M POO. 



a aerie* of osenons remain* which have more than doubled the number 

 of stratboid bird* previously known, should encourage the scientific 

 resident* in the island* of the I ndo African Sea to make similar 

 lessarchse. I feel confident that if an active naturalist would make a 

 rite of excavations in the alluvial depont* in the bed* of streams 

 and amid the ruins of old habitation* in the Mauritius, Bourbon, and 

 Kodricuea, he would speedily discover remains of the Dodo, the two 

 Solitaires, or the Oiseau Bleu. But I would especially direct the 

 attention to the caves with which those volcanic islands abound. 

 The chief agent*) in the destruction of the brevipennate birds were 

 probably toe runaway negroes who for many years infested the 

 primeval forests of those islands, and inhabited the caverns, where 

 they would doubtless leave the scattered bones of the animals on 

 which they fed. Here then may we more especially hope to find the 

 oeseou* remain* of these remarkable animals. Should any copies of 

 this work find their way to Mauritius or Bourbon they may perhaps 

 incite the lovers of knowledge in those islands to investigate further 

 the subject, which has been diligently but imperfectly pursued in this 

 volume ; and I shall feel rewarded for the trouble it has cost, if my 

 researches into the history and organisation of these birds, aided by 

 the anatomical investigations which Dr. Melville has introduced into 

 the second part of the work, shall have rescued these anomalous 

 creature* from the domain of fiction, and established their true rank 

 iu the scheme of creation." 



DOG. fCAjemJ 



DOGBANE. fAroer* ACEJL] 



DOG-FISH. (SQUALID*.] 



iMMMtOSE. [ROSA.] 



i [CTXOSURPS.] 



DOG'S T( >i iTII Sl'AR. [CALCAREOUS SPAR.] 



DOG-WOOD. [CORSCS.] 



DOLABKt.LA. [TKCTIBRAXCHIATA.] 



DOLAIWIKOKM.a term applied in Botany to certain fleshy leaves, 

 which are straight at the front, taper at the base, compressed, dilated, 

 rounded, and thinned away at the upper end at the back, so as to 

 bear some resemblance to an old-fashioned axe-head. 



DOLERITE, a form of Basalt consisting of Labradorite and A u-jite. 



DOLICHONYX [BoB-o-LiXK.] 



DO'LICHOS. Under this name Linnaeus included the greater part 

 of those tropical twining Leguminous Plants which bear eatable fruit 

 like the kidney-beans cultivated in Europe. A large number of spe- 

 eiee, ill distinguished from each other, and differing materially in the 

 structure of their fructification, were for so long a time collected 

 under this name that, although they are now broken up into several 

 genera, we shall briefly notice the more remarkable in this place. 



IMiekot itself is confined to the species with a compressed linear 

 pod, having incomplete cellular dissepiments, and ovate seeds with a 

 small oval hilura. Of these />. Catjaag, the pulse of which is called 

 Boberloo in India, is an annual, and has somewhat deltoid leaves, 

 angular at the back, few-dowered peduncle*, and erect pods. It U 

 cultivated in the fields in many parts of India during the dry season, 

 and its seeds are extensively consumed by the pooler natives. I>. 

 fijaesa*. a perennial, with long racemes of flower*, broad heart-shaped 

 leaflets, and linear sharp-pointed pods, is extremely common all over 

 India, where it i* cultivated " during the cold season in gardens and 

 about the doors of the natives, forming not only cool shady harbours, 

 but furnUhing them with an excellent pulse for their curri. 

 There are several varieties of it constituting the commonest kidney- 

 beans of India. 1>. biftonu, an annual, with oblong pointed leaflets 

 and acimitar-shaped hairy pods, furnishes the pulse called in India 

 Hone-Gram ; and D. tfkarotpermiu produce* the Calavana or Black- 

 Eyed Pea* of Jamaica. 



Lfblab has a compressed scimitar-shaped pod, rough, with tubercles 

 at the sutures, and furnished with transverse imperfect cellular par- 

 tition*, and ovate seed* with a fungou* callous linear scar. Laiilab 

 fmlfurit, the old Dulidu* Lablab, is a common plant in the hedges in 

 many parU of India, whence it ha* travelled into the tropical part* of 

 America. It is a smooth perennial with showy white or purple 

 flower*, end Urge horizontal pod*, containing from three to four 

 ids. It has a heavy disagreeable bug-like smell, prefers a rich 

 Meek soil that cannot be flooded by rain*, and produce* a coarse but 

 wholesome pole*, much eaten by the lower classes in India. 



Puekyrkitiu baa a long compressed pod. with kidney -shaped seeds 

 end no dissepiments, and IB remarkable for iu principal species, P. 

 mfuUl<H f formerly DolUlu* bmlbo,**), producing a root of the size 

 and substance of a turnip. It is reported to have been carried to the 

 ri,.ii|.|.in.-. from South America, and thence to have been introduced 

 into the west of Asia, The aide leaflets are nearly triangular, that in 

 the middle lowage-ehaped, .lightly toothed, and shaggy on both 

 idea. The flowers are very beautiful, of a violet-blue colour, and 

 arranged in axillary nearly erect raeemea, from one to two feet long. 

 IU root i* a common article of food in the Malay Archipelago, but no 

 other part of the plant is eaten. 



I n 1'f.fAofarptu the pod* are oblong, and have four longitudinal 

 wing; the seed* an roundish. It comprehends the DoKckot Ittrn- 

 jraiinna>i, a twining annual, the pod* or tuberous roots of which are 

 common Indian eeoulent 



with long straightUh compressed pods, having three 



DOREMA. 3M 



short wings at the lower suture, cellular dissepiments, and oblong 

 seeds with a narrow hi hi in, comprehends the South American Liuia 

 Beans and the Sword Beans of India. The species have a handsomer 

 and firmer foliage than the other genera, and the flowers aro usually 

 large and showy. C. yladiala, the common cultivated species, has often 

 pods two feet long, and varien with red, gray, and white seeds. 



