301 



DARNEL. 



DAVILLA. 



302 



sandy districts in the vicinity of water in the southern parts of Russia 

 and France. 



D. incrasietia (Dejean) has the same colouring as the last, but it is 

 of a larger size, being upwards of half an inch in length. It inhabits 

 North America. 



DARNEL. [LoLirjM.] 



DA'RNIS (Fabricius), a genus of Insects belonging to the order 

 Hemiplera and family Cercopidce. The species of this genus have the 

 posterior part of the pro-thorax prolonged so as totally to cover the 

 upper part of the abdomen and wings, or nearly so : this portion of 

 the pro-thorax is of the form of an elongated and arched triangle. 



[ClCADELLA.] 



DAROO-TREE is the Picus Sycamorus, the Egyptian Sycamore. 

 [Ficus.] 



DART. [LEUC18CU8.1 



DASYORNIS. [MEKPLIDJS.] 

 DASYPROCTA. [AGOUTI.] 

 DASYPUS. [ARMADILLO.] 

 DASYURUS. [MARSCPIATA.] 

 DATE-PALM. [PHCENIX.] 



DATHOLITE, a Mineral which contains Boracic Acid, Silica, and 

 Lime. It has Been found at Arendahl in Norway, and a few other 

 places. It occurs both massive and crystallised in rhombic prisms, 

 the lateral edges and the solid angles of which are usually replaced 

 by planes. The colour of Datholitt is grayish or greenish white, and 

 it is translucent. Its specific gravity is about 3. It yields to the 

 knife. The fracture is imperfect conchoidal. The lustre is somewhat 

 vitreous. According to tfce analysis of Vauquelin, it consists of 



Boracio Acid 21 '67 



Silica 37-66 



Lime 34- 



Water . . 6'5 



98-83 



DATISCA'CE^E, Datucads, a small natural order of Plants allied 

 to Begonvacete and Cucurbitacetf, and the other apetalous srders in 

 their vicinity, but distinguished by its inferior ovary with parietal 

 placentae. It has unisexual flowers; the males have a calyx of 

 aeveral pieces, and from 8 to 1 5 stamens ; the females have an obsolete 

 guperior calyx, and three little recurved stigmas at the apex of an 

 oblong 1 -celled ovary, with 3 many-seeded parietal placentae. The 

 seed-vessel opens at the end like that of Reseda,; the seeds are 



A mate plant of 1 atitca Cunnatina ; A, a cluster of ripe fruit from i 

 frmalc plant. 



inclosed in a finely netted bag, and contain a straight embryo with- 

 out albumen. The order has 3 genera and 4 species. Datisca, 

 Cannabina, the commonest plant of the order, is jji herbaceous 

 dioecious perennial, with stems about 3 feet high, pinnated leaves 

 with from 5 to 9 ovate-acuminate coarsely-serrated leaflets, and long 

 racemes of flowers collected in clusters in the axils of long linear 

 bracts. It is a native of the southern parts of Europe, where, espe- 

 cially in Candia, it is used on account of its bitter tonic properties 

 as a substitute for Peruvian bark ; it also affords a yellow dye. 



DATU'RA, a genus of Solanaceous Plants, with a funnel-shaped 

 angular 5-lobed calyx, a corolla of a similar form, but much larger, 

 and a 4-celled capsule, which is either smooth or muricated exter- 

 nally ; the base of the calyx moreover adheres to the seed-vessel in 

 the form of a circular disc. 



Several species of this genus are known in cultivation, the very 

 large size of their funnel-shaped flowers rendering them conspicuous 

 objects; they have however a nauseous odour, and are only hand- 

 some when in flower, for which reason they are not general favourites. 

 They are all exotics, with the exception of the following, in whose 

 properties they coincide. 



D. Stramonium, the Thorn-Apple, is by no means an uncommon 

 annual upon dunghills, rubbish-heaps, and waste-places near houses. 

