DIPTKKIX. 



KITHUPA. 



:.. ! 



are eventually abortive, except one, which formi the interior of a hard 

 dry leathery pericarp. The Mod is solitary, conUinn DO albumen, ami 

 luu an embryo with two large twutd and crumpled cotyledon*, and 

 a superior radicle. The leave* are long, broad, alternate, rolled inward* 

 before they unfold, with strong straight vein* running obliquely from 

 the midrib to the margin, and oblong deciduous stipule* rolled up 

 like those of a Magnolia. The affinities of this order are with TUiacctt 

 and Corytacta on the one side, and Ctutiacta and Ttnutromiaeta on 

 the other. 



The different specie* produce a number of resinous, oily, and other 



one a sort of camphor [DRTOBALAXOIW] ; another a fra- 

 grant resin u*ed in temple* ; a third, Gum Auiini ; while aomo of the 

 commonest pitches ana Tarnishes of India are procured from others. 

 Khal, or Dboona, a resin burned in the temples of India, is produced 

 by .SAorea roiutla. Saul, the bent timber in India, is furnished by the 

 same tree. It contain* 7 genera and 47 species. [DIPTEROCARPUS ; 

 DRTOBALAKOFS ; VATERIA.] 



IH1TKKIX. [COCMAROCXA.] 



DIPTEKOCARPU8, a genus of East Indian, and chiefly insular 

 Tree*, the type of the natural order Dipteracea. Blume gives the 

 following esMutial characters : "Calyx irregularly 5-lobed at the 

 mouth ; the two opposite segments very long and ligulate ; petals 

 five, convolute when unexpended ; stamens numerous ; anthers long, 

 linear, terminating in an awl-shaped point ; nut rather woody, and 

 1 -celled and 1-eceded by abortion, inclosed in the enlarged calyx." 

 The species are described as enormous trees, abounding in resinous 

 juice, with erect trunks, an ash-coloured bark, strong spreading limbs, 

 and oval leathery entire leaves, with pinnated veins. The flowers are 

 large, white or pink, and deliciously fragrant. The pubescence is 

 always stellate when present The resinous juice of D. trinerrit, a 

 tree from 150 to 200 feet high, inhabiting the forest* of Java, is made 

 into plaisters for ulcers and foul sores ; and when dissolved in spirit 

 of wine, or formed into an emulsion with white of egg, acts upon the 

 mucous membranes in the same way as balsam of copaiva. Dryoba- 

 lanopt Camphura, the Camphor-Tree of Sumatra, is usually referred 

 to this genus ; but, according to Blume, is really a distinct genus. 



[DHYOBALAXOF8.] 



DI'PTERUS, a genus of Fossil Fishes, from the Old Red-Sandstone 

 of Caithness and Herefordshire. (Valenciennes and Pentlaud, deal. 

 Tram., 2nd series, vol. iii.) 

 hll'US. [MuHinx.] ' 



DIPYRE, a variety of Scapolite. It occurs with talc in the Pyre- 

 nee*, and contain* 



Silica ........ 55-5 



Alumina ........ 24-8 



Lime ........ 9'6 



Soda . . ....... 9-4 



It has a specific gravity of 2't>5. 



D1KCA, a genuti of Plants belonging to the natural order Thyme- 

 Itaette. It has a campanulate calyx, with an obsolete unequal limb ; 

 eight capillary projecting filament* inserted into the middle of the tube, 

 alternately longer ; the style incurved at the apex. This is an Ameri- 

 can gt-nus, with a single species, the I), paltutri*. It U remarkable 

 for growing in watery places, and is called Bois de Plomb by the 

 French. It is found in the low woods of North America, bearing the 

 everest cold, and the greatest heat of the various parts of the United 

 States. It is an irregular shrub, with a tendency to a horizontal 

 direction in it* branches. The flowers are yellow, and appear before 

 the leaves, and when young they are inclosed within a small hairy 

 bud, occupying a sheath or cavity in the end of each flowering branch. 

 The fruit is a small, oval, acute, red, 1 -seeded berry. This plant is 

 in all it* parts very tough, and the twigs are used for making rods, 

 the bark Tor ropes, basket*, *c. The bark is acrid, and in doses of 

 aix or eight grains it produce* heat in the stomach, and brings on 

 vomiting. It also act* as a vesicatory when applied to the skin, and 

 in small doses as a cathartic. The fruit possesses narcotic properties, 

 and produce* effect* upon the system similar to those of Stramonium. 

 Snails are observed to be very fond of this plant, when it is culti- 

 vated. In iu cultivation, layer* require two year* before they 

 produce root* It cannot be propagated in this country either by 

 cuttings or seed*. (London, Encyclopaedia of Planit ; Lindley, Flora 



Mrtlico.) 



I MSA STKR, a *ubdivi*ion of Kchinodermota, including Spatangut 

 oralt* <>f Phillip*. From the Oolite. (Agassi*.) 



hlSCAUI A, a genus of Plant* belonging to the natural order Rham- 

 naee<r. One species, D. ftorifuya, yiU the Quina of Brai-.il, which 

 is employed as a febrifuge and a tonic. 



