévy to a group of basic rocks rich in augite

and poor in olivine. (F. W. R.*)

LABRADOR TEA, the popular name for a species of _Ledum_, a small

evergreen shrub growing in bogs and swamps in Greenland and the more

northern parts of North America. The leaves are tough, densely covered

with brown wool on the under face, fragrant when crushed and have been

used as a substitute for tea. The plant is a member of the heath family

(Ericaceae).

LABRUM (Lat. for "lip"), the large vessel of the warm bath in the Roman

thermae. These were cut out of great blocks of marble and granite, and

have generally an overhanging lip. There is one in the Vatican of

porphyry over 12 ft. in diameter. The term _labrum_ is used in zoology,

of a lip or lip-like part; in entomology it is applied specifically to

the upper lip of an insect, the lower lip being termed _labium_.

LA BRUYÈRE, JEAN DE (1643-1696), French essayist and moralist, was born

in Paris on the 16th of August 1645, and not as was once the common

statement, at Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise) in 1639. His family was of the

middle class, and his reference to a certain Geoffroy de la Bruyère, a

crusader, is only a satirical illustration of a method of

self-ennoblement common in France as in some other countries. Indeed he

himself always signed the name Delabruyère in one word, thus avowing his

_roture_. His progenitors, however, were of respectable position, and he

could trace them back at least as far as his great-grandfather, who had

been a strong Leaguer. La Bruyère's own father was controller-general of

finance to the Hôtel de Ville. The son was educated by the Oratorians

and at the university of Orleans; he was called to the bar, and in 1673

bought a post in the revenue department at Caen, which gave the status

of noblesse and a certain income. In 1687 he sold this office. His

predecessor in it was a relation of Bossuet, and it is thought that the

transaction was the cause of La Bruyère's introduction to the great

orator. Bossuet, who from the date of his own preceptorship of the

dauphin, was a kind of agent-general for tutorships in the royal family,

introduced him in 1684 to the household of the great Condé, to whose

grandson Henri Jules de Bourbon as well as to that prince's girl-bride

Mlle de Nantes, one of Louis XIV.'s natural children, La Bruyère became

tutor. The rest of his life was passed in the household of the prince or

else at court, and he seems to have profited by the inclination which

all the Condé family had for the society of men of letters. Very little

is known of the events of this part--or, indeed, of any part--of his

life. The impression derived from the few notices of him is of a silent,

observant, but somewhat awkward man, resembling in manners Joseph

Addison, whose master in literature La Bruyère undoubtedly was. Yet

despite the numerous enemies which his book raised up for him, most of

these notices are favourable--notably that of Saint-Simon, an acute

judge and one bitterly prejudiced against _roturiers_ generally. There

is, however, a curious passage in a letter from Boileau to Racine in

which he regrets that "nature has not made La Bruyère as agreeable as he

would like to be." His _Caractères_ appeared in 1688, and at once, as

Nicolas de Malezieu had predicted, brought him "bien des lecteurs et

bien des ennemis." At the head of these were Thomas Corneille,

Fontenelle and Benserade, who were pretty clearly aimed at in the book,

as well as innumerable other persons, men and women of letters as well

as of society, on whom the cap of La Bruyère's fancy-portraits was

fitted by manuscript "keys" compiled by the scribblers of the day. The

friendship of Bossuet and still more the protection of the Condés

sufficiently defended the author, and he continued to insert fresh

portraits of his contemporaries in each new edition of his book,

especially in the 4th (1689). Those, however, whom he had attacked were

powerful in the Academy, and numerous defeats awaited La Bruyère before

he could make his way into that guarded hold. He was defeated thrice in

1691, and on one memorable occasion he had but seven votes, five of

which were those of Bossuet, Boileau, Racine, Pellisson and

Bussy-Rabutin. It was not till 1693 that he was elected, and even then

an epigram, which, considering his admitted insignificance in

conversation, was not of the worst, _haesit lateri_:--

"Quand la Bruyère se présente

Pourquoi faut il crier haro?

Pour faire un nombre de quarante

Ne falloit il pas un zéro?"

His unpopularity was, however, chiefly confined to the subjects of his

sarcastic portraiture, and to the hack writers of the time, of whom he

was wont to speak with a disdain only surpassed by that of Pope. His

description of the _Mercure galant_ as "_immédiatement au dessous de

rien_" is the best-remembered specimen of these unwise attacks; and

would of itself account for the enmity of the editors, Fontenelle and

the younger Corneille. La Bruyère's discourse of admission at the

Academy, one of the best of its kind, was, like his admission itself,

severely criticized, especially by the partisans of the "Moderns" in the

"Ancient and Modern" quarrel. With the _Caractères_, the translation of

Theophrastus, and a few letters, most of them addressed to the prince de

Condé, it completes the list of his literary work, with the exception of

a curious and much-disputed posthumous treatise. La Bruyère died very

suddenly, and not long after his admission to the Academy. He is said to

have been struck with dumbness in an assembly of his friends, and, being

carried home to the Hôtel de Condé, to have expired of apoplexy a day or

two afterwards, on the 10th of May 1696. It is not surprising that,

considering the recent panic about poisoning, the bitter personal

enmities which he had excited and the peculiar circumstances of his

death, suspicions of foul play should have been entertained, but there

was apparently no foundation for them. Two years after his death

appeared certain _Dialogues sur le Quiétisme_, alleged to have been

found among his papers incomplete, and to have been completed by the

editor. As these dialogues are far inferior in literary merit to La

Bruyère's other works, their genuineness has been denied. But the

straightforward and circumstantial account of their appearance given by

this editor, the Abbé du Pin, a man of acknowledged probity, the

intimacy of La Bruyère with Bossuet, whose views in his contest with

Fénelon these dialogues are designed to further, and the entire absence,

at so short a time after the alleged author's death, of the least

protest on the part of his friends and representatives, seem to be

decisive in their favour.

Although it is permissible to doubt whether the value of the

_Caractères_ has not been somewhat exaggerated by traditional French

criticism, they deserve beyond all question a high place. The plan of

the book is thoroughly original, if that term may be accorded to a novel

and skilful combination of existing elements. The treatise of

Theophrastus may have furnished the first idea, but it gave little more.

With the ethical generalizations and social Dutch painting of his

original La Bruyère combined the peculiarities of the Montaigne essay,

of the _Pensées_ and _Maximes_ of which Pascal and La Rochefoucauld are

the masters respectively, and lastly of that peculiar 17th-century

product, the "portrait" or elaborate literary picture of the personal

and mental characteristics of an individual. The result was quite unlike

anything that had been before seen, and it has not been exactly

reproduced since, though the essay of Addison and Steele resembles it

very closely, especially in the introduction of fancy portraits. In the

titles of his work, and in its extreme desultoriness, La Bruyère reminds

the reader of Montaigne, but he aimed too much at sententiousness to

attempt even the apparent continuity of the great essayist. The short

paragraphs of which his chapters consist are made up of maxims proper,

of criticisms literary and ethical, and above all of the celebrated

sketches of individuals baptized with names taken from the plays and

romances of the time. These last are the great feature of the work, and

that which gave it its immediate if not its enduring popularity. They

are wonderfully piquant, extraordinarily life-like in a certain sense,

and must have given great pleasure or more frequently exquisite pain to

the originals, who were in many cases unmistakable and in most

recognizable.

But there is something wanting in them. The criticism of Charpentier,

who received La Bruyère at the Academy, and who was of the opposite

faction, is in fact fully justified as far as it goes. La Bruyère

literally "est [trop] descendu dans le particulier." He has neither,

like Molière, embodied abstract peculiarities in a single life-like

type, nor has he, like Shakespeare, made the individual pass _sub

speciem aeternitatis_, and serve as a type while retaining his

individuality. He is a photographer rather than an artist in his

portraiture. So, too, his maxims, admirably as they are expressed, and

exact as their truth often is, are on a lower level than those of La

Rochefoucauld. Beside the sculpturesque precision, the Roman brevity,

the profoundness of ethical intuition "piercing to the accepted hells

beneath," of the great Frondeur, La Bruyère has the air of a literary

_petit-maître_ dressing up superficial observation in the finery of

_esprit_. It is indeed only by comparison that he loses, but then it is

by comparison that he is usually praised. His abundant wit and his

personal "malice" have done much to give him his rank in French

literature, but much must also be allowed to his purely literary merits.

With Racine and Massillon he is probably the very best writer of what is

somewhat arbitrarily styled classical French. He is hardly ever

incorrect--the highest merit in the eyes of a French academic critic. He

is always well-bred, never obscure, rarely though sometimes "precious"

in the turns and niceties of language in which he delights to indulge,

in his avowed design of attracting readers by form, now that, in point

of matter, "tout est dit." It ought to be added to his credit that he

was sensible of the folly of impoverishing French by ejecting old words.

