LIGNY. 266 LIGTJRIA. LIGNY, le'nyc'. A village in the Province of Naniur, lielgiuin. nine miks northeast of Charle- roi, noted as llie scene of a battle between the French unUer .ai>oleon and a Prussian army commanded by Bliicher. After driving the Prus- sian vanguard from Charleroi on June 15, 1815, Xapoleon dispatched Key with 50,000 men to engage Wellington at l^iuatre-Uras, while the French right, numbering some 00,000, led by the Emperor and Grouchy, prepared to assail the Prussian army, which was drawn up more than 80,000 strong l)elween the villages of Saint- Amand and .Sombref. with its centre at Ligny. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the 10th, the sound of heavy cannonading announced that fighting was going on at l^uatre-Bras, seven miles away. The Kmperor immediately ordered an attack, and the Prussians at the first onset were driven from Ligny. They returned, how- ever, in increased numbers and succeeded in recapturing the village. l)Ut only to lose it again. The battle was decided by a charge of the Guard and Cuirassiers through the centre of the Prus- sian army, which broke and lied in spite of Bliicher's des])erate endeavors to rally his troops. An unaccotuitable omission on the part of Na- poleon to hurl Erlon's fresh corps on the rear of the discomfited Prussi.nns saved the enemy from destruction. After the first moments of panic the retreat was admirably conducted by Gneise- nau (q.v. ), Hliicherls chief of stall', who by fall- ing back on Wavre made ]>ossib!e the subsequent opportune arrival of the Prussians on the field of Waterloo (q.v.). The Prussians lost about 12,- 000 men in dead and wounded, while the loss on the side of the French was 8000. Consult Morris, The Cnmpnuin of ISI-'i: Lifni;/. Quntre-Iiras, Waterloo (London, 1900). LIGUESTE, lA'gest'. Pierre LArLi>nE (1724- 78). Am .incrioan trader and the founder of Saint jjouis, Mo. He was born in France, emi- grated to N'ew Orleans in 170;{. obtained from the authorities there the exclusive right to trade in furs with the Indians on the Missouri, organ- ized the Louisiana Fur Company, and in 1764 founded Saint Louis (q.v.). where he continued to live until his death. His name is frequently written, incorrectly, as Pierre Liguestc Lacl&do. LIGTJLE (Lat. lirjvhi, Unrpila. diminutive of linrjud. OLat. dlnfiua, tongue: ultimately con- nected with Eng. ionfiue). In general, an out- growth from the surface of a leaf or leaf-like organ. In practice the name is ajijilicd in three groups of plants, the most conspicuous of which is the grass f.amily. The leaves of grasses have two distinct regions, the spreading portion (blade) and that which envelops the .stem (sheath). At the juncture of blade and sheath the ligule appears as a more or less conspicious flap-like outgrowth. The two other groups nre the little club-mosses (Sclaginella) and the quill- worts (Tsoetes). both of which belong to one of the great groups (Lycopodiales. q.v.) of the fern-plants (pteridophytes) . In both of these cases there is an outgrowth from the surface of the leaf, which is particularly prominent in the very young stages of the leaf, and may be re- garded as an embryonic structure. In other eases of such outgrowths the term ligule is not applied, but the structure is essentially the same. For example, in some flowers of the pink family there is a two-toothed outgrowth from the sur- face of each petal, the five outgrowths encircling the throat of the flower and resembling a small ten-toothed crown, called in eonse(iuence a corona. A similar corona is conspicuous in the various species of Narcissus, as j<inquils, dalfo- dils, etc., often forming a striking feature of the flowers. The signitieancc of ligular out- gi-owths in the plant economy is quite obscure. In the case of foliiige leaves, as grasses, little club-mos.ses, and quillworts, they seem to be structures that are of service only in the em- bryonic stages of the leaf, disappearing entirely or remaining only as rudiments when the blade is mature. In flowers, as in pinks and species of Narcissus, they add to the floral display, and are doubtless of senicc in connection with insect pollination. LIGUORI, 16-gwo're. Alfonso Maria di. Saint (101)0-1787). A Roman Catholic ecclesias- tic and theologian, founder of the Rcdcmptorist (q.v.) Order. He was born of a noble family at Marianella, near Naples, and at first studied law, taking his doctor's degree at the age of si.x- teen, and beginning to ])ractice at twenty. Si.x years later he abandoned the professiim for the ])urpose of devoting himself to a religious life. He was ordained priest in 1720, and undertook with great zeal the duties of his new calling. Under the influence of Thomas Faleoja, J!islK>|i of Castellamare, he decided to found a new con- gregation for missionary ell'ort : and in 1732. at Scala, near Anialfi, he ori;aiiizi'd th(^ 'Congreg.a- tion of the Most Holy Kedeeiiicr.' which Pope IJenedict XI'. approved in 1749, appointing 1 the founder general for life. In 1702 he was appointed Bishop of Sant' Agata de' (toti, in the Kingdom of Naples. His episcopate was a model in every way; but, shrinking from the re- , sponsibilities of such an oflice. he resigned his see ' in 1775. after which he returned to his Order and continued to live in simple austerity until his death, at Nocera de' Pagani, in 1787. He was beatified in 1810, canonized in 18.30, and solemnly declared a doctor of the Church in 1871. The special importance of his teaching is in the department of moral theology-. Under the name of 'Probabiliorisni.' a modification of the earlier so-called Probabilism. it has been very widely followed in the direction of consciences in the Roman Catholic Church. His most impor- tant work is his Thcolonia Mnrnlin (1753), which grew out of an edition of Rusembaum's earlier treatise published bv him in 1748 ( Fng. trans., abridged, 7th ed., 2 vols.. New York. 1890). His complete works have been frequently published, most recently at Turin (1877 sqq.). and part of a projected English version (T^ondon. 1854- 08). Consult lives by Capecelatro (Siena. 189.3) and Rispoli (Naples." 1837) in Italian: by Sain- train (Tournai. 1879) and Villecourt (ib.. 1803) in French; and by nilpskron (Regenslnirg. 1887) in German. An Enslish translation of the life by his disciple Tannoja (1798-1802), ed. F. W. Faber, appeared in London (1848-49). For a discussion of his moral theology, consult Gousset. Justification de la thfolofiir morale du Alphonxe de Liguori (Besancon. 1832) ; Wittmann. f^aint Alphonse et le pur prohahilisme (CJien. 1801): INIeyriok. The Moral and Derntional Throloijt/ of the Church of Home Accnrdiitfi to the Authorita- tive Teachinfi of f^ainf Alfonfo di Lifiuori (Tjin- don. 1850). ' LIGTJ'RIA. In ancient geography, a region in North Italy. As defined in the time of Augustus,
