246 



DECIDUOUS CYPRESS -DEER. 



thorax, beneath which ii is not folded at rest, and is 

 furnished with a fan-like tail. The lobster, prawn, 

 &c. are examples of this section. See also Crustacea 

 and Brachyura. 



DECIDUOUS CYPRESS. Is the Schubertia 

 disticha of Mirbel, the Taxodium distiehum of Richard, 

 and Cupressus disticha of Linnaeus. Richard's name 

 is most generally adopted. It is one of our most 

 beautiful deciduous forest trees. 



DECU MARIA (Linnaeus). A genus of North 

 American twining shrubs, belonging to Dodecandria 

 Monogynia, and to the natural order Myrtaceae. 

 Generic character : calyx bell-shaped, limb of from 

 seven to ten teeth. Corolla consisting 1 of from seven 

 to ten oblong petals. Stamens numerous, filaments 

 filiform, anthers twinned : style cylindrical ; stigma a 

 many rayed head ; capsule valveless, many-celled, 

 seeds oblong. This plant is used in gardens for 

 covering trellises or naked walls, grows in any soil, 

 and is propagated by cuttings. 



DEER Cervus. A genus of ruminant mammalia, 

 having solid horns, which consist entirety of bone, 

 without any case or sheathing of horny matter ; so 

 that, though they are the most largely developed and 

 splendid head-gear in the whole of the animal king- 

 dom, they are in truth not horns but bones, covered 

 in their early stage with skin and hair, exposed when 

 they come to maturity, and ultimately healed off at 

 the close of the season ; the peduncle to which the 

 horn is attached being a complete cicatrix, and not a 

 sore, and it soon skins over, under which skin a new 

 horn begins to sprout soon after the old one is shed, 

 comes to maturity, and is shed again ; and so on 

 during the life of the animal. 



These annual horns belong only to the male in most 

 of the species ; but in the rein-deer the female also is 

 furnished with horns, only smaller than those of the 

 other sex. The case of this species supplies us with 

 a physiological fact, from which we can form a pretty 

 accurate judgment of the connection which this im- 

 mense annual production of horns, that is of the matter 

 of bone, has with the general economy of the animals. 

 The horns of the two sexes come to full maturity at 

 nearly the same time, that is, as the pairing time ap- 

 proaches, or the " rutting time" as it is called in the 

 case of animals of this genus. As soon as this im- 

 portant period in the economy of the animals is over, 

 the horns of the male begin to loosen at their bases, 

 which they do first at the circumference, and gradu- 

 ully inward, till they drop off. The horns of the female 

 again remain the whole of the winter, and do not drop 

 off until her grand labour in the continuation of the 

 race is accomplished that is, not till after she has 

 dropt her fawns. What purpose these horns may 

 answer in the economy of generation, it is not easy 

 to say ; but as they continue in the male only till 

 pairing, and in the female during the whole period of 

 gestation, and as they drop off in both as soon as these 

 great labours of the year is over, it is evident that they 

 have some connexion with the sexual system of both, 

 and that in the female this connection is with the 

 uterine, and not with the mammary system. 



In all the ruminatia, as will be more particularly 

 explained in our general article upon that most valu- 

 able class of animals, there seems to be a much greater 

 concentration of the energy of the animal upon the 

 time, the act, and the progress of reproduction, than 

 there is in many other races, though we find it more 

 r less in most of those which are exclusively vege- 



table feeders, and it always becomes less and less ;:s 

 the animals become more carnivorous. Though we 

 might expect this, it is so important a fact in physio- 

 logy, that we shall offer a passing remark upon it. 

 All the grazing, or vegetable feeding animals, have 

 labour in the procuring of their food, and those which 

 browse the thin herbage upon the thirsty plains have 

 considerable labour ; and, therefore, they are com- 

 pactly made, clean limbed, and fleet-footed. But not 

 one of them requires to take its food by force or effort, 

 to chase it as the dog does, or spring upon it as the 

 cat. The food being fixed to the ground is peaceably 

 taken ; and, therefore, the general habit of the animal 

 is not a habit of excitement. Unless, therefore, the 

 animal lives under the exciting heat of an inter-tropical 

 climate, we can hardly suppose that there would be 

 sufficient excitement in it to bring it up to a degree 

 of energy required for nature's greatest work. On the 

 other hand, the carnivorous animal is kept in a state 

 of constafit excitement, in watching for, in coursing, 

 in capturing, and very often in fighting severely be- 

 fore it overcomes that upon which it feeds ; and, 

 besides this, the food of the carnivorous animal is 

 more stimulating than the grass, the green leaves, the 

 withered branches, the bark, and, in the case of some 

 the present genus, the dry lichen, upon which the 

 ruminatia feed. It should seem, therefore, that a 

 means is required of keeping up throughout the year, 

 a portion at least of this energy which requires to be 

 called forth at one period of it ; and the elaboration of 

 horns appears to be the means by which this energy 

 is kept up in the genus Cervus. 



This genus affords many other confirmations of 

 this, in the different productions of the appendages of 

 the head to which, by the way, it is belter to give 

 the name of antlers than of horns, even though the 

 antler is strictly speaking the " brow snag " of the 

 horn ; attire is the hunter's name for them. In 

 proportion as they inhabit near the equator, the horns 

 are small ; and as we come toward the polar countries 

 they increase in size, and acquire their maximum in 

 the extreme north, where a single pair of horns of the 

 American elk, or moose deer, often weigh as much 

 as sixty pounds. In the south, too, the females never 

 have any horns, nor even in the polar countries till 

 we come to the very last species, the rein-deer, which 

 dwells with man, and is a most useful servant of all 

 work, and means of subsistence to him in climates 

 where no other vegetable feeder can exist. 



In the north, too, we find the deer of much larger 

 stature than they are in warmer climates ; and this is 

 an additional confirmation of the necessity of furnish- 

 ing the vegetable feeders of the extreme latitudes with 

 some permanent energy beyond that which is required 

 for the mere purpose of feeding, in order that they 

 may continue their race, keep their post, and preserve 

 the balance of nature in those climates where life has, 

 for full four months of the year, to maintain itself 

 against cold sufficiently intense for freezing mercury, 

 while for two or three months in the opposite part of 

 the year, every living thing is scorched by the ardour 

 of a never- setting sun. It is in these grand adapta- 

 tions that we see most strikingly the oneness of the 

 system of creation, and catch glimpses of that splendid 

 science, that incomprehensible wisdom of design, which 

 runs through the whole, and which preaches more 

 eloquently than the tongues of men or of angels. 



Those who have not thought much upon such sub- 

 jects may be apt to imagine that, as the horns of deer 



