Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Ligne, Charles-Joseph, prince de ... lima bean

Ligne, Charles-Joseph, prince de: Belgian military officer and man of letters whose memoirs and correspondence with such leading European figures as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire had an important influence on Belgian literature.
lignin: complex oxygen-containing organic substance that, with cellulose, forms the chief constituent of wood. It is second only to cellulose as the most abundant organic material on Earth, though it has found relatively few industrial uses other than as a fuel. ...
lignite: brown to black coal that has been formed from peat under moderate pressure; it is one of the first products of coalification and is intermediate between peat and subbituminous coal. Dry lignite contains about 60 to 75 percent carbon. It ...
lignum vitae: any of several trees of the genus Guaiacum, of the family Zygophyllaceae, particularly G. officinale, native to the New World tropics.
Ligo feast: in Baltic religion, the major celebration honouring the sun goddess, Saule (q.v.).
Ligorio, Pirro: Italian architect, painter, landscaper, and antiquarian who designed the Villa d'Este at Tivoli (1550-69), which still stands in its original state. Built for Ligorio's patron, Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, the villa has a planted landscape and a vast terraced garden with ...
Liguori, Saint Alfonso Maria de': Italian doctor of the church, one of the chief 18th-century moral theologians, and founder of the Redemptorists, a congregation dedicated primarily to parish and foreign missions. In 1950 he was named patron of moralists and confessors by Pope Pius XII.
Liguria: the third smallest of the regioni of Italy, bordering the Ligurian Sea, in the northwestern part of the country. It comprises the provincie of Genoa, Imperia, La Spezia, and Savona.
Ligurian: any member of a collection of ancient peoples who inhabited the northwestern Mediterranean coast from the mouth of the Ebro River in Spain to the mouth of the Arno River in Italy in the 1st millennium BC.
Ligurian language: language spoken by the Ligurians in northwestern Italy (and perhaps also in southern France and northeastern Spain) in pre-Roman and early Roman times. It is apparently an Indo-European language. Some scholars have maintained that Ligurian is closely related to the ...
Ligurian Republic: republic created by Napoleon Bonaparte on June 15, 1797, organizing the conquered city of Genoa and its environs. The government was modeled on that of the Directory in France, and the republic was tied to France by alliance. In 1803 ...
Ligurian Sea: arm of the Mediterranean Sea indenting the northwestern coast of Italy. It extends between Liguria and Tuscany (north and east) and the French island of Corsica (south). It receives many rivers that originate in the Apennines, and it reaches a ...
Lihue: city, seat of Kauai county, southeastern Kauai island, Hawaii, U.S. Sugarcane became the locality's economic mainstay with the foundation of the Lihue Sugar Plantation (1849) by German colonists. In 1883 the Germans built a Lutheran church that fused classical New ...
Liji: one of the Five Classics (Wujing) of Chinese Confucian literature, the original text of which is said to have been compiled by the ancient sage Confucius (551-479 BC). During the 1st century BC the text was extensively reworked by Dai ...
lijia: system of social organization in Ming-dynasty China. See pao-chia.
Likasi: city, southeastern Congo (Kinshasa). It lies along the Likasi River, 86 miles (138 km) northwest of Lubumbashi, to which it is connected by road and rail. In 1892 Belgians discovered copper deposits at Likasi and at Kambove, 15 miles (24 ...
Likert, Rensis: American social scientist who developed scales for attitude measurement and introduced the concept of participative management.
likin: special tax paid by merchants and traders in mid-19th-century China. Likin ("a tax of one-thousandth") was levied on goods in transit or as a sales tax in shops where goods were sold.
Likoma Island: island in Lake Nyasa, Malawi, just northwest of Cobue, Mozambique. Located near the lake's eastern shore, the rocky and barren island has an area of 7 square miles (18 square km). There is some fishing and limited cultivation of grain; ...
Likud: right-wing Israeli political party. It was founded in September 1973 to challenge the Israel Labour Party, which had governed the country since its independence in 1948, and first came to power in 1977, with Menachem Begin as prime minister. Thereafter, ...
lilac: any of about 30 species of fragrant and beautiful northern spring-flowering garden shrubs and small trees constituting the genus Syringa of the family Oleaceae. Lilacs are native to eastern Europe and temperate Asia. Their deep green leaves enhance the attractiveness ...
Lilar, Suzanne: Belgian essayist, novelist, and playwright, the mother of the novelist Francoise Mallet-Joris. Applying a strong intellect to her work through precise language, she was a thoroughly modern writer who nonetheless remained highly versed in many areas of traditional thought.
Lilburne, John: English revolutionary, leader of the Levelers, a radical democratic party prominent during the English Civil Wars.
Lili Marleen: German song popular during World War II among both German and Allied soldiers. Hans Leip (1893-1983) began writing the lyrics in 1914 or 1915, reputedly while standing guard duty one night under a lamppost ("Vor der Kaserne vor dem grossen ...
Liliaceae: the lily family of the flowering plant order Liliales, with about 280 genera and some 4,000 species of herbs and shrubs, native primarily to temperate and subtropical regions. Members of the family usually have six-segmented flowers and three-chambered capsular fruits; ...
