LADRONES 392 LADY'S SLIPPER owing to the shallows, sandhanks, and sunken rocks. In order to obviate the difficulties of navigation, canals have been constructed to connect the mouths of the rivers that reach it along the S. and S. E. shores. The principal is the Ladoga canal (70 miles long and 60 feet wide). This canal system forms the thoroughfare for a very extensive traffic between the Volga and the Baltic. Com- munication by water subsists between Lake Ladoga and the White Sea as well as the Caspian. Two of the islands in the N. W., Valaam and Konevetz, are each the seat of a monastery, founded in 960 and 1393 respectively, which are visited by thousands of pilgrims every year. LADRONES (la-dronz'), or MARI- ANNE ISLANDS, a chain of 17 islands in the North Pacific, E. of the Philip- pines and the Caroline Islands; area, about 500 square miles. They were dis- covered by Magellan in 1521, who gave them the name of "Ladrones," it is said, from the character of their inhabitants, the word meaning "thieves." Guam {q. V.) is the principal island and em- braces nearly one-half of the entire area of the group. On June 20, 1898, Captain Glass, of the United States cruiser "Charleston" took possession of the is- lands in the name of the United States, and by the peace treaty signed at Paris, Dec. 18, 1898, it was provided that the island of Guam should be ceded to the United States. The remainder of the islands, together with the Carolines, passed from the possession of Spain into that of Germany, Oct. 1, 1899, in con- sideration of the payment of about $4,187,500. LADYBIRD (Coccinella) , a genus of pretty little beetles, generally of a bril- liant red or yellow color, with black, red, white, or yellow spots. Adults and larvae feed chiefly on aphides, and are thus most useful to hop-growers and other agriculturalists. The eggs are laid under the leaves of plants, on which the larvje afterward run about in pursuit of aphides. In late autumn the surviv- ing adults find safe corners, and hiber- nate till spring. The family of which the genus is type, Coccinellidse, includes about 1,500 species, of which about 40 are British. One of the commonest forms (C. septempunctata) is found over all Europe, and in garts of Asia and Africa. LADY CHAPEL, a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, frequently attached to a large church. In churches built before 1200 the lady chapel was usually an independent or additional building. LADY DAY, one of the regular quar- ter days in England and Ireland, on which rent is generally made payable. It is March 25 in each year; but in some districts Old Lady Day (April 6) is still observed as the term day. LADY FERN, Nephrodium thelypteris, a species with lanceolate, pinnate fronds, the pinnae again deeply pinnatifid. Also Athyrium filix fsemina, a beautiful fern with large, membranous, oblong, lanceo- late, twice or thrice pinnate fronds, with close-set pinnules. LADY'S COMB, Scandix pecten-vene- ris, a branching, pubescent, unbelliferons plant. Perhaps only a colonist where it occurs in cornfields in Great Britain, wild in Continental Europe, South Africa, west Asia to northwestern India. Called also Venus's comb. LADY'S MANTLE (Alchemilla), a genus of herbaceous plants, chiefly na- tives of temperate and cold climates, of the natural order Rosacese, sub-order Sanguisorbess; having small and numer- ous flowers. The name lady's mantle, signifying "Mantle of Our Lady" — i. e., of the Virgin Mary — is derived from the form of the leaves. The common lady's mantle (^4. vulgaris) is abundant on banks and in pastures throughout Great Britain. Its root-leaves are large, plaited, many-Iobed, and serrated; its flowers are usually of a yellowish-green color. Still more beautiful is the Alpine lady's mantle (A. alpina) , which grows on mountains in Scotland and has digi- tate serrated leaves, white and satiny beneath. A common British plant of very humble growth and unpretending appearance is the field lady's mantle, or parsley piert. (A. arvoisis), found in pastures and meadows; an astringent and diuretic, said to be sometimes use- ful in cases of stone in the bladder, by producing a large secretion of lithic acid. LADYSMITH, a town in Natal, 180 miles from Durban. It was named after the wife of Sir Henry Smith, once gov- ernor of Cape Colony. During the Zulu War it was a British military station. In 1899-1900 it was a center of mili- tary operations, a siege by the Boers being gallantly withstood by a British garrison under General White. See Boer War. LADY'S SLIPPER (Cypripedium) , a genus of the plants of the natural order Orchidese, of which one species, C. caU ceolus, is a native of Great Britain, be-