His chapter on "Les ouvrages de l'esprit" contains much good criticism,

though it shows that, like most of his contemporaries except Fénelon, he

was lamentably ignorant of the literature of his own tongue.

The editions of La Bruyère, both partial and complete, have been

extremely numerous. _Les Caractères de Théophraste traduits du Grec,

avec les caractères et les moeurs de ce siècle_, appeared for the

first time in 1688, being published by Michallet, to whose little

daughter, according to tradition, La Bruyère gave the profits of the

book as a dowry. Two other editions, little altered, were published in

the same year. In the following year, and in each year until 1694,

with the exception of 1693, a fresh edition appeared, and, in all

these five, additions, omissions and alterations were largely made. A

ninth edition, not much altered, was put forth in the year of the

author's death. The Academy speech appeared in the eighth edition. The

Quietist dialogues were published in 1699; most of the letters,

including those addressed to Condé, not till 1867. In recent times

numerous editions of the complete works have appeared, notably those

of Walckenaer (1845), Servois (1867, in the series of _Grands

écrivains de la France_), Asselineau (a scholarly reprint of the last

original edition, 1872) and finally Chassang (1876); the last is one

of the most generally useful, as the editor has collected almost

everything of value in his predecessors. The literature of "keys" to

La Bruyère is extensive and apocryphal. Almost everything that can be

done in this direction and in that of general illustration was done by

Edouard Fournier in his learned and amusing _Comédie de La Bruyère_

(1866); M. Paul Morillot contributed a monograph on La Bruyère to the

series of _Grands écrivains français_ in 1904. (G. Sa.)

LABUAN (a corruption of the Malay word _labuh-an_, signifying an

"anchorage"), an island of the Malay Archipelago, off the north-west

coast of Borneo in 5° 16´ N., 115° 15´ E. Its area is 30.23 sq. m.; it

is distant about 6 m. from the mainland of Borneo at the nearest point,

and lies opposite to the northern end of the great Brunei Bay. The

island is covered with low hills rising from flats near the shore to an

irregular plateau near the centre. About 1500 acres are under rice

cultivation, and there are scattered patches of coco-nut and sago palms

and a few vegetable gardens, the latter owned for the most part by

Chinese. For the rest Labuan is covered over most of its extent by

vigorous secondary growth, amidst which the charred trunks of trees rise

at frequent intervals, the greater part of the forest of the island

having been destroyed by great accidental conflagrations. Labuan was

ceded to Great Britain in 1846, chiefly through the instrumentality of

Sir James Brooke, the first raja of Sarawak, and was occupied two years

later.

At the time of its cession the island was uninhabited, but in 1881 the

population numbered 5731, though it had declined to 5361 in 1891. The

census returns for 1901 give the population at 8411. The native

population consists of Malay fishermen, Chinese, Tamils and small

shifting communities of Kadayans, Tutongs and other natives of the

neighbouring Bornean coast. There are about fifty European residents. At

the time of its occupation by Great Britain a brilliant future was

predicted for Labuan, which it was thought would become a second

Singapore. These hopes have not been realized. The coal deposits, which

are of somewhat indifferent quality, have been worked with varying

degrees of failure by a succession of companies, one of which, the

Labuan & Borneo Ltd., liquidated in 1902 after the collapse of a shaft

upon which large sums had been expended. It was succeeded by the Labuan

Coalfields Ltd. The harbour is a fine one, and the above-named company

possesses three wharves capable of berthing the largest Eastern-going

ocean steamers. To-day Labuan chiefly exists as a trading depôt for the

natives of the neighbouring coast of Borneo, who sell their

produce--beeswax, edible birds-nests, camphor, gutta, trepang, &c.,--to

Chinese shopkeepers, who resell it in Singapore. There is also a

considerable trade in sago, much of which is produced on the mainland,

and there are three small sago-factories on the island where the raw

product is converted into flour. The Eastern Extension Telegraph Company

has a central station at Labuan with cables to Singapore, Hong-Kong and

British North Borneo. Monthly steam communication is maintained by a

German firm between Labuan, Singapore and the Philippines. The colony

joined the Imperial Penny Postage Union in 1889. There are a few miles

of road on the island and a metre-gauge railway from the harbour to the

coal mines, the property of the company. There is a Roman Catholic

church with a resident priest, an Anglican church, visited periodically

by a clergyman from the mainland, two native and Chinese schools, and a

sailors' club, built by the Roman Catholic mission. The bishop of

Singapore and Sarawak is also bishop of Labuan. The European graveyard

has repeatedly been the scene of outrages perpetrated, it is believed,

by natives from the mainland of Borneo, the graves being rifled and the

hair of the head and other parts of the corpses being carried off to

furnish ornaments to weapons and ingredients in the magic philtres of

the natives. Pulau Dat, a small island in the near neighbourhood of

Labuan, is the site of a fine coco-nut plantation whence nuts and copra

are exported in bulk. The climate is hot and very humid.

Until 1869 the expenditure of the colony was partly defrayed by

imperial grants-in-aid, but after that date it was left to its own

resources. A garrison of imperial troops was maintained until 1871,

when the troops were withdrawn after many deaths from fever and

dysentery had occurred among them. Since then law and order have been

maintained without difficulty by a small mixed police force of

Punjabis and Malays. From the 1st of January 1890 to the 1st of

January 1906 Labuan was transferred for administrative purposes to the

British North Borneo Company, the governor for the time being of the

company's territories holding also the royal commission as governor of

Labuan. This arrangement did not work satisfactorily and called forth

frequent petitions and protests from the colonists. Labuan was then

placed under the government of the Straits Settlements, and is

administered by a deputy governor who is a member of the Straits Civil

Service.

LABURNUM, known botanically as _Laburnum vulgare_ (or _Cytisus

Laburnum_), a familiar tree of the pea family (Leguminosae); it is also

known as "golden chain" and "golden rain." It is a native of the

mountains of France, Switzerland, southern Germany, northern Italy, &c.,

has long been cultivated as an ornamental tree throughout Europe, and

was introduced into north-east America by the European colonists. Gerard

records it as growing in his garden in 1597 under the names of anagyris,

laburnum or beane trefoyle (_Herball_, p. 1239), but the date of its

introduction into England appears to be unknown. In France it is called

_l'aubour_--a corruption from laburnum according to Du Hamel--as also

_arbois_, i.e. _arc-bois_, "the wood having been used by the ancient

Gauls for bows. It is still so employed in some parts of the Mâconnois,

where the bows are found to preserve their strength and elasticity for

half a century" (Loudon, _Arboretum_, ii. 590).

Several varieties of this tree are cultivated, differing in the size of

the flowers, in the form of the foliage, &c., such as the "oak-leafed"

(_quercifolium_), _pendulum_, _crispum_, &c.; var. _aureum_ has golden

yellow leaves. One of the most remarkable forms is _Cytisus Adami (C.

purpurascens)_, which bears three kinds of blossoms, viz. racemes of

pure yellow flowers, others of a purple colour and others of an

intermediate brick-red tint. The last are hybrid blossoms, and are

sterile, with malformed ovules, though the pollen appears to be good.

The yellow and purple "reversions" are fertile. It originated in Paris

in 1828 by M. Adam, who inserted a "shield" of the bark of Cytisus

purpureus into a stock of Laburnum. A vigorous shoot from this bud was

subsequently propagated. Hence it would appear that the two distinct

species became united by their cambium layers, and the trees propagated

therefrom subsequently reverted to their respective parentages in

bearing both yellow and purple flowers, but produce as well blossoms of

an intermediate or hybrid character. Such a result may be called a

"graft-hybrid." For full details see Darwin's _Animals and Plants under

Domestication_.

The laburnum has highly poisonous properties. The roots taste like

liquorice, which is a member of the same family as the laburnum. It has

proved fatal to cattle, though hares and rabbits eat the bark of it with

avidity (_Gardener's Chronicle_, 1881, vol. xvi. p. 666). The seeds also

are highly poisonous, possessing emetic as well as acrid narcotic

principles, especially in a green state. Gerard (loc. cit.) alludes to

the powerful effect produced on the system by taking the bruised leaves

medicinally. Pliny states that bees will not visit the flowers (_N.H._

xvi. 31), but this is an error, as bees and butterflies play an

important part in the fertilization of the flowers, which they visit for

the nectar.

The heart wood of the laburnum is of a dark reddish-brown colour, hard

and durable, and takes a good polish. Hence it is much prized by

turners, and used with other coloured woods for inlaying purposes. The

laburnum has been called false ebony from this character of its wood.

