DIG 



DIG 



sorts of divisions ; one into shires or 

 counties, in respect of the temporal state ; 

 and another into provinces, in regard to 

 the ecclesiastical state ; which provinces 

 are divided into dioceses. The provinces 

 are two, Canterbury and York ; whereof 

 Canterbury includes twenty -one dioceses, 

 or sees of suffragan bishops ; and York 

 three, besides the bishopric of the Isle of 

 Man, which was annexed to the province 

 of York by king Henry the Eighth. 



D1ODIA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Tetrandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Steilatae. Rubiaceae, 

 Jussieu. Essential character : corolla 

 one-petalled ; funnel-form ; capsule two 

 celled, two-seeded. There are six spe- 

 cies, most of them natives of the West- 

 Indies. 



D1ODON, in natural history, a genus 

 of fishes of the order Cartilaginei. Gene- 

 ric character : jaws bony and undivided ; 

 aperture of the gills linear; body covered 

 on all sides with long moveable spines ; 

 no ventral fins. There are three species 

 according to Gmelin, and five according 

 to Shaw. 



I), hystrix, or the sea porcupine, as it 

 is termed popularly, grows to nearly two 

 feet in length, and inhabits the Indian and 

 American seas. Li some of the West 

 India islands it is used for food, but, in 

 general, is little valued. Its resemblance 

 to the porcupine and hedge-hog, and 

 likewise to the sea-urchinus, is considera- 

 ble, both in appearance and manners. It 

 possesses the faculty of raising and de- 

 pressing its spines at pleasure, and like- 

 wise of flattening its body, or extending 

 it to a globular form, and is often fished 

 for with a rod and line, merely for the 

 sake of the cunous spectacle it exhibits 

 by these violent alternations. On first 

 perceiving the hook, it appears agitated 

 by the extreme of rage. Its spines are 

 erected with the utmost intenseness, and 

 its body is swelled to the form of a ball, 

 and tlmsjfor a considerable time, it moves 

 rapidly in various directions, as if sur- 

 prised and maddened by the failure of all 

 its efforts at revenge and extrication. Be- 

 ing at length exhausted, its spines are 

 levelled, and the air is expelled from its 

 body, which, from the form of a globe 

 assumes that of a wafer. Its strength, 

 however, is partially renewed before it is 

 drawn on shore, and it exhibits again all 

 the intensity and fierceness of its agitation 

 in the repetition of the symptoms above 

 described, in which state it is thrown 

 upon the land, and there suffered for 

 some time to remain, till the languors of 



death prevent the possibility of injury, 

 and extinguish at once its resentments 

 and vitality. See PISCES, Plate IV. fig. 1. 



DICECIA, two houses. The name of 

 the twenty-second class in Linnxus's 

 sexual method, consisting of plants, 

 which, having no hermaphrodite flowers, 

 produce male and female flowers on se- 

 parate roots. These latter only ripen 

 seeds, but require, for that purpose, ac- 

 cording to the sexualists, the vicinity of 

 a male plant, or the aspersion of the male 

 dust. From the seeds of the female 

 flowers are raised both male and female 

 plants. The plants then, in the class 

 dioecia, are all male or female ; not her- 

 maphrodite, as in the greater number oi" 

 classes ; or with male and female flowers 

 upon one root, as in the class moncecia of 

 the same author. 



DIOMEDEA, the albatross, in natural 

 history, a genus of birds of the order An- 

 seres. Generic character : bill strong, 

 bending in the middle, and hooked at 

 the end of the upper mandible ; the low- 

 er mandible truncated ; nostrils oval, 

 wide, prominent, and covered with a 

 large convex guard; tongue hardly ner- 

 ceiveable ; toes three, and all placed tor- 

 ward. There are four species, of which 

 we shall notice, the 



D. exulans, or the wandering alba- 

 tross. Tiiis bird is an inhabitant of not 

 only many countries between the tropics, 

 but also beyond them, both to the north 

 and south. It is found in Kiimtschatka, 

 ami is particularly abundant at the Cape 

 of Good Hope. Its weight is from twelve 

 to twenty-eight, pounds ; its length is.oc- 

 casionally four feet, and its extent, from 

 wing to wing, ten. Its sounds are harsh, 

 and thought not a little to resemble the 

 braying of an ass. Its arrival at Kunit- 

 schatka is regarded as an infallible pre- 

 sage of the speedy, arrival of shoals of 

 fish, and upon these, however emaciated 

 when it arrives, it fattens within a very 

 short time. It feeds, indeed, with un- 

 common voracity, and will often attempt 

 to swallow a fish of four pounds weight ; 

 the tail, however, of the fish protrudes 

 from the mouth of the bird till the head 

 is digested, and, in die interval, the bird 

 is so unweildly and defenceless, that it is 

 easily destroyed by the natives. It quits 

 Kamtschatka in 'August, never having 

 been certainly known to build there. In 

 Patagonia and the Falkland Islands its 

 nest is made on the ground, with earth, 

 a foot in height and of a circular figure. 

 While the female sits, the male is inces- 

 sant in his assiduities to provide for her 



