years later by the American Fur Company, and sold to the government in 1849. Laramie Peak rises 11,000 feet.
Laramie, a river rising in northern Colorado and flowing northeast through southwestern Wyoming, enters the north fork of the Platte at Fort Laramie after a course of about 200 miles. It gives its name to a large county in Wyoming, to a plateau of 3,000 square miles in area and 7,000 feet in height, and to Laramie Mountains, bounding the plateau on the north and east.
Larch, the common name of the genus Larix, which belongs to the conifers. The larch is also often known as tamarack, and is peculiar among conifers in that its leaves are shed each year. The genus contains about eight species, which are widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, three occurring in North America. The single species of the northeastern United States is L. Americana, popularly called the tamarack, but also known as hackmatack. It is a slender tree, becoming about 100 feet in height, and occurs in swampy woods and about the margins of lakes. It is an ornamental tree, graceful in form, its slenderness enhanced by the dainty, threadlike character of its foliage, its color a cool, refreshing green. The tree is not found south of Illinois. It is associated with Hiawatha, who said:
| Give me of your roots, O Tamarack! |
| Of your fibrous roots, O Larch Tree! |
| My canoe to bind together |
| That the water may not enter, |
| That the river may not wet me! |
| And the Larch with all its fibers, |
| Shivered in the air of morning, |
| Touched his forehead with its tassels, |
| Said, with one long sigh of sorrow: |
| Take them all, O Hiawatha! |
Tamarack wood, light brown in color, is resinous and durable, and is used for railroad ties and in ship-building.
Lar′com, Lucy, an American writer, teacher and poet, was born at Beverly, Mass., in 1826. After three years in school she became a factory-hand in a cotton-mill at Lowell. During this period she contributed to a local publication. When about 20, she came west and for three years attended Monticello Female Seminary in Illinois. Returning to Massachusetts, she taught for several years in the Normal Female Seminary and, later, in the Boston schools. For some time she was editor of Our Young Folks. She wrote Ships in the Mist; Poems; An Idyl of Work; Childhood Songs; Wild Roses of Cape Ann and Other Poems. She died at Boston, Mass., April 17, 1893.
Lare′do, Tex., a city on the Rio Grande, the capital of Webb County, connected with Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, by two bridges across the river. It lies 75 miles west of San Diego and 150 southwest of San Antonio, and is the center of an important area in the coal, iron and brick as well as wool-exporting trade. The growing of Bermuda onions has been a steadily increasing industry, since the Laredo vegetable is superior to the original article. Laredo also has considerable commerce with Mexico, and Nuevo Laredo (Mex.), just across the border, has 8,000 people. Laredo was originally settled by Spaniards and Mexicans as a frontier town of Mexico. Population 14,855.
Lares and Penates (lā′rēz and pē-nā′tēz), the tutelary or protecting divinities supposed to preside particularly over the destinies of the household, usually having a place in images on the hearth. The Lares originally were of the Etruscan religion and the Penates were of the times of the old Latins, but later these terms were used together as denoting the worship of ancestors and the home altar, the hearth.
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| PRAIRIE HORNED LARK |
Lark, the popular name of birds common in Europe, Asia and Africa. There is one species in Australia. The European skylark is the lark of the poets. It sings blithely and rapturously while on the wing. An attempt has been made to introduce it into the United States, but it is very destructive to green crops and for that reason an undesirable addition to our fauna. There are about 100 different species of larks, but only one—the horned lark—lives in the United States. There however are several geographical varieties of this single species. They are about one fifth smaller than the robin, are brownish and sandy above an d whitish below, with a black patch on the breast and under the eye, the tail black. The throat is a clear yellow, a pale yellow line runs over the eye, and the head is surmounted by a pair of sharp horns made of black feathers. They live on the ground, rarely choosing a perch higher than a fence. The nest is built on the ground. They sing while on the wing, soaring high and repeating their song, which is not very attractive, several times before alighting. The one called the shorelark belongs to northeastern North America, but sometimes wanders as far as North Carolina, and is a familiar winter resident in the eastern coast-states. The prairie horned lark is found much farther south, but though once belonging exclusively to the prairie country is now widely distributed. See Meadowlark.
Lark′spur, a showy garden and wild flower, grows in the temperate and cool re-