LABYRINTH (Gr. [Greek: labyrinthos], Lat. _labyrinthus_), the name given

by the Greeks and Romans to buildings, entirely or partly subterranean,

containing a number of chambers and intricate passages, which rendered

egress puzzling and difficult. The word is considered by some to be of

Egyptian origin, while others connect it with the Gr. [Greek: laura],

the passage of a mine. Another derivation suggested is from [Greek:

labrys], a Lydian or Carian word meaning a "double-edged axe" (_Journal

of Hellenic Studies_, xxi. 109, 268), according to which the Cretan

labyrinth or palace of Minos was the house of the double axe, the symbol

of Zeus.

Pliny (_Nat. Hist._ xxxvi. 19, 91) mentions the following as the four

famous labyrinths of antiquity.

1. The Egyptian: of which a description is given by Herodotus (ii. 148)

and Strabo (xvii. 811). It was situated to the east of Lake Moeris,

opposite the ancient site of Arsinoë or Crocodilopolis. According to

Egyptologists, the word means "the temple at the entrance of the lake."

According to Herodotus, the entire building, surrounded by a single

wall, contained twelve courts and 3000 chambers, 1500 above and 1500

below ground. The roofs were wholly of stone, and the walls covered with

sculpture. On one side stood a pyramid 40 orgyiae, or about 243 ft.

high. Herodotus himself went through the upper chambers, but was not

permitted to visit those underground, which he was told contained the

tombs of the kings who had built the labyrinth, and of the sacred

crocodiles. Other ancient authorities considered that it was built as a

place of meeting for the Egyptian nomes or political divisions; but it

is more likely that it was intended for sepulchral purposes. It was the

work of Amenemhe III., of the 12th dynasty, who lived about 2300 B.C. It

was first located by the Egyptologist Lepsius to the north of Hawara in

the Fayum, and (in 1888) Flinders Petrie discovered its foundation, the

extent of which is about 1000 ft. long by 800 ft. wide. Immediately to

the north of it is the pyramid of Hawara, in which the mummies of the

king and his daughter have been found (see W. M. Flinders Petrie,

_Hawara, Biahmu, and Arsinoë_, 1889).

2. The Cretan: said to have been built by Daedalus on the plan of the

Egyptian, and famous for its connexion with the legend of the Minotaur.

It is doubtful whether it ever had any real existence and Diodorus

Siculus says that in his time it had already disappeared. By the older

writers it was placed near Cnossus, and is represented on coins of that

city, but nothing corresponding to it has been found during the course

of the recent excavations, unless the royal palace was meant. The rocks

of Crete are full of winding caves, which gave the first idea of the

legendary labyrinth. Later writers (for instance, Claudian, _De sexto

Cons. Honorii_, 634) place it near Gortyna, and a set of winding

passages and chambers close to that place is still pointed out as the

labyrinth; these are, however, in reality ancient quarries.

3. The Lemnian: similar in construction to the Egyptian. Remains of it

existed in the time of Pliny. Its chief feature was its 150 columns.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Labyrinth of London and Wise.]

4. The Italian: a series of chambers in the lower part of the tomb of

Porsena at Clusium. This tomb was 300 ft. square and 50 ft. high, and

underneath it was a labyrinth, from which it was exceedingly difficult

to find an exit without the assistance of a clew of thread. It has been

maintained that this tomb is to be recognized in the mound named Poggio

Gajella near Chiusi.

Lastly, Pliny (xxxvi. 19) applies the word to a rude drawing on the

ground or pavement, to some extent anticipating the modern or garden

maze.

On the Egyptian labyrinth see A. Wiedemann, _Ägyptische Geschichte_

(1884), p. 258, and his edition of the second book of Herodotus

(1890); on the Cretan, C. Höck, _Kreta_ (1823-1829), and A. J. Evans

in _Journal of Hellenic Studies_; on the subject generally, articles

in Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_ and Daremberg and Saglio's

_Dictionnaire des antiquités_.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Labyrinth of Batty Langley.]

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Labyrinth at Versailles.]

In gardening, a labyrinth or _maze_ means an intricate network of

pathways enclosed by hedges or plantations, so that those who enter

become bewildered in their efforts to find the centre or make their

exit. It is a remnant of the old geometrical style of gardening. There

are two methods of forming it. That which is perhaps the more common

consists of walks, or alleys as they were formerly called, laid out and

kept to an equal width or nearly so by parallel hedges, which should be

so close and thick that the eye cannot readily penetrate them. The task

is to get to the centre, which is often raised, and generally contains

a covered seat, a fountain, a statue or even a small group of trees.

After reaching this point the next thing is to return to the entrance,

when it is found that egress is as difficult as ingress. To every design

of this sort there should be a key, but even those who know the key are

apt to be perplexed. Sometimes the design consists of alleys only, as in

fig. 1, published in 1706 by London and Wise. In such a case, when the

farther end is reached, there only remains to travel back again. Of a

more pretentious character was a design published by Switzer in 1742.

This is of octagonal form, with very numerous parallel hedges and paths,

and "six different entrances, whereof there is but one that leads to the

centre, and that is attended with some difficulties and a great many

stops." Some of the older designs for labyrinths, however, avoid this

close parallelism of the alleys, which, though equally involved and

intricate in their windings, are carried through blocks of thick

planting, as shown in fig. 2, from a design published in 1728 by Batty

Langley. These blocks of shrubbery have been called wildernesses. To

this latter class belongs the celebrated labyrinth at Versailles (fig.

3), of which Switzer observes, that it "is allowed by all to be the

noblest of its kind in the world."

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Maze at Hampton Court.]

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Maze at Somerleyton Hall.]

Whatever style be adopted, it is essential that there should be a

thick healthy growth of the hedges or shrubberies that confine the

wanderer. The trees used should be impenetrable to the eye, and so

tall that no one can look over them; and the paths should be of gravel

and well kept. The trees chiefly used for the hedges, and the best for

the purpose, are the hornbeam among deciduous trees, or the yew among

evergreens. The beech might be used instead of the hornbeam on

suitable soil. The green holly might be planted as an evergreen with

very good results, and so might the American arbor vitae if the

natural soil presented no obstacle. The ground must be well prepared,

so as to give the trees a good start, and a mulching of manure during

the early years of their growth would be of much advantage. They must

be kept trimmed in or clipped, especially in their earlier stages;

trimming with the knife is much to be preferred to clipping with

shears. Any plants getting much in advance of the rest should be

topped, and the whole kept to some 4 ft. or 5 ft. in height until the

lower parts are well thickened, when it may be allowed to acquire the

allotted height by moderate annual increments. In cutting, the hedge

(as indeed all hedges) should be kept broadest at the base and

narrowed upwards, which prevents it from getting thin and bare below

by the stronger growth being drawn to the tops.

The maze in the gardens at Hampton Court Palace (fig. 4) is considered

one of the finest examples in England. It was planted in the early

part of the reign of William III., though it has been supposed that a

maze had existed there since the time of Henry VIII. It is constructed

on the hedge and alley system, and was, it is believed, originally

planted with hornbeam, but many of the plants have been replaced by

hollies, yews, &c., so that the vegetation is mixed. The walks are

about half a mile in length, and the ground occupied is a little over

a quarter of an acre. The centre contains two large trees, with a seat

beneath each. The key to reach this resting place is to keep the right

hand continuously in contact with the hedge from first to last, going

round all the stops.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Labyrinth in Horticultural Society's Garden.]

The maze in the gardens at Somerleyton Hall, near Lowestoft (fig. 5),

was designed by Mr John Thomas. The hedges are of English yew, are

about 6½ ft. high, and have been planted about sixty years. In the

centre is a grass mound, raised to the height of the hedges, and on

this mound is a pagoda, approached by a curved grass path. At the two

corners on the western side are banks of laurels 15 or 16 ft. high. On

each side of the hedges throughout the labyrinth is a small strip of

grass.

There was also a labyrinth at Theobald's Park, near Cheshunt, when

this place passed from the earl of Salisbury into the possession of

James I. Another is said to have existed at Wimbledon House, the seat

of Earl Spencer, which was probably laid out by Brown in the 18th

century. There is an interesting labyrinth, somewhat after the plan of

fig. 2, at Mistley Place, Manningtree.

When the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at South

Kensington were being planned, Albert, Prince Consort, the president

of the society, especially desired that there should be a maze formed

in the ante-garden, which was made in the form shown in fig. 6. This

labyrinth, designed by Lieut. W. A. Nesfield, was for many years the

chief point of attraction to the younger visitors to the gardens; but

it was allowed to go to ruin, and had to be destroyed. The gardens

themselves are now built over. (T. Mo.)

LABYRINTHULIDEA, the name given by Sir Ray Lankester (1885) to Sarcodina

(q.v.) forming a reticulate plasmodium, the denser masses united by fine

pseudopodical threads, hardly distinct from some Proteomyxa, such as

_Archerina_.