Msro-lMtl.I, the third family of the Malaeopterygiou. Osseous 

 Fishes in the arrangement of Cuvicr. The distinguishing character 

 U the presence, on the under surface of the body, of a disc composed 

 of the united ventral fin*. The fishes of this family are popularly 

 known as Sucking- Fishes. The most common and most remarkable 

 specie* Inhabiting the Brituh was is the Lump-Sucker (Cyeloptrrtu 

 MM*). It U a large-bodied small-finned fish, bearing on it* back 

 an elevated crort or ridge, and having a powerful sucker under it* 

 throat, formed of the combined pectoral* and ventral*. Before the 

 spawning *ea*on it is of a brilliant crimson colour mingled with 

 orange, purple, and blue, but afterward* change* to a dull blue or 



lead colour. When full grown it is rouxh with tubercles, but v. If n 

 very young U cmooth and beautiful, marked with brilliant stripe* of 

 various hue*. In the seas of the Orkneys, in June, numbers of the 

 young fish, half an inch in length, ore seen swimming around floating 

 sea- weeds. For a long time they were supposed to belong not only to 

 a different specie*, but even to a different genus. In the old fish the 

 sucker is so powerful that a pail of water, containing some gallons, 

 has been lifted up by a person holding the tail of a Cycloptcnu adhering 

 to the bottom. It five* on young fish. It is brought to market, but 

 oftener a* a curiosity than a* on article of food. The Cfdopttrut 

 Lumput range* from the shore* of Greenland to those of the south of 

 England, and westward as far as the coast of North America. Ai. 

 genus of this family i.i J^padogatter, consisting of a number of small 

 fishes which have two discs on the under surface of their bodi< 

 one formed by the pectoral fins and the other by the ventral*. They 

 adhere to stones, rocks, and shells by these discs. They have wedge- 

 shaped defenceless bodies, smooth and without scales, often painted 

 with the meet brilliant and defined colour*. The Sea-Snail, or Ltparit, 

 i.i n third genus of this family, the species of which resemble gobies 

 in form. They are found under stones at low-water mark, and are 

 not so brilliantly coloured as others of the tribe. They are furnished 

 with a single sucker formed by the united ventrals and pectoral*. 



DISCOI'DEA, a genus of Echinwlrrmata, in which are raukeil. l.y 

 Gray and Agassiz, several species generally referred to in win 

 organic remains under the title of Oaicrita. They belong to the 

 Chalk, Greensand, and Oolite. 



DISK, or DISC, a term in Botany signifying any ring or whorl of 

 glands, scales, or other bodies that surround the base of an ovary, inter- 

 vening between it and the stamens. In its most common state it is a 

 fleshy wax -like ring as in the orange ; it frequently forma a yellowish 

 lining to the calyx, as in the plum and cherry ; and not unfrequently 

 rises up like a cup around the ovary, as in the tree picony. The latter 

 renders it probable that the disk is nothing but on inner whorl of 

 rudimentary stamens. Previously to the expansion of the flower the 

 disk contains fseculo, and is dry and brittle ; but after the blossom 

 unfolds, it perspires a sweet honey-like fluid, and become* tough, 

 absorbing oxygen and parting with carbonic acid. 



DISSEPIMENTS, the partitions in the inside of a fruit which an 

 formed by the union of the sides of its constituent carpels. l>i 

 ments are therefore necessarily alternate with the stigma. When 

 partitions which do not bear this relation to the stigma occur in the 

 inside of a fruit, they are called Phragmata, or spurious dissepiment*, 

 as in the Cathartocarput Jittula, where they are horizontal, and 

 in Verbena, where they are vertical. 



DISTHENE, a name for A'yanitc, [KYANITE.] 



DI'STICHOUS, a term in Botany, signifies 'arranged in two rowi-,' 

 as the grains iu an ear of barley, and the florets in a spikclct of quaking- 

 grass. 



D1STOMA. [BOTBYLLIDi.] 



DITHYROCA'RIS, a fossil genus of Crustaceans, so named by Dr. 

 Scouler. It occurs in Tyrone and Derry. D. Colei and D. orbicular u 

 are described in Portlock's 'Geological Report" on those count 



DITRU'PA, a genus of Annelida, founded by the Rev. M. J. 

 Berkeley, and which, from its having l>een previously cnnfiiundcil 

 with the species of an entirely distinct genus \/> ntn/miit). :m<l 

 circumstances respecting ita capture in a living state, iv.jmu^ parti- 

 cular notice. It has the following characters : 



Shell free, tubular, open at both ends. Operculum fixed to a 

 conical pedicellated cartilaginous body, thin, testaceous, concentrirally 

 striate. Branchiae twenty-two, in two sets, not rolled up spirally, 

 flat, broadest at the base, feathered with a single row of cilia. Mantle 

 rounded behind, slightly crisped, denticulated in front, strongly 

 puckered on either side. Fascicles of bristles, six on each xide. 

 (Berkeley.) 



Mr. Berkeley states that a few of the specimens of eand, gravel, &c., 

 from different parts of the great bank running parallel with the 

 north-west coast of Ireland, obtained by Captain A. Vidal, R.N., 

 during the extensive soundings made by that officer in the summer of 

 1880, whilst in search of Aitkin's Rock, were placed in his hands, 

 when he fouud among them several specimens of the shell of a 

 testaceous animal, which proved to be the Dentalium jubului 

 Deshayes, and identical with the Madeira specimens ; the only points 

 of difference being a paler hue, and an almost total absence of the 

 constriction near the orifice, the former being, as Mr. Berkeley 

 observes, exactly such as might be expected from the occurro 

 the species in a higher latitude, and the Utter so variable as uot to 

 throw any doubt on its specific identity. Having previously been 

 convinced, from Mr. Lowe's specimen, that the animal was not a 

 Dcntalium, but an Annelide, Mr. Berkeley requested Captain Vidal to 

 preserve in spirit during the following summer, when operations on 

 the bank were to be resumed, whatever animals he xlmulil procure 

 olive in sounding, and, if possible, specimens of the so-called / 

 Hum, at the same time noting the depth at which they were 

 The result was the capture of the shell with the included aniin.i!. 

 which enabled Mr. Berkeley to establish the genus named at the head 

 of thiri article. The animals of the Madeira and British speciiif in 

 proved to be perfectly identical. 



It appears from Mr. Berkeley's paper, that the shells first liaif ll 



