DID 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



I) I O 



4.1; 



linear, somewhat compressed, ciliate on both sides at top, 

 crowned with two teeth. Native of Santa Cruz. 



Diona-a ; a genus of the class Decandria, order Monogy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Citlix : perianth five-leaved, 

 upright ; leaflets oblong, acute, permanent. Corolla : petals 

 five, sessile, oblong, obtuse, concave. Stamina : filamenta 

 ten, subulate, shorter; antherse roundish; pollen tricoceous. 

 Pistil : gennen roundish, depressed, crenate ; style filiform, 

 shorter than the filamenta; stigma spreading, fringed on the 

 edge. Pericarp.- capsule one-celled, gibbous. Seeds: very 

 many, subovate, very small, affixed to the base of the cap- 

 sule. Observe. The number of stamina is not always con- 

 stant. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : five-leaved. Petals : 

 five. Capsule: one- celled, gibbous, containing many seeds. 



The only known species is, 



1. Dionaea Muscipula ; Venus' s Fly Trap. This is a very 

 singular plant : root squamous, sending forth but few fibres, 

 like those of some bulbs, and perennial ; stalk about six inches 

 high, round, smooth, without leaves, ending in a spike of 

 flowers ; leaves many, ciliated, inclining to bend downwards, 

 and placed in a circular order, jointed, succulent ; the lower 

 joint, which is a kind of stalk, is flat, longish, two-edged, 

 and inclining to heart-shaped ; in some varieties they are ser- 

 rate on the edges near the top ; the upper joint consists of 

 two lobes, each semioval, the margins furnished with stiff 

 hairs, like the eye-lashes,embracing orlocking into each other 

 when they are close : this they do when they are irritated 

 within : the upper surface of these lobes is covered with small 

 red glands, appearing, when highly magnified, like the com- 

 pressed fruit of the Arbutus ; among the glands, about the 

 middle of each lobe, are three very small erect spines. The 

 lobes are so remarkably irritable or sensitive, that if a fly 

 settles on the leaf, the lobes immediately close, and never 

 open again while it continues there ; if it can be extracted so 

 as not to strain the lobes, they expand again, but if force be 

 used to open tb"rj so strong has nature formed the springs 

 of their fibres, that one of the lobes generally snaps off rather 

 than yield. The flowers are milk-white, on peduncles, with 

 a little pointed bracte at the bottom of each. What Mr. 

 Ellis calls the lower joint of the leaf, Linneus looks upon as 

 the petiole winged in the same manner as in the orange. The 

 stem is a scape ; the flowers grow in a corymb, resembling 

 an umbel ; the petals are marked with seven streaks, and 

 bending at the end. Linnens asserts, that when the entrapped 

 insect ceases to struggle, and is quiet, the leaf opens and 

 permits it to escape ; which disagrees with Ellis's account, 

 for the latter affirms, that the lobes never open again, so long 

 as the animal continues there. He thinks it probable that a 

 sweet liquor discharged by the red glands, tempts the insect 

 to its destruction; and adds, that if a straw or pin be intro- 

 duced between the lobes, they will grasp it as fast as if it were 

 an insect. It is anative of the swamps of North Carolina, near 

 the confines of South Carolina, where the winters are short, 

 and the summers very hot : it flowers in July and August. 

 Being a swamp plant, a north-east aspect will be the most 

 proper to plant it in, to avoid the direct rays of the meridian 

 Sun ; and in winter it will be necessary to shade it with a 

 bell-glass, which should be covered with straw or mat in 

 hard frosts. Its sensitive quality will be in proportion to 

 the heat of the weather, and vigour of the plant. It may 

 also Ije planted in pots of light moorish earth, for in such 

 flie plants are imported, and should be placed in pans of 

 water in an airy stove, where the heat of such a situation, 

 being like that of its native country, will make it surprisingly 

 active ; but the heat of our summers is not sufficient to ripen 

 the seed. 