 It grows about 3 feet high, with a light-green stiff stout stem, which 

 is slightly downy near the upper end. The leaves are broad, oval, 

 stalked, sharp-pointed, sinuous, and angular. The flowers are large, 

 white, or occasionally dull light purple, and grow singly from the side 

 of the stem opposite the origin of the leaves ; they are erect, and 

 placed upon a very short peduncle. Their calyx is tubular, elon- 

 gated, a little swollen at the lower end, with five prominent ribs, 

 ending in as many sharp-pointed lobes ; after flowering, it all drops 

 off, except the base, which surrounds the fruit in the form of a cir- 

 cular disc. The corolla is much larger than the calyx, of a similar 

 form, but its lobes are more taper-pointed. There are five stamens, 

 which are inclosed in the tube of the corolla. The ovary is covered 

 with small sharp points, and contains four cells, in each of which is a 

 considerable number of ovules. The style is cylindrical, smooth, and 

 enlarged at the upper end. The fruit is a spiny oval capsule of four 

 imperfect cells, which communicate with each other in pairs. The 

 seeds are brown, kidney-shaped, with a scabrous surface. 



This plant is well known, under the name of Stramonium, as a 

 powerful and dangerous narcotic. Its leaves and seeds are the parts 

 employed, and they are found to possess properties similar to those of 

 henbane and belladonna. The leaves are occasionally smoked, espe- 

 cially by country people, as a remedy for asthma ; the seeds are 

 employed by thieves to drug the beverage of their victims. In small 

 doses they produce symptoms of frenzy ; in larger quantities stupor 

 and death. The poisonous principle of this and other species is con- 

 sidered a peculiar vegetable alkali, and called Daturine. [STRAMONIUM, 

 in ARTS AND Sc. Div.] 



D. arborca and D. bicolor, beautiful arborescent South American 

 plants, the former with long white flowers, and the latter with yellow 

 or scarlet ones, are noble objects in the gardens of this country. 

 They participate in the properties of the true Daturas, but they are 

 not now considered to be genuine species, on account of their calyx 

 slitting on one side, and remaining permanent around the base of the 

 fruit. They are stationed in a genus called rugmansia. 



DAUCUS, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Umbelli- 

 ferce. It has hispid fmit, of a somewhat compressed ovate or oblong 

 form, the primary ridges filiform and quite bristly, the secondary 

 ridges prominent, winged, and divided at the edge into a number of 

 fine teeth or hooks. De Candolle enumerates 38 species, chiefly 

 biennials, but it is doubtful whether several of them are not mere 

 varieties of each other. 



D. Carota, the only one to which general interest attaches, is the 

 Carrot. This plant, which grows wild all over Europe in chalky soil, 

 is believed to be the origin of our garden carrot, but there is no 

 record of its having first begun to change its hard wiry juiceless wild 

 root for the nutritious succulent carrot of the gardens. De Candolle 

 gives for the range of the wild plant the meadows and pastures of 

 Europe, the Crimea, and Caucasus, whence it has been transported 

 into China, Cochin China, America, and elsewhere. [CARBOT, in 

 ARTS AND Sc. Div.] 



1>. gummifer is known by having its radical leaves triangular. It is 

 found on the sea-coast of the south of England, and is also called 

 D. maritimus. 



DAVILLA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 IKUeniacea:. It has 5 very unequal sepals, which increase after 

 flowering ; from 1 to 6 petals, with linear filaments dilated upwards. 

 The single carpel is testaceous, from 1 to 2-seeded, inclosed in the two 

 inner concave valve-like sepals. The seeds are solitary, enveloped in 

 an arillua, which is only open at the apex. 



D. eUiplica has a shrubby erect much-branched stem, with hairy 

 branehleta. The leaves are elliptical, obtuse at each end, entire, 

 between crustaceous and leathery, rough and hairless above, downy and 

 netted beneath ; the petiole villous on the under side. The racemes 

 are hairy and bracteolate ; the sepals silky. The petals from 1 to 6, 

 somewhat obcordate. This plant is an astringent, and furnishes the 

 vulnerary called Sambaibinha in Brazil. 



