DAVITE. 



I'KNDRODOA. 



D. rufota it also a native of the fomU of Ilnviil, and bu twining 

 tern with hairy twin. The leave* are oblong, remotely and obso- 

 letely srrratesl, rough and bail-lew above, shaggy beneath on the 

 principal veins. The petiole* are very (baggy beneath. The pedun- 

 cle* and pedicels hairy. It hai two or three petals. Like the former 

 specie* it ia an astringent, and it uied in swellinga of the legs and 

 different jnarU of the body in South America. 



DAVITE, a name given to a Sulphate of Alumina, found in a warm 

 spring which contains sulphuric acid, near Bogota in Columbia. It 

 occurs massive, ia of a fine fibrous structure, a white colour, and silky 

 lustre. It is very soluble, and has a very astringent taste. 



DAVYNK, a Siliceous Mineral, found in cavities in some of the 

 masses ejected from Vesuvius. The primary form is a rhomboid, but 

 it occurs in regular hexagonal prisms, with the terminal edges trun- 

 cated. Its fracture is conchoidal ; cleavage parallel to the planes of 

 the hexagonal prism. It is transparent, colour white or yellowish- 

 brown. Streak white, lustre vitreous, pearly upon the cleavage 

 planes. Hardness, 5-0 to 6-5. Specific gravity, 2'4. 



DAY-LILY. [HEMEROCALUB.] 



DEAD-HAN'S FINGERS [ALCYONID*.] 



DEAD-HAN'S TOES. [ALCVONIDA] 



DEAD-NETTLE. [LAMIUM.] 



DEADLY-NIGHTSHADE. [ATBOPA.] , 



DEAL-FISH. [TBACHYPTERCS.I 



DEATH-WATCH. Every one has heard of the Death-Watch, and 

 knows of the superstitious notion of the vulgar, that in whatever 

 house its drum is heard one of the family will die before the end of 

 the year. These terrors in particular instances, when they lay hold 

 of weak minds, especially of sick or hypochondriac persons, may cause 

 the eveut that is supposed to be prognosticated. A small degree of 

 entomological knowledge however would relieve them from their fears, 

 and teach them that this heart-sickening tick is caused by a small 

 beetle giving a call to its companion. 



Authors were formerly not agreed concerning the insect from which 

 this sound of terror proceeded, some attributing it to a kind of wood- 

 louse and others to a spider. The earliest scientific account of it is 

 probably that by Mr. Benjamin Allen, written in 1695, and published 

 in the ' Philosophical Transactions,' vol. xx. p. 376, where the writer 

 calls it Scaralxrut galcattu pultator ; followed, vol. xxil p. 832, by 

 another account from the celebrated Dr. William IX-rlmm, dated 

 Upminster, July 21, 1701. Swammerdam ('BibL Nat' edit Hill, i. 

 125), and Shaw (' Nat Misc.' iii. 104), have also written upon this 

 insect It is a received opinion now, adopted upon satisfactory evi- 

 dence, that the sound called the death-watch is produced by certain 

 beetles belonging to the timber-boring genus Anvlium. Latreille 

 observed Anubium itriatum to produce the sound in question ; but 

 the species whose proceedings have been most noticed by British 

 observers is AnMum ttueUatum. When spring is far advanced these 

 insects commence their ticking, which, as already mentioned, is only 

 a call to each other, to which, if no answer be returned, the animal 

 repeats it in another place. It is thus produced : raising itself upon 

 its hind legs, with the body somewhat inclined, it beats its head with 

 great force and agility upon the plane of position ; and its strokes are 

 so powerful as to make a considerable impression if they fall upon 

 any substance softer than wood. The general number of distinct 

 strokes in succession is from seven to nine or eleven. They follow 

 each other quickly, and are repeated at uncertain intervals. In old 

 houses, where these insects abound, they may be heard in warm 

 weather during the whole day. The noise exactly resembles that 

 produced by tapping moderately with the nail upon the table ; and 

 when familiarised the insect will answer very readily the tap of the 

 nail. (Brand's 'Popular Antiq.' ; Kirl.y and Spence's ' In trod, to 

 Entomology,' edit 1828, i. 86 ; ii. 382 ; Wallis's ' Hist Northumb.' 

 L 967.) The superstition that the clicking of this insect is a death- 

 omen to mentioned by Baxter in his ' World of Spirits,' p. 203. 



This is only one of many instances in which natural occurrences 

 have been regarded with superstition and terror, and is a good illus- 

 tration of the folly and danger of referring material phenomena to 

 spiritual raiisei. 



\ III > II HAD MOTH. 

 DECAPODA. [CHCSTACBA.J 



IL fClRVIDAl 



IIKKK.I.IKK ANTELOPES. [AXTILOPM.I 



I > K L I HI N A I T K IU :a [CttACKA.] 



DKLPHnnUlC, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 JhMMmJace*. It consist* of annual or perennial herbaceous plants, 

 with irregular spurred flowers, the colours of which are often of the 

 moat vivid blue. They are very nearly allied to the Aconites, from 

 which they differ merely in their upper sepal being lengthened at the 

 bane into a spar instead of at the back into a helmet, and in the petals 

 having no spur at all, but being deformed stalked bodies altogether 

 different in form, and often in colour, from the sepals. 