This is a small and heterogeneous group. _Labyrinthula_, discovered by

L. Cienkowsky, forms a network of relatively stiff threads on which are

scattered large spindle-shaped enlargements, each representing an

amoeba, with a single nucleus. The threads are pseudopods, very slowly

emitted and withdrawn. The amoebae multiply by fission in the active

state. The nearest approach to a "reproductive" state is the

approximation of the amoebae, and their separate encystment in an

irregular heap, recalling the Acrasieae. From each cyst ultimately

emerges a single amoeba, or more rarely four (figs. 6, 7). The

saprophyte _Diplophrys (?) stercorea_ (Cienk.) appears closely allied to

this.

[Illustration: Labyrinthulidea.

1. A colony or "cell-heap" of _Labyrinthula vitellina_, Cienk.,

crawling upon an Alga.

2. A colony or "cell-heap" of _Chlamydomyxa labyrinthuloides_, Archer,

with fully expanded network of threads on which the oat-shaped

corpuscles (cells) are moving. o, Is an ingested food particle; at c a

portion of the general protoplasm has detached itself and become

encysted.

3 A portion of the network of _Labyrinthula vitellina_, Cienk., more

highly magnified. p, Protoplasmic mass apparently produced by fusion

of several filaments. p´, Fusion of several cells which have lost

their definite spindle-shaped contour. s, Corpuscles which have become

spherical and are no longer moving (perhaps about to be encysted).

4. A single spindle cell and threads of _Labyrinthula macrocystis_,

Cienk. n, Nucleus.

5. A group of encysted cells of _L. Macrocystis_, embedded in a tough

secretion.

6, 7. Encysted cells of _L. macrocystis_, with enclosed protoplasm

divided into four spores.

8, 9. Transverse division of a non-encysted spindle-cell of _L.

macrocystis_.]

_Chlamydomyxa_ (W. Archer) resembles _Labyrinthula_ in its freely

branched plasmodium, but contains yellowish chromatophores, and minute

oval vesicles ("physodes") filled with a substance allied to

tannin--possibly phloroglucin--which glide along the plasmodial tracks.

The cell-body contains numerous nuclei; but in its active state is not

resolvable into distinct oval amoeboids. It is amphitrophic, ingesting

and digesting other Protista, as well as "assimilating" by its

chromatophores, the product being oil, not starch. The whole body may

form a laminated cellulose resting cyst, from which it may only

temporarily emerge (fig. 2), or it may undergo resolution into nucleate

cells which then encyst, and become multinucleate before rupturing the

cyst afresh.

_Leydenia_ (F. Schaudinn) is a parasite in malignant diseases of the

pleura. The pseudopodia of adjoining cells unite to form a network; but

its affinities seem to such social naked Foraminifera as _Mikrogromia_.

See Cienkowsky, _Archiv f. Microscopische Anatomie_, iii. 274 (1867),

xii. 44 (1876); W. Archer, _Quart. Jour. Microscopic Science_, xv. 107

(1875); E. R. Lankester, _Ibid._, xxxix., 233 (1896); Hieronymus and

Jenkinson, _Ibid._, xiii. 89 (1899); W. Zopf, _Beiträge zur

Physiologie und Morphologie niederer Organismen_, ii. 36 (1892), iv.

60 (1894); Pènard, _Archiv für Protistenkunde_, iv. 296 (1904); F.

Schaudinn and Leyden, _Sitzungsberichte der Königlich preussischen

Akademie der Wissenschaft_, vi. (1896).

LAC, a resinous incrustation formed on the twigs and young branches of

various trees by an insect, _Coccus lacca_, which infests them. The term

lac (_laksha_, Sanskrit; _lakh_, Hindi) is the same as the numeral

lakh--a hundred thousand--and is indicative of the countless hosts of

insects which make their appearance with every successive generation.

Lac is a product of the East Indies, coming especially from Bengal,

Pegu, Siam and Assam, and is produced by a number of trees of the

species _Ficus_, particularly _F. religiosa_. The insect which yields it

is closely allied to the cochineal insect, _Coccus cacti_; kermes, _C.

ilicis_ and Polish grains, _C. polonicus_, all of which, like the lac

insect, yield a red colouring matter. The minute larval insects fasten

in myriads on the young shoots, and, inserting their long proboscides

into the bark, draw their nutriment from the sap of the plant. The

insects begin at once to exude the resinous secretion over their entire

bodies; this forms in effect a cocoon, and, the separate exudations

coalescing, a continuous hard resinous layer regularly honeycombed with

small cavities is deposited over and around the twig. From this living

tomb the female insects, which form the great bulk of the whole, never

escape. After their impregnation, which takes place on the liberation of

the males, about three months from their first appearance, the females

develop into a singular amorphous organism consisting in its main

features of a large smooth shining crimson-coloured sac--the ovary--with

a beak stuck into the bark, and a few papillary processes projected

above the resinous surface. The red fluid in the ovary is the substance

which forms the lac dye of commerce. To obtain the largest amount of

both resin and dye-stuff it is necessary to gather the twigs with their

living inhabitants in or near June and November. Lac encrusting the

twigs as gathered is known in commerce as "stick lac"; the resin crushed

to small fragments and washed in hot water to free it from colouring

matter constitutes "seed lac"; and this, when melted, strained through

thick canvas, and spread out into thin layers, is known as "shellac,"

and is the form in which the resin is usually brought to European

markets. Shellac varies in colour from a dark amber to an almost pure

black; the palest, known as "orange-lac," is the most valuable; the

darker varieties--"liver-coloured," "ruby," "garnet," &c.--diminish in

value as the colour deepens. Shellac may be bleached by dissolving it in

a boiling lye of caustic potash and passing chlorine through the

solution till all the resin is precipitated, the product being known as

white shellac. Bleached lac takes light delicate shades of colour, and

dyed a golden yellow it is much used in the East Indies for working into

chain ornaments for the head and for other personal adornments. Lac is

a principal ingredient in sealing-wax, and forms the basis of some of

the most valuable varnishes, besides being useful in various cements,

&c. Average stick lac contains about 68% of resin, 10 of lac dye and 6

of a waxy substance. Lac dye is obtained by evaporating the water in

which stick lac is washed, and comes into commerce in the form of small

square cakes. It is in many respects similar to, although not identical

with, cochineal.

LACAILLE, NICOLAS LOUIS DE (1713-1762), French astronomer, was born at

Rumigny, in the Ardennes, on the 15th of March 1713. Left destitute by

the death of his father, who held a post in the household of the duchess

of Vendôme, his theological studies at the Collège de Lisieux in Paris

were prosecuted at the expense of the duke of Bourbon. After he had

taken deacon's orders, however, he devoted himself exclusively to

science, and, through the patronage of J. Cassini, obtained employment,

first in surveying the coast from Nantes to Bayonne, then, in 1739, in

remeasuring the French arc of the meridian. The success of this

difficult operation, which occupied two years, and achieved the

correction of the anomalous result published by J. Cassini in 1718, was

mainly due to Lacaille's industry and skill. He was rewarded by

admission to the Academy and the appointment of mathematical professor

in Mazarin college, where he worked in a small observatory fitted for

his use. His desire to observe the southern heavens led him to propose,

in 1750, an astronomical expedition to the Cape of Good Hope, which was

officially sanctioned, and fortunately executed. Among its results were

determinations of the lunar and of the solar parallax (Mars serving as

an intermediary), the first measurement of a South African arc of the

meridian, and the observation of 10,000 southern stars. On his return to

Paris in 1754 Lacaille was distressed to find himself an object of

public attention; he withdrew to Mazarin college, and there died, on the

21st of March 1762, of an attack of gout aggravated by unremitting toil.

Lalande said of him that, during a comparatively short life, he had made

more observations and calculations than all the astronomers of his time

put together. The quality of his work rivalled its quantity, while the

disinterestedness and rectitude of his moral character earned him

universal respect.

His principal works are: _Astronomiae Fundamenta_ (1757), containing a

standard catalogue of 398 stars, re-edited by F. Baily (_Memoirs Roy.

Astr. Society_, v. 93); Tabulae Solares (1758); _Coelum australe

stelliferum_ (1763) (edited by J. D. Maraldi), giving

zone-observations of 10,000 stars, and describing fourteen new

constellations; "Observations sur 515 étoiles du Zodiaque" (published

in t. vi. of his _Éphémérides_, 1763); _Leçons élémentaires de

Mathématiques_ (1741), frequently reprinted; ditto _de Mécanique_

(1743), &c.; ditto _d'Astronomie_ (1746), 4th edition augmented by

Lalande (1779); ditto _d'Optique_ (1750), &c. Calculations by him of

eclipses for eighteen hundred years were inserted in _L'Art de

vérifier les dates_ (1750); he communicated to the Academy in 1755 a

classed catalogue of forty-two southern nebulae, and gave in t. ii. of

his _Éphémérides_ (1755) practical rules for the employment of the

lunar method of longitudes, proposing in his additions to Pierre

Bouguer's _Traité de Navigation_ (1760) the model of a nautical

almanac.

