LABUAN, an island about 10 miles• long and from 2 to 5 broad, ceded to the British in 1840. It has the harbour of Victoria on its south. The island is 6 miles off the N.W. coast of Borneo. The dependent islets all lie to the south. The measures of which the whole island is composed are alternating clays and sandstones. Coal occurs in several places, and is of very good quality, and has dispersed through its substance masses of im perfect amber, sometimes light-yellow and very transparent, sometimes approaching to black, and in a semi-carbonized state, but always extremely' friable and brittle ; when burnt, it diffuses the fragrant smell of recent resin, and is in a suffi ciently perfect state to be collected by the work men and used with fresh dammer in making torches. In some seams of coal ou the river Bintulu, to the south of Brune, Mr. Burns men tioned that almost half the seam consists of this substance, which is there commonly dug and used by the inhabitants as dammer. Specimens of coal from Riteh, on the east coast of Sumatra, near the Indrageri, contain much of this substance. Hard nodular masses of brown iron ore occur in Labuan. Tho whole surface soil of the island and the beds of most of the streams are more or less covered with scattered masses of this substance. It is also found on the mainland, and is the ore from which the Kadyan and Murat, native tribes in the neighbourhood of Brune, manufacture their iron. Labuan is one of the smallest of all British colonies.
LAC, Gum-lac.
Laak, ARAB. Balo, JAV.
Khejijk, . . . BURN. Ambalu, Ampalu, MALAY. Tsze-kang, . . . CHIN. Malau, Malu, . . „ Tsze-kwang, . . „ Laksha, . . . SAME.
Tsze-ts'au-jung, . „ Lakada, . . . SINGH.
Chih-kiau, . . . „ Lack, Sw. Lak, DA., GUJ., HD., MAL. Komburruki, TAM. Lak'h, HIND. Commulakka, . . TEL.
Lac is obtained from incrustations made by an insect (Coccus lacca), similar to the cochineal (Coccus cacti), on the branches and twigs of the Acacia Arabica, A. concinna, Aleurites laccifera, Anona squamosa, Butea frondosa, Carissa spina rum, Celtis, sp., Croton draco, C. lacciferum, C. sanguiferrn, Dicrostachys cinerea, Erythrina Indica, E. monosperma, Feronia elephantum, Ficus Indica, F. infectoria, Gyrocarpus Asiaticus, Inga dulcis, Mimosa cinerea, Rhamnus jujuba, Schleichera trijuga, Terminalia tomcntosa, Uro stigma relig,iosum, U. elastica,• Vatica laccifera, Vismia laccifera? V. micrantha ? Zizyphus jujuba.
The Coccus genus of insects belongs to the order Hemiptera. The species known in the south and east of Asia are the C. cacti or cochineal insect ; the C. lacca that yields the lac of commerce ; C. maniparus of Arabia, which punctures the Tamarix gallica, and causes the exudation of the Arabian manna ; and C. Sinensis of China, that secretes a wax from which candles are made. When the females of the C. lacca have fixed themselves to a part of the branch of the trees on which they feed, a pellucid and glutinous substance begins to exude from the margins of the body, and in the end covers the whole insect as with a cell of this substance. which. when hardened by exnosure to the air, becomes Inc. So numerous are these insects, and so closely crowded together, that they often entirely cover a branch ; and the groups take different shapes, as squares, hexagons, etc., according to the space left round the insect which first began to form its cell. Under these cells the females deposit their eggs, which after a certain period are hatched, and the young ones eat their way out. The accumulation of in sects is so great that tho trees on which they live aro exhausted and injured by them. The parent lac insect, after laying her eggs, becomes a mere lifeless bag, of an oval shape, containing a small quantity of a beautiful red liquid. The young in sects feed on this liquid, and their bodies assume the same hue, so that the branch which bears them appears to be covered with red powder. The cells of gum-lac which shelter them are more or less deeply tinged with the same colour, Tho best time for gathering stick-lac so as to securo the colouring matter, is before the insects have made their escape. In some places the insect is sedulously cultivated, the modus operaudi being the very simple one of cutting off old branches inhabited by it, and tying them to fresh branches ; in other places nature is left to accomplish the work unaided. That a great deal may be done to extend the industry, is evident from the success which has attended its introduction into the territory of Kapurthala, where three maunds of seed were transported safely from so distant a locality as Oudh. Tho forests of Burma alone are capable of producing an almost unlimited quantity, if plantations are only formed.