The specie* abound in the temperate parts of the northern hemi- 

 fpnere, and are often cultivated in gardens under the name of 

 Larkspur*. 



1). contolida I* a hardy annual, of which many varieties are known 

 a Kocket Larkspur*. It i* found wild in sandy and chalky fields in 

 Great Britain. 



1>. Jiarlowii i* a magnificent double-flowered perennial hybrid ; and 

 the Bee- Larkspurs, consisting of D. grandijlorum, D. Sibiricwa, 1). < I, i- 

 Htiue, D. mttoltucum , and many more, are amongst the moot showy 

 plants of our garden*. These latter derive their name from a striking 

 resemblance on the part of the petals to the black body of an humble- 

 bee covered with yellow hairs ; the head and legs of the insect being 

 supposed to be immersed in the cup of the flower. 



The only species that has been applied to any useful purpose is 

 Staveaacre (6. Staphitagrin), an annual inhabiting the warmer 

 countries of the south of Europe. It has an upright branched stem 

 about two feet high covered all over with close velvety down, and 

 generally of a greenish purple colour. Its lower leaves are round, on 

 long stalks, heart-abaped at the base, and divided into 5, 7, or 9 

 deep lobes of an oval or lanceolate figure ; they are sharp-pointed, 

 and either undivided or cut into a few lateral incisions ; on the upper 

 side they are deep green and almost smooth ; on the under they are 

 paler and velvety. The flowers are a dull grayish green, arranged in 

 a lax spike at the extremity of the ramifications of the stem ; th< ir 

 stalk is short and velvety, and has three linear short bracts. The 

 sepals are green and velvety externally, with a short spur curved 

 downwards. The four petals are separate from each other and smooth ; 

 the two upper are oval and rather long ; the two lower have short 

 stalks and a rounded, irregular, toothletted limb. The fruit is com- 

 posed of three woolly capsules filled with grayish irregularly-triangular 

 compressed very acrid bitter seeds. [STAFUISAOBIA, in ARTS AND 

 Sc. Div.] 



DELPHINORHYNCHUS. [CKTACEA.] 



DELPHINUS. [CETACEA.] 



DELTHYHIS. Dalman proposed this generic name as a substitute 

 for the Sjiiriftra of Sowerby, imt few writers on fossil Brachiopoda 

 have adopted it 



DELUNDUNO. [PRIONODON.] 



DEMOISELLE. [GHUID.E.] 



DKXDRO'UirM, an extensive genus of East Indian Epiphytical 

 Plants, found in the whole of the damp tropical parts of Asia, and a 

 little beyond the tropics in Japan and Australia, but unknown in the 

 rest of the world. Above a hundred species are enumerated by 

 systematic writers: D. Pierardi, D. cuculiatum, D. chryianthum, l>. 

 aurrum, 1). fimbriatum, D. mofchatum, D. dentijloruw, I), pulckellum, 

 D. mobile, and a few more, are known in the collections of this 

 country. 



DENDROCITTA. [COBVID*.] 



DENDROCOLAPTUS. [CERTHIAD*.] 



DENDROCOPUS. [CKRTHIADJE.] 



DENDRO'DOA, a genus of Ascidiau Molltaca, belonging to the 

 aberrant group, or those which have a branchial pouch with only eight 

 folds, the tentacula simple, and no livar. 



It has the body subcylindrical, with both orifices exceedingly 

 minute, and situated on the apex. Branchial pouch marked with only 

 eight folds, and having the reticulation continuous. Orifices terminal. 

 Tentacula simple. Liver none. Ovary unique, branched, situated 

 beneath the mantle and the branchial pouch. (W. S. M'Leay.) 



D. ylandaria. Body subcylindrical, with a round summit Enve- 

 lope whitish, subpellucid, coriaceous, and smooth, having its base 

 rough with agglutinated pebbles : internally it has a pearly lustre, 

 and is thickest towards the base. Orifices so little prominent as to 

 be scarcely perceptible without a lens ; separate from each other, and 

 opening with four indistinct rays. Mantle muscular, but of uniform 

 substance. Tentacula about twenty-six, simple, subulate, alternately 

 long and short Anterior nervous tubercle with many spirals. Bran- 

 chial cavity occupying the whole length of the animal. Pharynx situ- 

 ated at the bottom of the cavity of the body. (Esophagus descending, 

 and turning short round near the cardia into a cylindrical horizontal 

 stomach, which is striated internally, and occupies with the pylorus 

 (which turns round and lies parallel to it) the whole of the bottom of 

 the cavity. Intestine very long. Rectum ascending, almost vertical ; 

 terminated by an anus, margined. 



Drndrodna flmittria. 



a, natural *lw>, seen on the rlitlit side : the bane rncruitcd with pebbles, 

 bu the appearance of the cup of an acorn ; 6, the name wen obliquely, so 

 aa to show the top, which la a little compreMcd, and exhibits four point* : the 

 two lowest and largest are false orifices ; the two smallest (which arc so small 

 as to be almost Invisible to the naked eve) are the real orifices, the highest being 

 the anal, and the other the branchial orifice. 



Ovary one, situated on the left side, between the branchial pouch 

 and the tunic. It consists of a trifurcated cylindrical stem, having at 