See G. de Fouchy, "Éloge de Lacaille," _Hist. de l'Acad. des

Sciences_, p. 197 (1762); G. Brotier, Preface to Lacaille's _Coelum

australe_; Claude Carlier, _Discours historique_, prefixed to

Lacaille's _Journal historique du voyage fait au Cap_ (1763); J. J.

Lalande, _Connoissance des temps_, p. 185 (1767); _Bibl. astr._ pp.

422, 456, 461, 482; J. Delambre, _Hist. de l'astr. au XVIII^e siècle_,

pp. 457-542; J. S. Bailly, _Hist. de l'astr. moderne_, tomes ii.,

iii., _passim_; J. C. Poggendorff, _Biog. Lit. Handwörterbuch_; R.

Grant, _Hist. of Physical Astronomy_, pp. 486, &c.; R. Wolf,

_Geschichte der Astronomie_. A catalogue of 9766 stars, reduced from

Lacaille's observations by T. Henderson, under the supervision of F.

Baily, was published in London in 1847.

LACAITA, SIR JAMES [GIACOMO] (1813-1895), Anglo-Italian politician and

writer. Born at Manduria in southern Italy, he practised law in Naples,

and having come in contact with a number of prominent Englishmen and

Americans in that city, he acquired a desire to study the English

language. Although a moderate Liberal in politics, he never joined any

secret society, but in 1851 after the restoration of Bourbon autocracy

he was arrested for having supplied Gladstone with information on

Bourbon misrule. Through the intervention of the British and Russian

ministers he was liberated, but on the publication of Gladstone's

famous letters to Lord Aberdeen he was obliged to leave Naples. He first

settled in Edinburgh, where he married Maria Carmichael, and then in

London where he made numerous friends in literary and political circles,

and was professor of Italian at Queen's College from 1853 to 1856. In

the latter year he accompanied Lord Minto to Italy, on which occasion he

first met Cavour. From 1857 to 1863 he was private secretary

(non-political) to Lord Lansdowne, and in 1858 he accompanied Gladstone

to the Ionian Islands as secretary, for which services he was made a

K.C.M.G. the following year. In 1860 Francis II. of Naples had implored

Napoleon III. to send a squadron to prevent Garibaldi from crossing over

from Sicily to Calabria; the emperor expressed himself willing to do so

provided Great Britain co-operated, and Lord John Russell was at first

inclined to agree. At this juncture Cavour, having heard of the scheme,

entrusted Lacaita, at the suggestion of Sir James Hudson, the British

minister at Turin, with the task of inducing Russell to refuse

co-operation. Lacaita, who was an intimate friend both of Russell and

his wife, succeeded, with the help of the latter, in winning over the

British statesman just as he was about to accept the Franco-Neapolitan

proposal, which was in consequence abandoned. He returned to Naples late

in 1860 and the following year was elected member of parliament for

Bitonto, although he had been naturalized a British subject in 1855. He

took little part in parliamentary politics, but in 1876 was created

senator. He was actively interested in a number of English companies

operating in Italy, and was made one of the directors of the Italian

Southern Railway Co. He had a wide circle of friends in many European

countries and in America, including a number of the most famous men in

politics and literature. He died in 1895 at Posilipo near Naples.

An authority on Dante, he gave many lectures on Italian literature and

history while in England; and among his writings may be mentioned a

large number of articles on Italian subjects in the _Encyclopaedia

Britannica_ (1857-1860), and an edition of Benvenuto da Imola's Latin

lectures on Dante delivered in 1375; he co-operated with Lord Vernon

in the latter's great edition of Dante's _Inferno_ (London,

1858-1865), and he compiled a catalogue in four volumes of the duke of

Devonshire's library at Chatsworth (London, 1879).

LA CALLE, a seaport of Algeria, in the arrondissement of Bona,

department of Constantine, 56 m. by rail E. of Bona and 10 m. W. of the

Tunisian frontier. It is the centre of the Algerian and Tunisian coral

fisheries and has an extensive industry in the curing of sardines; but

the harbour is small and exposed to the N.E. and W. winds. The old

fortified town, now almost abandoned, is built on a rocky peninsula

about 400 yds. long, connected with the mainland by a bank of sand.

Since the occupation of La Calle by the French in 1836 a new town has

grown up along the coast. Pop. (1906) of the town, 2774; of the commune,

4612.

La Calle from the times of its earliest records in the 10th century has

been the residence of coral merchants. In the 16th century exclusive

privileges of fishing for coral were granted by the dey of Algiers to

the French, who first established themselves on a bay to the westward of

La Calle, naming their settlement Bastion de France; many ruins still

exist of this town. In 1677 they moved their headquarters to La Calle.

The company--_Compagnie d'Afrique_--who owned the concession for the

fishery was suppressed in 1798 on the outbreak of war between France and

Algeria. In 1806 the British consul-general at Algiers obtained the

right to occupy Bona and La Calle for an annual rent of £11,000; but

though the money was paid for several years no practical effect was

given to the agreement. The French regained possession in 1817, were

expelled during the wars of 1827, when La Calle was burnt, but returned

and rebuilt the place in 1836. The boats engaged in the fishery were

mainly Italian, but the imposition, during the last quarter of the 19th

century, of heavy taxes on all save French boats drove the foreign

vessels away. For some years the industry was abandoned, but was

restarted on a small scale in 1903.

See Abbé Poiret, _Voyage en Barbarie_ ... (Paris, 1789); E. Broughton,

_Six Years' Residence in Algiers_ (London, 1839) and Sir R. L.

Playfair, _Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce_ (London, 1877).

LA CALPRENÈDE, GAUTHIER DE COSTES, SEIGNEUR DE (_c._ 1610-1663), French

novelist and dramatist, was born at the Château of Tolgou, near Sarlat

(Dordogne), in 1609 or 1610. After studying at Toulouse, he came to

Paris and entered the regiment of the guards, becoming in 1650

gentleman-in-ordinary of the royal household. He died in 1663 in

consequence of a kick from his horse. He was the author of several long

heroic romances ridiculed by Boileau. They are: _Cassandre_ (10 vols.,

1642-1650); _Cléopatre_ (1648); _Faramond_ (1661); and _Les Nouvelles,

ou les Divertissements de la princesse Alcidiane_ (1661) published under

his wife's name, but generally attributed to him. His plays lack the

spirit and force that occasionally redeem the novels. The best is _Le

Comte d'Essex_, represented in 1638, which supplied some ideas to Thomas

Corneille for his tragedy of the same name.

LA CARLOTA, a town of the province of Negros Occidental, Philippine

Islands, on the W. coast of the island and the left bank of San Enrique

river, about 18 m. S. of Bacolod, the capital of the province. Pop.

(1903), after the annexation of San Enrique, 19,192. There are

fifty-four villages or barrios in the town; the largest had a population

in 1903 of 3254 and two others had each more than 1000 inhabitants. The

Panayano dialect of the Visayan language is spoken by most of the

inhabitants. At La Carlota the Spanish government established a station

for the study of the culture of sugar-cane; by the American government

this has been converted into a general agricultural experiment station,

known as "Government Farm."

LACCADIVE ISLANDS, a group of coral reefs and islands in the Indian

Ocean, lying between 10° and 12° 20´ N. and 71° 40´ and 74° E. The name

Laccadives (_laksha dwipa_, the "hundred thousand isles") is that given

by the people of the Malabar coast, and was probably meant to include

the Maldives; they are called by the natives simply _Divi_, "islands,"

or _Amendivi_, from the chief island. There are seventeen separate

reefs, "round each of which the 100-fathom line is continuous" (J. S.

Gardiner). There are, however, only thirteen islands, and of these only

eight are inhabited. They fall into two groups--the northern, belonging

to the collectorate of South Kanara, and including the inhabited islands

of Amini, Kardamat, Kiltan and Chetlat; and the southern, belonging to

the administrative district of Malabar, and including the inhabited

islands of Agatti, Kavaratti, Androth and Kalpeni. Between the

Laccadives and the Maldives to the south lies the isolated Minikoi,

which physically belongs to neither group, though somewhat nearer to the

Maldives (q.v.). The principal submerged banks lie north of the northern

group of islands; they are Munyal, Coradive and Sesostris, and are of

greater extent than those on which the islands lie. The general depth

over these is from 23 to 28 fathoms, but Sesostris has shallower

soundings "indicating patches growing up, and some traces of a rim" (J.