TOL. I. 39 



Dioscorea ; (Indian Yam) a genus of the class Diceeia, order 

 Hexandria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix peri- 

 anth one-leafed, bell-form, six-parted ; divisions lanceolate 

 spreading at top. Corolla .- none, unless the calix be so termed 

 Stamina: filamenta six, capillary, very short; antherae simple 

 Female. Calix : perianth as in the male. Corolla : nor.u 

 Pistil : gerrrien very small, three-sided ; styles three, simple 

 stigmas simple. Pericarp: capsule large, triangular, thrct 

 celled, three-valved. Seeds : in pairs, compressed, girt wit! 

 a large membranaceous border. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER 

 Male. Calix : six-parted. Corolla : none. Female. Calix 

 six-parted. Corolla .- none. Styles : three. Capsule .- three 

 celled, compressed. Seeds: two, membranaceous. Thesi 

 plants may be propagated by laying their branches into the 

 ground, where in about three months they will put out ronU 

 and may then be taken from the old plants, and put inti. 

 separate pots, which should be plunged into the tan-bed in 

 the stove : during winter they should have a little water, but 

 in summer, when they are growing vigorously, they should 

 be watered three or four times a week, and have their glasses 

 open, to admit a large portion of free air in warm weather. 

 When seeds are received, they should be immediately sown 

 in pots, and plunged into a hot-bed, where, if it be early in 

 the spring, the plants will come up in the same season ; but 

 when they are sown late, the seeds often remain in the 

 ground till the following season before they vegetate, in which 

 case the pots must be screened from frost during the winter, 

 and put into a new hot-bed in the spring. They may also be 

 increased by cutting the roots in pieces, as is practised for 

 potatoes, putting each piece in a pot filled with fresh earth, 

 and plunged into the bark-pit, giving them little water until 

 they shoot, lest they should rot. The roots do not grow to 

 a.ny great size in our climate ; and the plants having little 

 beauty, seldom flowering, and requiring much care and 

 room, are not often allowed a place in our stores, except in 

 very curierus collections. The species are, 



1. Dioscorea Pentaphylla. Leaves digitate. Root very 

 large and thick ; stalks spiny, slender ; flowers first yellow, 

 then turning blackish. Native of the East Indies and the 

 Society Isles. 



2. Dioscorea Triphylla. Leaves ternate. The leaves are 

 above dusky green, beneath smooth and shining, with whitish 

 prominent nerves, on long petioles ; stalks round, slender, 

 smooth, spiny; seeds in pairs, semielliptic, about an inch 

 long, of a cinnamon colour. Native of Malabar. 



3. Dioscorea Trifida. Leaves cordate, trifid ; stem winged, 

 bearing tubers. Native of Surinam. 



4. Dioscorea A culeata. Leaves cordate; stem prickly, 

 bulb-bearing, suffruticose, turning round, slender, very much 

 branched, with many straight, short, scattered prickles ; 

 flowers in long, spiked, lateral racemes ; the calix has from 

 three to six acute, very short, unequal, spreading leaflets ; 

 the corolla exhibits six ovate concave petals, almost closed, 

 and of a dusky purple colour ; filamenta awl-shaped, equal 

 to the corolla, with roundish antherae ; gennen inferior. 

 Native of Malabar and Cochin-china. 



5. Dioscorea Alata. Leaves cordate ; stem winged, bulb- 

 bearing. Root a foot or more long, as big as a man's leg or 

 thigh, brown on the outside, within white, or reddish purple, 

 viscid, but when boiled very rnealy ; stalk the size of a goose- 

 quill, square, with a thin reddish membrane at each corner, 

 winding itself round poles nine or ten feet high, and putting 

 out leaves at every three inches' distance, opposite, on square 

 winged footstalks, two inches long ; peduncles axillary, an 

 inch or more in length, with small flowers of a yellowish 

 green colour. Native of both Indies, where it is cultivated 



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