Liliales: lily order of the monocotyledonous flowering plants, a division of the subclass Liliidae. The order is a vast assemblage of plants whose flowers usually have three petals and three sepals-the sepals usually resembling the petals in shape and colour-and whose ...
Liliencron, Detlev, Baron von: German writer, noted for his fresh and unconventional verse.
Lilienthal, David E.: American businessman and government official, who was codirector (1933) and first chairman (1941) of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
Lilienthal, Otto: German aeronautical pioneer on whose work such later engineers as Octave Chanute and the Wright brothers drew heavily.
Liliidae: subclass of flowering plants belonging to the class Liliopsida.
Liliopsida: one of two classes of the division Magnoliophyta, or angiosperms, the other class being the Magnoliopsida (dicotyledons, or dicots). The Liliopsida are also known under the more descriptive taxon name Monocotyledoneae. The term refers to the most characteristic feature of ...
Lilith: female demon of Jewish folklore; her name and personality are derived from the class of Mesopotamian demons called lilu (feminine: lilitu). In rabbinic literature Lilith is variously depicted as the mother of Adam's demonic offspring following his separation from Eve ...
Liliuokalani: first and only reigning Hawaiian queen and the last Hawaiian sovereign to govern the islands, which were annexed by the United States in 1898.
Lille: city, capital of Nord departement and of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, northern France, on the Deule River, 136 miles (219 km) north-northeast of Paris, and 9 miles (14 km) from the Belgian frontier by road.
Lille I, II, and III, Universities of: coeducational, autonomous, state-financed institutions of higher learning at Lille, in northern France; they were founded in 1970 under the 1968 law reforming French higher education, to replace the former University of Lille, founded in 1560 at Douai and suppressed by ...
Lille lace: bobbin-made lace made since the 16th century in the town of Lille, formerly in Flanders but now in northwestern France. It was notable for its very fine net background, with a hexagonal mesh in which the thread was twisted, rather ...
Lillebonne: town, northwestern France, Seine-Maritime departement, Haute-Normandie region, north of the Seine River and east of Le Havre. The Romans called it Juliobona. Under Roman rule in the 2nd century it had baths and a great theatre; materials from the theatre ...
Lillehammer: town, seat of Oppland fylke (county), southeastern Norway, lying where the Lagen (river) flows into Lake Mjosa (the largest lake in Norway) in the southern end of Gudbrands Valley (q.v.). Lillehammer was chartered in 1827. Industries include textiles, lumber, and ...
Lilli burlero: 17th-century English political song that played a part in driving James II from the throne in 1688. Written in 1687 by Thomas (afterward Marquess of) Wharton, the verses were intended to discredit the administration in Ireland of Richard Talbot, Earl ...
Lillie, Beatrice: sophisticated-comedy star of British and American revues, perhaps the foremost theatrical comedienne of the 20th century.
Lillie, Frank Rattray: American zoologist and embryologist, known for his discoveries concerning the fertilization of the egg (ovum) and the role of hormones in sex determination.
Lillo, George: English dramatist of pioneer importance in whose domestic tragedy The London Merchant: or, the History of George Barnwell (1731) members of the middle class replaced the customary aristocratic or royal heroes. The play greatly influenced the rise of bourgeois drama ...
Lilongwe: city, capital (since 1975) of Malawi. It is located on the inland plains and is the country's second largest city. An agricultural market centre for the fertile Central Region Plateau, it was selected by Malawi's first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, ...
lily: the common name applied to herbaceous flowering plants belonging to the genus Lilium of the family Liliaceae. The genus contains between 80 and 100 species, native to the temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere. Lilies are prized as ornamental plants, ...
lily of the valley: (Convallaria majalis), fragrant perennial herb and only species of the genus Convallaria of the family Liliaceae, native to Eurasia and eastern North America. Lily of the valley has nodding, white, bell-shaped flowers that are borne in a cluster on one ...
Lily, William: English Renaissance scholar and classical grammarian, a pioneer of Greek learning in England and one of the authors of an extremely popular Latin grammar that, with corrections and revisions, was used as late as the 19th century.
Lima: city, capital of Peru and of Lima department. It is the country's commercial and industrial centre. Central Lima is located at an elevation of 512 feet (156 metres) on the south bank of the Rio Rimac, about eight miles (13 ...
Lima: city, seat (1831) of Allen county, northwestern Ohio, U.S. The city is situated on the Ottawa River, 88 miles (142 km) northwest of Columbus. Laid out in 1831, its name (from Lima, Peru) was chosen by lot by being drawn ...
Lima: department of central Peru and site of the national capital of Lima. The department stretches from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Cordillera Occidental of the Andes in the east. There is little rainfall along its coastal section, ...
Lima Barreto, Afonso Henriques de: Brazilian novelist, journalist, short-story writer, and an aggressive social critic, who re-created in caricatural fashion the city and society of Rio de Janeiro at the turn of the century.
lima bean: any of a variety of legumes of the species Phaseolus limensis widely cultivated for their edible seeds. See bean.