S. Gardiner). The islands have in nearly all cases emerged from the

eastern and protected side of the reef, the western being completely

exposed to the S.W. monsoon. The islands are small, none exceeding a

mile in breadth, while the total area is only about 80 sq. m. They lie

so low that they would be hardly discernible but for the coco-nut groves

with which they are thickly covered. The soil is light coral sand,

beneath which, a few feet down, lies a stratum of coral stretching over

the whole of the islands. This coral, generally a foot to a foot and a

half in thickness, has been in the principal islands wholly excavated,

whereby the underlying damp sand is rendered available for cereals.

These excavations--a work of vast labour--were made at a remote period,

and according to the native tradition by giants. In these spaces

(_totam_, "garden") coarse grain, pulse, bananas and vegetables are

cultivated; coco-nuts grow abundantly everywhere. For rice the natives

depend upon the mainland.

_Population and Trade._--The population in 1901 was 10,274. The people

are Moplas, i.e. of mixed Hindu and Arab descent, and are Mahommedans.

Their manners and customs are similar to those of the coast Moplas; but

they maintain their own ancient caste distinctions. The language spoken

is Malayalim, but it is written in the Arabic character. Reading and

writing are common accomplishments among the men. The chief industry is

the manufacture of coir. The various processes are entrusted to the

women. The men employ themselves with boatbuilding and in conveying the

island produce to the coast. The exports from the Laccadives are of the

annual value of about £17,000.

_History._--No data exist for determining at what period the

Laccadives were first colonized. The earliest mention of them as

distinguished from the Maldives seems to be by Albírúní (c. 1030), who

divides the whole archipelago (Díbaját) into the _Dívah Kúzah_ or

Cowrie Islands (the Maldives), and the _Divah Kanbar_ or Coir Islands

(the Laccadives). (See _Journ. Asiat. Soc._, September 1844, p. 265).

The islanders were converted to Islam by an Arab apostle named Mumba

Mulyaka, whose grave at Androth still imparts a peculiar sanctity to

that island. The kazee of Androth was in 1847 still a member of his

family, and was said to be the twenty-second who had held the office

in direct line from the saint. This gives colour to the tradition that

the conversion took place about 1250. It is also further corroborated

by the story given by the Ibn Batuta of the conversion of the

Maldives, which occurred, as he heard, four generations (say one

hundred and twenty years) before his visit to these islands in 1342.

The Portuguese discovered the Laccadives in May 1498, and built forts

upon them, but about 1545 the natives rose upon their oppressors. The

islands subsequently became a suzerainty of the raja of Cannanore, and

after the peace of Seringapatam, 1792 the southern group was permitted

to remain under the management of the native chief at a yearly

tribute. This was often in arrear, and on this account these islands

were sequestrated by the British government in 1877.

See _The Fauna and Geography of the Maldive and Laccadive

Archipelagoes_, ed. J. Stanley Gardiner (Cambridge 1901-1905);

_Malabar District Gazetteer_ (Madras, 1908); G. Pereira, "As Ilhas de

Dyve" (_Boletim da Soc. Geog._, Lisbon, 1898-1899) gives details

relating to the Laccadives from the 16th-century MS. volume _De

insulis et peregrinatione lusitanorum_ in the National Library,

Lisbon.

LACCOLITE (Gr. [Greek: lakkos], cistern, [Greek: lithos], stone), in

geology, the name given by Grove K. Gilbert to intrusive masses of

igneous rock possessing a cake-like form, which he first described from

the Henry Mountains of southern Utah. Their characteristic is that they

have spread out along the bedding planes of the strata, but are not so

broad and thin as the sheets or intrusive sills which, consisting

usually of basic rocks, have spread over immense distances without

attaining any great thickness. Laccolites cover a comparatively small

area and have greater thickness. Typically they have a domed upper

surface while their base is flat. In the Henry Mountains they are from 1

to 5 m. in diameter and range in thickness up to about 5000 ft. The

cause of their peculiar shape appears to be the viscosity of the rock

injected, which is usually of intermediate character and comparatively

rich in alkalis, belonging to the trachytes and similar lithological

types. These are much less fluid than the basalts, and the latter in

consequence spread out much more readily along the bedding planes,

forming thin flat-topped sills. At each side the laccolites thin out

rapidly so that their upper surface slopes steeply to the margins. The

strata above them which have been uplifted and bent are often cracked by

extension, and as the igneous materials well into the fissures a large

number of dikes is produced. At the base of the laccolite, on the other

hand, the strata are flat and dikes are rare, though there may be a

conduit up which the magma has flowed into the laccolite. The rocks

around are often much affected by contact alteration, and great masses

of them have sometimes sunk into the laccolite, where they may be partly

melted and absorbed.

Gilbert obtained evidence that these laccolites were filled at depths of

7000 to 10,000 ft. and did not reach the surface, giving rise to

volcanoes. From the effects on the drainage of the country it seemed

probable that above the laccolites the strata swelled up in flattish

eminences. Often they occur side by side in groups belonging to a single

period, though all the members of each group are not strictly of the

same age. One laccolite may be formed on the side of an earlier one, and

compound laccolites also occur. When exposed by erosion they give rise

to hills, and their appearance varies somewhat with the stage of

development.

In the western part of South America laccolites agreeing in all

essential points with those described by Gilbert occur in considerable

numbers and present some diversity of types. Occasionally they are

asymmetrical, or have one steep or vertical side while the other is

gently inclined. In other cases they split into a number of sheets

spreading outwards through the rocks around. But the term laccolite

has also been adopted by geologists in Britain and elsewhere to

describe a variety of intrusive masses not strictly identical in

character with those of the Henry Mountains. Some of these rest on a

curved floor, like the gabbro masses of the Cuillin Hills in Skye;

others are injected along a flattish plane of unconformability where

one system of rocks rests on the upturned and eroded edges of an older

series. An example of the latter class is furnished by the felsite

mass of the Black Hill in the Pentlands, near Edinburgh, which has

followed the line between the Silurian and the Old Red Sandstone,

forcing the rocks upwards without spreading out laterally to any great

extent.

The term laccolite has also been applied to many granite intrusions,

such as those of Cornwall. We know from the evidence of mining shafts

which have been sunk in the country near the edge of these granites

that they slope downwards underground with an angle of twenty to

thirty degrees. They have been proved also to have been injected along

certain wall-marked horizons; so that although the rocks of the

country have been folded in a very complicated manner the granite can

often be shown to adhere closely to certain members of the

stratigraphical sequence for a considerable distance. Hence it is

clear that their upper surfaces are convex and gently arched, and it

is conjectured that the strata must extend below them, though at a

great depth, forming a floor. The definite proof of this has not been

attained for no borings have penetrated the granites and reached

sedimentary rocks beneath them. But often in mountainous countries

where there are deep valleys the bases of great granite laccolites are

exposed to view in the hill sides. These granite sills have a

considerable thickness in proportion to their length, raise the rocks

above them and fill them with dikes, and behave generally like typical

laccolites. In contradistinction to intrusions of this type with a

well-defined floor we may place the batholiths, bysmaliths, plutonic

plugs and stocks, which have vertical margins and apparently descend

to unknown depths. It has been conjectured that masses of this type

eat their way upwards by dissolving the rock above them and absorbing

it, or excavate a passage by breaking up the roof of the space they

occupy while the fragments detached sink downwards and are lost in the

ascending magma. (J. S. F.)

LACE (corresponding to Ital. _merletto_, _trina_; Genoese _pizzo_; Ger.

_spitzen_; Fr. _dentelle_; Dutch _kanten_; Span. _encaje_; the English

word owes something to the Fr. _lassis_ or _lacis_, but both are

connected with the earlier Lat. _laqueus_; early French laces were also

called _passements_ or insertions and _dents_ or edgings), the name

applied to ornamental open work formed of threads of flax, cotton, silk,

gold or silver, and occasionally of mohair or aloe fibre, looped or

plaited or twisted together by hand, (1) with a needle, when the work is

distinctively known as "needlepoint lace"; (2) with bobbins, pins and a

pillow or cushion, when the work is known as "pillow lace"; and (3) by

steam-driven machinery, when imitations of both needlepoint and pillow

laces are produced. Lace-making implies the production of ornament and

fabric concurrently. Without a pattern or design the fabric of lace

cannot be made.

