DESMODIUM GYRANS 



775 



tiniis; l>t usually occur associated with filament 

 ous alga-, iliatinns, ami other forms of micni-copir 

 life. On account of the singular beauty of tln-ir 

 general form they are much pri/ed by tin- micro- 

 sroiiist ; tlicir mooV of division, too, is remarkable, 

 yet akin to that of iliatoms, the two halves of tlie 

 cell being pressed apart at tlte median constriction 



Desmids (mostly x 100): 



, Continuous filament of Spturrnzosma vertebrntum ; b, Micro- 

 sterias rotate; c, M. denticulate, dividing: rf, Zygospore of 

 the same; e, Closterium lunula; f, Closterium in conjuga- 

 tion. 



by the development of two new bud-halves to com- 

 plete them (see fig.), two new desmids being thus 

 gradually formed, which become as symmetrical as 

 the original one, yet with the two apparently 

 similar halves of very unequal age. Conjugation 

 also occurs, with formation of a resting spore ; the 

 cyst of which may have peculiar markings or 

 hook-like prominences. See Ralfs' Desmidece ; 

 Micrographic Dictionary, &c. 



Desmodium Gyrans. See TELEGRAPH 

 PLANT, and (under Plants) MOVEMENTS OF PLANTS. 



Des Moines, the capital and largest city of 

 Iowa, is situated on the Des Moincs River, at the 

 mouth of the Raccoon River, 174 miles W. of 

 Davenport by rail. The river, which rises in the 

 SW. part of Minnesota, Hows generally SE. through 

 Iowa, and enters the Mississippi at the SE. ex- 

 tremity of the state, after a course of alx>ut 550 

 miles. Founded in 184>, the city has a fine state- 

 house ($3,000,000), a marble post-office and court- 

 house, a Baptist university, and a state library con- 

 taining over 22,500 volumes. Half-a-do/en bride's 

 over the two rivers connect the different parts of the 

 town, and there is a public park, with line groves 

 of forest trees. The town contains several foundries 

 and planing and flouring mills, besides manufac- 

 tories of machinery, engines, (toilers, railwav cars. 

 &c. Pop. (1870) '12,03.') ; (1880) 22,408; (1885) 

 32,469; (1890) 50,093. 



Desniqncus, an American genus of climbing 

 palms which represent the rattans (Calamus) of 

 East Indian forests. 



Desmond. HAULS OF, a line formerly all- 

 powerful in the south-west of Ireland, numbered 

 fifteen of the title, dating from 1329. and ended 

 with that Fit/gerald who rebelled against Eliza- 

 beth's government, sacked Yonghal by niyht 

 and murdered the people, and was proclaimed a 

 traitor in 1579. He escaped the fate of the Spanish 

 garrison at Smerwick (1.~>S<M, and carried on the 

 struggle for some time ; but driven at last from his 

 strongholds, he wandered about for over two years, 



and wan finally killed, in l.Vtf, in A cabin in the 

 Kerry mountain*!, where hi* hiding place had been 

 betrayed to the English. 



HrsmoiilliiK, CAMIU.K. a famotiH Retire in the 

 Frenrh Revolution, wait born "M March 1760, at 

 (.in-.- in I'irurdy. He Htudied law along with 

 Robespjrrre at the College Lou i* le Grand, in 

 Paris, but never practised owing to a -luttt-r in hi* 

 speech. His mind early became filled with lofty 

 but confused notions of classical republicanism, 

 which found vent on the eve of the Revolution in 

 his pamphlets. /." J'/tilotouhie au Peiiftle r'ninrnn 

 ( 17.H8) and La France Libre ( 1789), the latter pub 

 lished the day after the insurree ion which destroyed 

 the Bastille, in promoting whicu it.- author played 

 a conspicuous and dramatic part. His next writing 

 was the brilliant and vigorous Dtxcourt de la /./< 

 terne aux Parisiens, which procured him the sinister 

 title of Proeurenr- general de la lanterne.' In 

 November 1789 he issued the first nnmlter of the 

 /.'. ml nt inns ilf l-'niiiii' it ili 1',1-nliiint, which appeared 

 weekly until .July 1792 (No. 86), and which for com- 

 bined brilliancy of wit and irony, polemic force, 

 power of sarcasm, and grace of form, remains with- 

 out an equal in the whole range of journalism. 

 Hi' next paper, the Trilnini- i/m J'ntri'/tfs, died in 

 it - fourth number. Camille had been a member of 

 the Cordeliers' Club from its foundation, and early 

 clung to the mighty Danton in an allectionate 

 friendship of singular intensity. Elected by Paris 

 to the National Convention which followed im- 

 mediately after the march of the mob on the 

 Tuileries (August 10), he voted with his party for 

 the death of the king. In the struggle between 

 the Girondists and the Mountain he took an active 

 part, and in May 1793, urged on bv Koltespierre. 

 published his truculent Histuirc des &riss>iti 'w.v, with 

 a gay heedlessness which had a terrible illCCeM. 

 and caused him soon afterwards the most profound 

 remorse. Danton himself had thundered against 

 the Girondists, who made a fatal error in insisting 

 upon the ineffectual im|>eachment of Marat, but 

 his great heart filled with pity when their heads 

 fell under the guillotine of the relentless and tri- 

 umphant Mountain (Octolier 1793). On the ."ith 

 Decemlier of the same year came out the I'tfiuc 

 t'lin/fft'i'i; a thrilling and eloquent expression of 

 r.unille's and Danton's longing for clemency. 

 Robespierre, at first favourable, took fright at the 

 reception of the pajiers after the third, and aban- 

 doned his old fellow-student to a fate of w hi. -h his 

 fragments of writings, as well as his letters and his 

 young wife's journals and scrap-books, show us he 

 had already a strange presentiment. It was only in 

 December *1790, after three years of love, that her 

 father had permitted him to marry the bright 

 young I.ncile Dnplessis, a girl of a fanciful and 

 romantic temperament, then hardly twenty years 

 old. Their brief married life was one of singular 

 happiness, and in their deaths they were hardly 

 to IM- divided. Meantime Hebert and his party 

 assailed him. and his freedom -of wit made fatal 

 enemies of Itillaiid- Van-line* and Saint Just. The 

 last numlM-r of the VKIIJC CunMicr that appearvd 

 in its author's lifetime was the sixth (February 

 1794). Already he had been twice accused In-fore 

 the Jacobin Club, when on the night of the 3(>th 

 March 17i>4 he wa arrest^ with Uanton and a 

 group of their friends and partisans. When formally 

 asked his n g.- lief ore tin- Revolutionary tribunal, he 

 replied : 'J'ai 1'age tin sail- rulotte. .!.MI. r'est-fc- 

 dire tn-nte tn>is aiis. age fatal aux revolutionnairea.' 

 Camille's seiisiti\e tem|K-mment could not face 

 death with the Uiisterous hemi-m of the Titanic 

 Danton. But on the scall'old he recovered the 

 courage that had deserted him in the prison and on 

 the tumbril. ' Thus then,' he said, as he looked at 

 the blood-stained guillotine, ' the first apostle of 



