DEC 



DEC 



name imports, are furnished with ten sta- 

 mina or male organs. This class, as well 

 as the other classes in Linnaois's method 

 that are compounded with a numeral, has 

 another character, which is not expressed 

 in the title, viz. that the flowers are all 

 hermaphrodite, that is, have both stami- 

 na and pointels, which, according to our 

 author are the male and female organs of 

 generation within the same covers. In 

 this respect, the cl?sses in question differ 

 from the Monoccia and Dioecia of the 

 same author, in which the male and fe- 

 male organs are separated ; being placed, 

 in the former, upon different parts of the 

 same plant; in the latter, upon distinct 

 plants. This observation merits atten- 

 tion, because character, which is the sub- 

 ject of it, is indispensably necessary ; and 

 a plant having ten, or any number of sta- 

 mina, is not on that account to be referred 

 to its respective numeral class, unless 

 both male and female organs are found 

 contained within the covers of the flower. 

 To take an example from the class which 

 we are now considering ; the flowers of 

 the curious exotic, papaw, or popo-tree, 

 have ten stamina ; and yet the plant can- 

 not be arranged under the class Decan- 

 dria, because the male and female parts 

 are not only placed within different co- 

 vers, but likewise produced upon dis- 

 tinct plants : the popo seed ripened by 

 the female flowers producing both male 

 and female trees. Besides the sexes of 

 the flowers, it is necessary that the sta- 

 mina be of an equal length, and distinct ; 

 that is, neither joined at the bottom nor 

 top ; circumstances, which would remove 

 the plants in which they are found, to 

 classes whose essential character is no 

 ways connected with the number of the 

 male and female organs. 



The orders or secondary divisions in 

 this numerous class are five, and take 

 their name from the number of styles, or 

 female organs. Fraxenilla, lignum vitsr, 

 dwarf rose-bay, and strawberry-tree, have 

 one style ; soap -wort, and carnation, have 

 two ; cucubalus, viscous campion, and 

 sand-wort, three ; hog-plum, navel-wort, 

 and house-leek, five ; neurada, and Ame- 

 rican night-shade, ten. 



Decandria is likewise the name of an 

 order or secondary division in the classes 

 Monadelphia, Diadelphia, Gynandria, and 

 Dioecia, in all which, the classic character 

 being unconnected with the number of 

 stamina, that circumstance, properly 

 enough, serves as a foundation for the 

 secondary or subordinate division. 



DECEM tales, in law, a writ that issues 

 directed to the sheriff, whereby he is 



commanded to make a supply of jury- 

 men, where a full jury does not appear 

 on a trial at bar. 



DECIDUUS, in botany, a term expres- 

 sive of the second stage of duration in 

 plants, but, like caducus, susceptible of 

 different senses, according to the particu- 

 lar part of the plant to which it is applied. 

 A leaf is said to be deciduus which drops 

 in autumn ; petals are deciduus which fall 

 off with the stamina and pistillum ; and 

 this epithet is applied to such flower-cups 

 as fall after the expansion, and before the 

 dropping of the flower. This last is ex- 

 emplified in berberry, and the flowers of 

 the class Tetradynamia. 



Most plants in cold and temperate cli- 

 mates shed their leaves every year. This 

 happens in autumn, and is generally an- 

 nounced by the flowering of the common 

 meadow saffron. The term is only appli- 

 ed to trees and shrubs ; for herbs perish 

 down to the root every year, losing stem, 

 leaves, and all. All plants do not drop 

 their leaves at the same time. Among 

 large trees, the ash and walnut, although 

 latest in unfolding, are soonest divested 

 of them ; the latter seldom carries its 

 leaves above five months. On the oak 

 and horn-beam the leaves die and wither 

 as soon as the colds commence ; but re- 

 main attached to the branches till they 

 are pushed off by the new ones, which 

 unfold themselves the following spring. 

 These trees are doubtless a kind of ever- 

 greens ; the leaves are probably destroy- 

 ed only by cold ; and, perhaps, would 

 continue longer upon the plant, but for 

 the force of the spring-sap, joined to the 

 moisture. 



With respect to deciduus trees, the fall- 

 ing off of the leaves seems principally to 

 depend on the temperature of the atmo- 

 sphere, which likewise serves to hasten or 

 retard the appearance in question. An 

 ardent sun contributes to hasten the drop- 

 ping of the leaves. Hence, in hot and dry 

 summers, the leaves of the lime-tree and 

 horse-chesnut turn yellow about the 1st 

 of September; whilst, in other years, the 

 yellowness does not appear till the be- 

 ginning of October. Nothing, however, 

 contributes more to hasten the fall of the 

 leaves than immoderate cold or moist 

 weather in autumn ; moderate droughts, 

 on the other hand, serve to retard it. It 

 deserves to be remarked, that an ever- 

 green tree, grafted upon a deciduus, de- 

 termines the latter to retain its leaves. 

 This observation is confirmed by repeated 

 experiments, particularly by grafting the 

 laurel, or cherry-bay, an ever-green, on 