The publication of patterns for needlepoint and pillow laces dates from

about the middle of the 16th century. Before that period lace described

such articles as cords and narrow braids of plaited and twisted threads,

used not only to fasten shoes, sleeves and corsets together, but also in

a decorative manner to braid the hair, to wind round hats, and to be

sewn as trimmings upon costumes. In a Harleian MS. of the time of Henry

VI. and Edward IV., about 1471, directions are given for the making of

"lace Bascon, lace indented, lace bordered, lace covert, a brode lace, a

round lace, a thynne lace, an open lace, lace for hattys," &c. The MS.

opens with an illuminated capital letter, in which is the figure of a

woman making these articles. The MS. supplies a clear description how

threads in combinations of twos, threes, fours, fives, to tens and

fifteens, were to be twisted and plaited together. Instead of the

pillow, bobbins and pins with which pillow lace soon afterwards was

made, the hands were used, each finger of a hand serving as a peg upon

which was placed a "bowys" or "bow," or little ball of thread. Each ball

might be of different colour from the other. The writer of the MS. says

that the first finger next the thumb shall be called A, the next B, and

so on. According to the sort of cord or braid to be made, so each of the

four fingers, A, B, C, D might be called into service. A "thynne lace"

might be made with three threads, and then only fingers A, B, C would be

required. A "round" lace, stouter than the "thynne" lace, might require

the service of four or more fingers. By occasionally dropping the use of

threads from certain fingers a sort of indented lace or braid might be

made. But when laces of more importance were wanted, such as a broad

lace for "hattys," the fingers on the hands of assistants were required.

The smaller cords or "thynne laces," when fastened in simple or

fantastic loops along the edges of collars and cuffs, were called

"purls" (see the small edge to the collar worn by Catherine de' Medici,

Pl. II. fig. 4). In another direction from which some suggestion may be

derived as to the evolution of lace-making, notice should be taken of

the fact that at an early period the darning of varied ornamental

devices, stiff and geometric in treatment into hand-made network of

small square meshes (see squares of "lacis," Pl. I. fig. 1) became

specialized in many European countries. This is held by some writers to

be "opus filatorium," or "opus araneum" (spider work). Examples of this

"opus filatorium," said to date from the 13th century exist in public

collections. The productions of this darning in the early part of the

16th century came to be known as "punto a maglia quadra" in Italy and as

"lacis" in France, and through a growing demand for household and

wearing linen, very much of the "lacis" was made in white threads not

only in Italy and France but also in Spain. In appearance it is a filmy

fabric. With white threads also were the "purlings" above mentioned

made, by means of leaden bobbins or "fuxii," and were called "merletti a

piombini" (see lower border, Pl. II. fig. 3). Cut and drawn thread linen

work (the latter known as "tela tirata" in Italy and as "deshilado" in

Spain) were other forms of embroidery as much in vogue as the darning on

net and the "purling." The ornament of much of this cut and drawn linen

work (see collar of Catherine de' Medici, Pl. II. fig. 4), more

restricted in scope than that of the darning on net, was governed by the

recurrence of open squares formed by the withdrawal of the threads.

Within these squares and rectangles radiating devices usually were

worked by means of whipped and buttonhole stitches (Pl. fig. 5). The

general effect in the linen was a succession of insertions or borders of

plain or enriched reticulations, whence the name "punto a reticella"

given to this class of embroidery in Italy. Work of similar style and

especially that with whipped stitches was done rather earlier in the

Grecian islands, which derived it from Asia Minor and Persia. The close

connexion of the Venetian republic with Greece and the eastern islands,

as well as its commercial relations with the East, sufficiently explains

an early transplanting of this kind of embroidery into Venice, as well

as in southern Spain. At Venice besides being called "reticella," cut

work was also called "punto tagliato." Once fairly established as home

industries such arts were quickly exploited with a beauty and variety of

pattern, complexity of stitch and delicacy of execution, until

insertions and edgings made independently of any linen as a starting

base (see first two borders, Pl. II. fig. 3) came into being under the

name of "Punto in aria" (Pl. II. fig. 7). This was the first variety of

Venetian and Italian needlepoint lace in the middle of the 16th

century,[1] and its appearance then almost coincides in date with that

of the "merletti a piombini," which was the earliest Italian cushion or

pillow lace (see lower edging, Pl. II. fig. 3).

The many varieties of needlepoint and pillow laces will be touched on

under the heading allotted to each of these methods of making lace.

Here, however, the general circumstances of their genesis may be briefly

alluded to. The activity in cord and braid-making and in the particular

sorts of ornamental needlework already mentioned clearly postulated such

special labour as was capable of being converted into lace-making. And

from the 16th century onwards the stimulus to the industry in Europe was

afforded by regular trade demand, coupled with the exertions of those

who encouraged their dependents or protegés to give their spare time to

remunerative home occupations. Thus the origin and perpetuation of the

industry have come to be associated with the women folk of peasants and

fishermen in circumstances which present little dissimilarity whether in

regard to needle lace workers now making lace in whitewashed cottages

and cabins at Youghal and Kenmare in the south of Ireland, or those who

produced their "punti in aria" during the 16th century about the lagoons

of Venice, or Frenchwomen who made the sumptuous "Points de France" at

Alençon and elsewhere in the 17th and 18th centuries; or pillow lace

workers to be seen at the present day at little seaside villages tucked

away in Devonshire dells, or those who were engaged more than four

hundred years ago in "merletti a piombini" in Italian villages or on

"Dentelles au fuseau" in Flemish lowlands. The ornamental character,

however, of these several laces would be found to differ much; but

methods, materials, appliances and opportunities of work would in the

main be alike. As fashion in wearing laces extended, so workers came to

be drawn together into groups by employers who acted as channels for

general trade.[2] Nuns in the past as in the present have also devoted

attention to the industry, often providing in the convent precincts

workrooms not only for peasant women to carry out commissions in the

service of the church or for the trade, but also for the purpose of

training children in the art. Elsewhere lace schools have been founded

by benefactors or organized by some leading local lace-maker[3] as much

for trading as for education. In all this variety of circumstance,

development of finer work has depended upon the abilities of the workers

being exercised under sound direction, whether derived through their own

intuitions, or supplied by intelligent and tasteful employers. Where any

such direction has been absent the industry viewed commercially has

suffered, its productions being devoid of artistic effect or

adaptability to the changing tastes of demand.

It is noteworthy that the two widely distant regions of Europe where

pictorial art first flourished and attained high perfection, north Italy

and Flanders, were precisely the localities where lace-making first

became an industry of importance both from an artistic and from a

commercial point of view. Notwithstanding more convincing evidence as to

the earlier development of pillow lace making in Italy the invention of

pillow lace is often credited to the Flemings; but there is no distinct

trace of the time or the locality. In a picture said to exist in the

church of St Gomar at Lierre, and sometimes attributed to Quentin Matsys

(1495), is introduced a girl apparently working at some sort of lace

with pillow, bobbins, &c., which are somewhat similar to the implements

in use in more recent times.[4] From the very infancy of Flemish art an

active intercourse was maintained between the Low Countries and the

great centres of Italian art; and it is therefore only what might be

expected that the wonderful examples of the art and handiwork of Venice

in lace-making should soon have come to be known to and rivalled among

the equally industrious, thriving and artistic Flemings. At the end of

the 16th century pattern-books were issued in Flanders having the same

general character as those published for the guidance of the Venetian

and other Italian lace-makers.

[Illustration: PLATE I.

FIG. 1.--PORTION OF A COVERLET COMPOSED OF SQUARES OF "LACIS" OR

DARNED NETTING, DIVIDED BY LINEN CUT-WORK BANDS.

The squares are worked with groups representing the twelve months, and

with scenes from the old Spanish dramatic story "Celestina." Spanish

or Portuguese. 16th century. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)

FIG. 2.--CORNER OF A BED-COVER OF PILLOW-MADE LACE OF A TAPE-LIKE

TEXTURE WITH CHARACTERISTICS IN THE TWISTED AND PLAITED THREADS

RELATING THE WORK TO ITALIAN "MERLETTI A PIOMBINI" OR EARLY ENGLISH

"BONE LACE."

Possibly made in Flanders or Italy during the early part of the 17th

or at the end of the 16th century. The design includes the Imperial

double-headed eagle of Austria with the ancient crown of the German

Empire. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)]

[Illustration: PLATE II.

FIG. 3.--THREE VANDYKE OR DENTATED BORDERS OF ITALIAN LACE OF THE LATE

16TH CENTURY.

Style usually called "Reticella" on account of the patterns being

based on repeated squares or reticulations. The two first borders are

of needlepoint work; the lower border is of such pillow lace as was

known in Italy as "merletti a piombini."

FIG. 4.--CATHERINE DE MEDICI, WEARING A LINEN UPTURNED COLLAR OF CUT

WORK AND NEEDLEPOINT LACE.

Louvre. About 1540.

FIG. 5.--CORNER OF A NAPKIN OR HANDKERCHIEF BORDERED WITH "RETICELLA"

NEEDLEPOINT LACE IN THE DESIGN OF WHICH ACORNS AND CARNATIONS ARE

MINGLED WITH GEOMETRIC RADIATIONS.

