[1] Many derivations are suggested, but it seems most probable that Luperci simply means “wolves” (the last part of the word exhibiting a similar formation to nov-erca), the name having its origin in the primitive worship of the wolf as a wolf-god.
[2] Mommsen considers the Quinctia to be the older gens, and the Quinctilia a later introduction from Alba.
LUPINE (Lupinus), in botany, a genus of about 100 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants of the tribe Genisteae, of the order Leguminosae. Species with digitate leaves range along the west side of America from British Columbia to northern Chile, while a few occur in the Mediterranean regions. A few others with entire leaves are found in Brazil and eastern North America. The leaves are remarkable for “sleeping” in three different ways. From being in the form of a horizontal star by day, the leaflets either fall and form a hollow cone with their bases upwards (L. pilosus), or rise and the cone is inverted (L. luteus), or else the shorter leaflets fall and the longer rise, and so together form a vertical star as in many species; the object in every case being to protect the surfaces of the leaflets from radiation and consequent wetting with dew (Darwin, Movements of Plants, p. 340). The flowers are of the usual “papilionaceous” or pea-like form, blue, white, purple or yellow, in long terminal spikes. The stamens are monadelphous and bear dimorphic anthers. The species of which earliest mention is made is probably L. Termis, which was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians. It is wild in some parts of the Mediterranean area and is extensively cultivated in Egypt. Its seeds are eaten by the poor after being steeped in water to remove their bitterness; the stems furnish fuel and charcoal for gunpowder. The lupine of the ancient Greeks and Romans was probably L. albus, which is still extensively cultivated in Italy, Sicily and other Mediterranean countries for forage, for ploughing in to enrich the land, and for its round flat seeds, which form an article of food. Yellow lupine (L. luteus) and blue lupine (L. angustifolius) are also cultivated on the European continent as farm crops for green manuring.
Lupines are easily cultivated in moderately good garden soil; they include annuals which are among the most ornamental and most easily grown of summer flowering plants (sow in open borders in April and May), and perennials, which are grown from seed or propagated by dividing strong plants in March and April. Many of the forms in cultivation are hybrid. One of the best known of the perennial species is L. polyphyllus, a western North American species. It grows from 3 to 6 ft. high, and has numerous varieties, including a charming white-flowered one. The tree lupine (L. arboreus) is a Californian bush, 2 to 4 ft. high, with fragrant yellow flowers. It is only hardy in the most favoured parts of the kingdom.
LUPUS, PUBLIUS RUTILIUS, Roman rhetorician, flourished during the reign of Tiberius. He was the author of a treatise on the figures of speech (Σχήματα λέξεως), abridged from a similar work by the rhetorician Gorgias (of Athens, not the well-known sophist of Leontini), the tutor of Cicero’s son. In its present form it is incomplete, as is clearly shown by the express testimony of Quintilian (Instit. ix. 2, 103, 106) that Lupus also dealt with figures of sense, rhetorical figures (Σχήματα διανοίας). The work is valuable chiefly as containing a number of examples, well translated into Latin, from the lost works of Greek rhetoricians. The author has been identified with the Lupus mentioned in the Ovidian catalogue of poets (Ex Ponto, iv. 16), and was perhaps the son of the Publius Rutilius Lupus, who was a strong supporter of Pompey.
Editions by D. Ruhnken (1768), F. Jacob (1837), C. Halm in Rhetores latini minores (1863); see also monographs by G. Dzialas (1860 and 1869), C. Schmidt (1865), J. Draheim (1874), Thilo Krieg (1896).
LUPUS (Lat. lupus, wolf), a disease characterized by the formation in the skin or mucous membrane of small tubercles or nodules consisting of cell growth which has an inclination to retrograde change, leading to ulceration and destruction of the tissues, and, if it heals, to the subsequent formation of permanent white scars. Lupus vulgaris is most commonly seen in early life, and occurs chiefly on the face, about the nose, cheeks or ears. But it may also affect the body or limbs. It first shows itself as small, slightly prominent, nodules covered with thin crusts or scabs. These may be absorbed and removed at one point whilst spreading at another. Their disappearance is followed by a permanent white cicatrix. The disease may be superficial, in which case both the ulceration and the resulting scar are slight (lupus non-exedens); or the ulcerative process may be deep and extensive, destroying a large portion of the nose or cheek, and leaving much disfigurement (lupus exedens). A milder form, lupus erythematosus, occurs on the nose and adjacent portions of the cheeks in the form of red patches covered with thin scales, underneath which are seen the widened openings of the sebaceous ducts. With a longitudinal patch on the nose and spreading symmetrical patches on each cheek the appearance is usually that of a large butterfly. It is slow in disappearing, but does not leave a scar. Lupus is more frequently seen in women than in men; it is connected with a tuberculous constitution. In the superficial variety the application of soothing ointments when there is much redness, and linear incisions, or scrapings with a sharp spoon, to destroy the increased blood supply, are often serviceable. In the ordinary form the local treatment is to remove the new tissue growth by solid points of caustic thrust into the tubercles to break them up, or by scraping with a sharp spoon. The light-treatment has been successfully applied in recent years. As medicines, cod-liver oil, iron and arsenic are useful.