Finally, the genus Mucuna, known by its oblong puckered com- 

 pressed hispid pods, includes all the xpeciea from which Cowage U 

 obtained. [CowrrcH or COWAOK.] 



ItoI.IoU'M. [Ai vi.Ki'iiJt.] 



IIIII.HJM. [E.NTOM08TOMATA.] 



DOLOMITE, a variety of Magnesian Limestone, first noticed by 

 Duloinirii. It occurs mostly massive, and in mountain masses ; it N 

 usually white, sometimes grayish or yellowish ; its structure is some- 

 times slaty ; it is frequently translucent on the edges. It is softer 

 than common limestone. Sometimes it is met with in veins accom- 

 panied by quartz, carbonate of lime, ic. The Dolomite of the Apen- 

 nines consists of 59 carbonate of lime and 40 carbonate of magnesia : 

 it contains a variable quantity of oxide of iron. 



Compact Dolomite or Gurhoffian U snow-whit^, and very compact. 

 The surface, when newly broken, is scarcely shining, and the frag- 

 ments, which are sharp, are translucent on the edges; the fnu-t 

 flat chonchoidal, and its hardness is considerable. It occurs in veins 

 traversing serpentine between Gurhoff (whence its name) and Aggs- 

 bach, in Lower Austria, According to Kinpmtli. it conainta of car- 

 bonate of lime 70-50, and carbonate of magnesia 29'50. 



This rock, having the aspect and general geological history of 

 limestone, but composed of carbonate of magnesia united to carbonate 

 of lime, usually atom to atom, occurs as a part of the Oolitic system 

 of the Alps and Apennines, and of the Herman Jurakalk ; and it U 

 perhaps proper to call by the same name the crystallised Magnesian 

 Limestone of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and Durham. 

 The best example of this English Dolomite is at BoUover, in Derby- 

 shire, from whence the atone is taken to build the new Houses of 

 Parliament. From the manner in which this rock occurs along the 

 Lake of Lugano, and other parts on the. south side of the Alp . in 

 direct contact or more frequently in a peculiar relation of propinquity 

 to augitic traps. Von Btich inferred that Dolomite was a metamorphic 

 limestone, altered by absorption of magneaian vapours yielded by 

 volcanic action. There is much to recommend this inference. In 

 England we frequently find the mountain limestone dolomitised, 

 along lines of fracture and along the sides of mineral veins ; and these 

 cases appear to enter into Von Bueh'a explanation. But the broad 

 Magneidan Limestones of the North of England are certainly due to 

 original crystallisation together of the two carbonates already name 1. 

 Dolomite is usually very deficient in organic remains. In th< 

 and in Franconia its aspect is very picturesque. 



The Magnesian Limestone belongs to a system of rocks called by 

 modern geologists Permian, which includes the Zechstein Kupfer- 

 K.-hi.-lVr and Koth-todte-ligende of German geologists. [PERMIAN 

 SYSTEM.] 



DOLPHIN. [CKTACEA.] 



DO'MliEYA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 fiyttnericKar, inhabiting the East Indies and the isles of France, 

 Bourbon, and Madagascar. They have a 5-partcd persistent calyx, 

 surrounded by a 3-leaved unilateral involucel. The petals are 6. 

 The stamens are from 15 to 20, scarcely monadelphou.1, five of them 

 being sterile, with from 2 to 3 fertile ones between each sterile 

 stamen. The name Dombeya was also applied to the plant now c 'all. .1 

 Anmcaria uccda. The bark of D. ipcctabUii is made into roj>e in 

 Madagascar. 



DONAX. [AHDHDO.] 



DONAX i' ..N.IU.KA.] 



DOOM, or DOUM, a remarkable Palm-Tree exclusively inhabiting 

 Upper Egypt, especially the neighbourhood of Thebes, whence it is 

 named Vunfrra Tktbaiea. Its stem, instead of growing without 

 branches like other palms, forks two or three times, thus assuming 

 the appearance of a Pandanua. Clumps of it occur near Thebes. The 

 fruit is about the size of an orange, angular, irregularly formed, of a 

 r. .ldi-h colour, and has a spongy, tasteless, but nutritious rind. The 

 albumen of the seed is hard and semitransparent, and is turned into 

 beads and other little ornament*. U sort tier described it tinder the name 

 of Hi/phone coriartn. It is known in Egypt as the Gingerbread-Tree, 

 because of the resemblance of its brown mealy rind to that cake. 



DORE'MA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 I'ml-llif.r.r. It has an epigynous cup-shaped disc ; the fruit slightly 

 compressed from the back, and edged ; 3 distinct filiform primary 

 ridges near the middle, and alternating with them 4 obtuse secondary 

 ridges, the whole enveloped in wool; villa? 1 to each secondary 

 ridge, I to each primary marginal ridge, and 4 to the commissure, of 

 which 2 are very small 



/' 'nainoniarum is a glaucous green plant with a perennial root, 

 large leave* 2 feet long, somewhat bipinnate, the pinnic in three pairs, 

 the leaflets inciso-piunatifid, with oblong mucronulate entire or 

 nlJKhtly-lobed segments from 1 to 5 inches long and half an inch to 

 2 in. lies broad ; the petiole very large, downy, and sheathing at the 

 base ; the teeth of the calyx acute, membranous, minute ; the petals 

 ovate, reflexed at the point; the fruit ellipUc.il, compressed, sur- 