Probably of English early 17th century.

FIG. 6.--AMELIE ELISABETH, COMTESSE DE HAINAULT, WEARING A RUFF OF

NEEDLEPOINT RETICELLA LACE.

By Morcelse. The Hague. About 1600.

FIG. 7.--BORDER OF FLAT NEEDLEPOINT LACE OF FULLER TEXTURE THAN THAT

OF FIG. 3, AND FROM A FREER STYLE OF DESIGN IN WHICH CONVENTIONALIZED

FLORAL FORMS HELD TOGETHER BY SMALL BARS OR TYES ARE USED.

Style called "Punto in Aria," chiefly on account of its independence

of squares or reticulations. Italian. Early 17th century.

(_Figs._ 4 _and_ 6 _by permission of Messrs Braun, Clement & Co.,

Dornach (Alsace), and Paris_.)]

[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Portion of a Flounce of Needlepoint Lace,

French, early 18th century, "Point de France." The honeycomb ground is

considered to be a peculiarity of "Point d'Argentan": some of the

fillings are made in the manner of the "Point d'Alençon" _réseau_.]

France and England were not far behind Venice and Flanders in making

needle and pillow lace. Henry III. of France (1574-1589) appointed a

Venetian, Frederic Vinciolo, pattern maker for varieties of linen needle

works and laces to his court. Through the influence of this fertile

designer the seeds of a taste for lace in France were principally sown.

But the event which _par excellence_ would seem to have fostered the

higher development of the French art of lace-making was the aid

officially given it in the following century by Louis XIV., acting on

the advice of his minister Colbert. Intrigue and diplomacy were put into

action to secure the services of Venetian lace-workers; and by an edict

dated 1665 the lace-making centres at Alençon, Quesnoy, Arras, Reims,

Sedan, Château Thierry, Loudun and elsewhere were selected for the

operations of a company in aid of which the state made a contribution of

36,000 francs; at the same time the importation of Venetian, Flemish and

other laces was strictly forbidden.[5] The edict contained instructions

that the lace-makers should produce all sorts of thread work, such as

those done on a pillow or cushion and with the needle, in the style of

the laces made at Venice, Genoa, Ragusa and other places; these French

imitations were to be called "points de France." By 1671 the Italian

ambassador at Paris writes, "Gallantly is the minister Colbert on his

way to bring the 'lavori d'aria' to perfection." Six years later an

Italian, Domenigo Contarini, alludes to the "punto in aria," "which the

French can now do to admiration." The styles of design which emanated

from the chief of the French lace centre, Alençon, were more fanciful

and less severe than the Venetian, and it is evident that the Flemish

lace-makers later on adopted many of these French patterns for their own

use. The provision of French designs (fig. 24) which owes so much to the

state patronage, contrasts with the absence of corresponding provision

in England and was noticed early in the 18th century by Bishop Berkeley.

"How," he asks, "could France and Flanders have drawn so much money from

other countries for figured silk, lace and tapestry, if they had not had

their academies of design?"

The humble endeavours of peasantry in England (which could boast of no

schools of design), Germany, Sweden, Russia and Spain could not result

in work of so high artistic pretension as that of France and Flanders.

In the 18th century good lace was made in Devonshire, but it is only in

recent years that to some extent the hand lace-makers of England and

Ireland have become impressed with the necessity of well-considered

designs for their work. Pillow lace making under the name of "bone lace

making" was pursued in the 17th century in Buckinghamshire,

Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, and in 1724 Defoe refers to the

manufacture of bone lace in which villagers were "wonderfully exercised

and improved within these few years past." "Bone" lace dates from the

17th century in England and was practically the counterpart of Flemish

"dentelles au fuseau," and related also to the Italian "merletti a

piombini" (see Pl. fig. 10). In Germany, Barbara Uttmann, a native of

Nuremberg, instructed peasants of the Harz mountains to twist and plait

threads in 1561. She was assisted by certain refugees from Flanders. A

sort of "purling" or imitation of the Italian "merletti a piombini" was

the style of work produced then.

Lace of comparatively simple design has been made for centuries in

villages of Andalusia as well as in Spanish conventual establishments.

The "point d'Espagne," however, appears to have been a commercial name

given by French manufacturers of a class of lace made in France with

gold or silver threads on the pillow and greatly esteemed by Spaniards

in the 17th century. No lace pattern-books have been found to have been

published in Spain. The needle-made laces which came out of Spanish

monasteries in 1830, when these institutions were dissolved, were mostly

Venetian needle-made laces. The lace vestments preserved at the

cathedral at Granada hitherto presumed to be of Spanish work are

verified as being Flemish of the 17th century (similar in style to Pl.

fig. 14). The industry is not alluded to in Spanish ordinances of the

15th, 16th or 17th centuries, but traditions which throw its origin back

to the Moors or Saracens are still current in Seville and its

neighbourhood, where a twisted and knotted arrangement of fine cords is

often worked[6] under the name of "Morisco" fringe, elsewhere called

macramé lace. Black and white silk pillow laces, or "blondes," date from

the 18th century. They were made in considerable quantity in the

neighbourhood of Chantilly, and imported for mantillas by Spain, where

corresponding silk lace making was started. Although after the 18th

century the making of silk laces more or less ceased at Chantilly and

the neighbourhood, the craft is now carried on in Normandy--at Bayeux

and Caen--as well as in Auvergne, which is also noted for its simple

"torchon" laces. Silk pillow lace making is carried on in Spain,

especially at Barcelona. The patterns are almost entirely imitations

from 18th-century French ones of a large and free floral character.

Lace-making is said to have been promoted in Russia through the

patronage of the court, after the visit of Peter the Great to Paris in

the early days of the 18th century. Peasants in the districts of

Vologda, Balakhua (Nijni-Novgorod), Bieleff (Tula) and Mzensk (Orel)

make pillow laces of simple patterns. Malta is noted for producing a

silk pillow lace of black or white, or red threads, chiefly of patterns

in which repetitions of circles, wheels and radiations of shapes

resembling grains of wheat are the main features. This characteristic of

design, appearing in white linen thread laces of similar make which have

been identified as Genoese pillow laces of the early 17th century,

reappears in Spanish and Paraguayan work. Pillow lace in imitation of

Maltese, Buckinghamshire and Devonshire laces is made to a small extent

in Ceylon, in different parts of India and in Japan. A successful effort

has also been made to re-establish the industry in the island of Burano

near Venice, and pillow and needlepoint lace of good design is made

there.

At present the chief sources of hand-made lace are France, Belgium,

Ireland and England.

France is faithful to her traditions in maintaining a lively and

graceful taste in lace-making. Fashion of late years has called for

ampler and more boldly effective laces, readily produced with both

braids and cords and far less intricate needle or pillow work than was

required for the dainty and smaller laces of earlier date.

[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Collar and Berthe of Irish Crochet Lace.]

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Collar of Irish Crochet Lace.]

In Belgium the social and economic conditions are, as they have been in

the past, more conducive and more favourable than elsewhere to

lace-making at a sufficiently remunerative rate of wages. The production

of hand-made laces in Belgium was in 1900 greater than that of France.

The principal modern needle-made lace of Belgium is the "Point de Gaze";

"Duchesse" and Bruges laces are the chief pillow-made laces; whilst

"Point Appliqué" and "Plat Appliqué" are frequently the results not only

of combining needle-made and pillow work, but also of using them in

conjunction with machine-made net. Ireland is the best producer of that

substantial looped-thread work known as crochet (see figs. 25, 26, 27),

which must be regarded as a hand-made lace fabric although not

classifiable as a needlepoint or pillow lace. It is also quite distinct

in character from pseudo-laces, which are really embroideries with a

lace-like appearance, e.g. embroideries on net, cut and embroidered

cambrics and fine linen. For such as these Ireland maintains a

reputation in its admirable Limerick and Carrickmacross laces, made not

only in Limerick and Carrickmacross, but also in Kinsale, Newry,

Crossmaglen and elsewhere. The demand from France for Irish crochet is

now far beyond the supply, a condition which leads not only to the rapid

repetition by Irish workers of old patterns, but tends also to a gradual

debasement of both texture and ornament. Attempts have been made to

counteract this tendency, with some success, as the specimens of Irish

crochet in figs. 25, 26 and 27 indicate.

[Illustration: PLATE III.

FIG. 8.--MARY, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE, WEARING A COIF AND CUFFS OF

RETICELLA LACE.

National Portrait Gallery. Dated 1614.

FIG. 9.--HENRI II., DUC DE MONTMORENCY, WEARING A FALLING LACE COLLAR.

By LE NAIN. Louvre. About 1628.

(_By permission of Messrs Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace), and

Paris_.)