States in 1898, and the remaining islands, together with the Carolines, were sold to Germany in 1899 for 25,000,000 pesetas ($4,875,000). The Ladrones form a division of the German New Guinea Protectorate; the seat of administration is on the island of Saipan.
LADY BAB. In Townley's High Life Below Stairs, Kitty, a waiting maid, who takes the name and manners of her mistress and is addressed by the other servants as ‘Your Ladyship.’
LADYBIRD (lady, with reference to Our Lady, the Virgin Mary + bird, perhaps a variant of bug), or Ladybug. A beetle of the family Coccinellidæ. Ladybirds are pretty little beetles, well known to every one, often of a brilliant red or yellow color, with black, red, white, or yellow spots, the number and distribution of which are characteristic of the different species. The form is nearly hemispherical, the under surface being very flat, the thorax and head small; the antennæ are short, and terminate in a triangular club; the legs are short. When handled, these insects emit from their joints a yellowish fluid, having a disagreeable smell. They and their larvæ feed chiefly on scale-insects and plant-lice, in devouring which they are very useful to agriculturists and fruit-growers. They deposit their eggs under the leaves of plants, on which the larvæ are to find their food, and the larvæ run about in pursuit of aphids. Ladybirds are sometimes to be seen in immense numbers, which, from ignorance of their usefulness, have sometimes been regarded with a kind of superstitious dread.
Ladybirds are great benefactors to the American fruit-growers. An Australian ladybird (Vedalia, or Novius, cardinalis) was introduced in 1886, to feed on the cottony cushion-scale of the orange and lemon groves of California, and in less than a year it practically exterminated the pest. It has since been introduced with equal success into South Africa, Portugal, Egypt, and Italy, where it has exterminated the same scale or a congeneric species. The two-spotted ladybird (Coccinella bipunctata), a black beetle with two red spots, which occurs all over the United States, is also of inestimable value in protecting vegetation from plant-lice and scale and other insects. One genus of ladybirds (Epilachna) is herbivorous, and feeds on the leaves of the squash, pumpkin, melon, bean, and other plants. See Colored Plate of Insects.
LADY BOUNTIFUL. In Farquhar's Beaux’ Stratagem, an old gentlewoman with benevolent instincts, who devotes herself to the curing of maladies. The name is used, sometimes with the added idea of condescension, to denote a woman who dispenses relief or favors in a community.
LADY CHAPEL. A chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary (‘Our Lady’). It was nearly always an elongation of the choir, and was usually the east end of the church, directly behind the high altar, or at the end of the aisles of the choir. It was often the most decorated part of the church in sculpture, and during the Gothic period in beautiful glasses. Its use was most extensive in England, where nearly all the cathedrals and great abbey churches had lady chapels. A good example is Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster, the lady chapel of that cathedral.
LADY-CRAB. A local name of the large edible crab (Callinectes hastatus) of the American Atlantic coast, due to the dim outline on its back of a woman's head and shoulders. As other crabs (notably Plationychus ocellatus) are similarly marked, they have also received the same name. See Crab.
LADY DAY. In England, the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. It occurs on the 25th of March, and has by custom become one of the regular quarter-days on which rent is generally made payable.
LADY-FERN (Asplenium filix-fœmina). A beautiful fern common in moist woods in Europe and North America, with bipinnate fronds sometimes two feet long. The whole plant has an extremely graceful appearance. It is said to possess the same anthelmintic properties as the male fern (Aspidium-filix-mas or Dryopteris filix-mas).
LADY-FISH. A shapely and very beautiful fish (Albula vulpes), representing alone the family Albulidæ, allied to the tarpons and mooneyes, and found in all tropical seas. It is one and one-half to three feet long, and is brilliantly silvery, faintly streaked, and becoming olivaceous along the back. In Bermuda and the West Indies it is called ‘bone-fish’ or ‘banana-fish,’ and sold for food, although not very good. Gilbert says that the young pass through a metamorphosis analogous to that of conger eels. For a period they are elongate, band-shaped, and have very small heads and loose, transparent tissues. Afterwards they gradually become shorter and more compact. This fish is very common in the Gulf of California.
LADY OF ENGLAND. A name given to Matilda, daughter of Henry I. and mother of Henry II.
LADY OF LYONS, The. A play by Bulwer-Lytton (1838). The play was originally called The Adventurer, and was suggested by a story called The Bellows-Mender.
LADY OF MERCY, Order of Our. A Spanish Order founded in 1218, by James I. of Aragon, in fulfillment of a vow made to the Virgin during his captivity in France. In 1230 Gregory IX. approved the Order, and in 1235 imposed the Augustinian rule. The Order was instituted to redeem Christian captives from among the Moors; each knight at his inauguration vowing that, if necessary for their ransom, he would remain himself a captive in their stead. In 1308 dissensions arose in the Order, and later a part of the knights joined the Order of Montesa, the others adopting the Benedictine rule. On the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, the labors of the knights were transferred to Africa. Their badge is a shield party per fess gules and or, in chief a cross pattée argent, in base four pallets gules for Aragon, the shield crowned with a ducal coronet. The Order was extended to women in 1261. The branch Order instituted in France was suppressed at the time of the Revolution.
LADY OF MONTESA, mō̇n-tā′sȧ, Order of Our. An Aragonese Order founded in 1317, by King James II. of Aragon, who urged Pope Clement V. to allow him to employ all the estates which had belonged to the Templars within his territory, for the benefit of this new knightly Order intended to protect Christians against the Moors. His request was acceded to
