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DIBRANCHIATA 



DICK 



both parents when hardly four years of age, his 

 fathers death at sea having given Charles Dibdin 

 the subject for his famous song, Tom Bowling. 

 He was brought up by a maternal uncle, studied 

 at St John's College, Oxford, tried law, but took 

 orders in 1804. He proceeded D.D. in 1825. Of his 

 preferments the chief were the vicarage of Exning 

 near Newmarket, and the rectory of St Mary's, 

 Bryanston Square, London. He died 18th November 

 1847. His first contribution to bibliography was 

 an Introduction to the Greek and Roman Classics 

 (1802), which was followed by an unfinished new 

 edition of Ames and Herbert's Typographical Anti- 

 quities (4vols. 1810-19); Bibliomania (1809) ; The 

 Bibliographical Decameron (1817); Bibliotheca 

 Spenceriana (1814-15); Bibliographical, Antiqua- 

 rian, and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany 

 (1821); The Library Companion (1824); Bibiio- 

 phobia (1832); Reminiscences of a Literary Life 

 (1836); and Bibliographical, Antiquarian, and 

 Picturesque Tour in the Northern Counties of Eng- 

 land and Scotland ( 1838). All Dibdin's books are 

 valuable and interesting, but whimsical and flip- 

 pant in style, and unhappily abounding in errors. 

 I)r Dibdin was one of the founders of the ' liox- 

 burgheClub' (1812). 



Dibranchiata. See CEPHALOPODA. 



Dice (plural of die), small cubes of ivory marked 

 on their sides with black dots, from one to six. 

 The points on the opposite sides of the dice should 

 always sum seven i.e. ace should be opposite to 

 six ( pronounced size ) ; deuce to cinque ( pronounced 

 sanke}; and trey to quatre (pronounced kater). 

 Two dice are called a pair. 



By 13 Geo. II. chap. 19, 'all games invented or 

 to be invented with one or more die or dice ' were 

 prohibited, except backgammon and games played 

 on a backgammon board. Hence hazard is illegal, 

 and also raffles with dice, the latter being also 

 forbidden as lotteries even if dice are not used. 

 By 9 Geo. IV. chap. 18 (1828), a duty of twenty 

 shillings was imposed on every pair of dice ; in 

 1862 the duty was abolished. 



The invention of dice is attributed to Palamedes 

 (circa 1244 B.C.). But the use of cubes with num- 

 bered sides for gambling purposes is probably much 

 earlier. 



Diceiltra, a genus of Fumariacece, of which 

 one species, the ' Chinese lantern plant,' D. specta- 

 bilis (described by Linnanis in 1753, but only intro- 

 duced from Asiatic into British flower-gardens in 



Dicentra spectabilis. 



1846), has become a universal favourite on account 

 of its long racemes of drooping, delicate, rosy-pink 

 flowers. In America it is commonly known as 

 ' Bleeding Heart. ' It is a herbaceous perennial of 



easy propagation. There are several other North 

 American species, one of w T hich, D. formosa, is a 

 favourite and very showy garden-plant. Owing, 

 in the first instance, to a misprint, Dicentra has 

 been as frequently called Dielytra, the original 

 mistake having become consecrated by habit. 



Diclllamy deoilS, a term in botany applied by 

 De Candolle to distinguish those dicotyledonous 

 flowers possessed of both calyx and corolla from his 

 Monochlamydece, in which not more than one floral 

 envelope is present. 



Dichogamy. See (under Flower) FERTILISA- 

 TION OF THE FLOWER, Vol. IV. p. 692. 



Dicho'tomous (Gr., 'divided into two equal 



arts'), a term formerly vaguely used in botanical 

 escription to designate any appearance of branching 

 by forking. Thus the stems of some phanerogams 

 e.g. mistletoe, doum palm, and many inflorescences 

 e.g. Caryophyllea% Begonias appear forked, 

 while an ordinary fern-frond has no such appear- 

 ance. The progress of morphological research has, 

 however, shown that true dichotomy i.e. com- 

 plete division of the growing point into two lateral 

 apices, is really as characteristic of the development 

 or the fern-frond as of such obviously dichotomous 

 vegetation as that of Selaginella ; while conversely 

 the appearance of forking in phanerogams comes 

 about simply by the suppression of the growing 

 point, and the development of two new axes from 

 opposite lateral buds. Outside the cryptogams, 

 indeed, no case of true dichotomy has been de- 

 scribed, with the doubtful exception of the roots 

 of cycads. See CRYPTOGAMIA, FERNS, INFLORES- 

 CENCE, CYCADS, &c. 



Di'chroism (Gr. dis, 'twice,' chroma, 'a 

 colour ' ) is a term chiefly used in Crystallography 

 to designate the property which many doubly- 

 refracting crystals possess of exhibiting different 

 colours when viewed in different directions. It, or 

 the allied term Dichromatism, has also been applied 

 to those fluids which appear of different colours 

 when viewed by reflected and refracted light ; when 

 seen in thick or thin layers, &c. For example, 

 venous blood, or any blood impregnated with car- 

 bonic acid, hydrogen, or nitrogen, appears, when 

 seen in moderately thin layers, to be of a purple 

 colour; while in extremely thin layers it appears 

 green. For Dichroite, see CORDIERITE. 



Dick, JAMES, a West Indian and London mer- 

 chant, who was born at Forres, Morayshire, in 

 November 1743, died 24th May 1828, and left over 

 113,000 to promote higher learning among the 

 parish schoolmasters of Elgin, Banff, and Aber- 

 deen shires. Examinations were instituted, and 

 those schoolmasters who showed a satisfactory 

 knowledge were awarded from the bequest a sum 

 of money and an annual stipend as long as they 

 remained efficient. The annual value of the bequest 

 exceeds 4000, allowing a payment of about 30 to 

 each teacher participating. 



Dick, SIR ROBERT, major-general, was born at 

 Tulliemet,in Perthshire, about 1785, fought in Sicily 

 and Egypt, held a command at Busaco, Torres- 

 Vedras/Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, and Burgos, 

 at Quatre Bras and Waterloo, and fell heading the 

 assault at Sobraon, 10th February 1846. 



Dick, ROBERT, a self-taught Scotch geologist 

 and botanist (1811-66), was a native of Tullibody 

 in Clackmannanshire, and from 1830 a baker in 

 Thurso. His life was written by Dr Smiles ( 1878). 



Dick, THOMAS, a popular religious and scientific 

 writer, was born 24th November 1774, near Dundee. 

 At a very early age he became devoted to the study 

 of astronomy, and at twenty went to the university 

 of Edinburgh with a view to the ministry in the 

 Secession Church. Licensed in 1801, he preached 



