D D 



D L 



tions of nearly three-fourths of the 

 former, and rather more than one- 

 fourth of the latter. It is found in 

 quicksilver mines together with 

 cinnabar. It is of the colour of 

 silver, and regularly crystallized. 



DODECA'NDBIA. (from SwSeica and 

 avrjp, Gr.) The eleventh class 

 of plants in Linnseus's artificial 

 system. The plants in this class 

 have from twelve to nineteen 

 stamens; the common houseleek 

 will illustrate it. 



DODECA'NDRIAN". Belonging to the 

 class Dodecandria; having from 

 twelve to nineteen stamens. 



DO'DO. A genus of birds belonging 

 to the order of galling. The bill 

 is contracted in the middle by two 

 transverse ruga3 ; each mandible is 

 inflected at the point ; and the face 

 is bare behind the eyes. The dodo 

 is a case in point serving strongly to 

 illustrate the views and opinions of 

 those who argue for the extinction 

 of species, even in the present day. 

 Lyell says, " The most striking 

 example of the loss, even within 

 the last two centuries, of a re- 

 markable species, is that of the 

 dodo, a bird first seen by the Dutch, 

 when they landed on the Isle of 

 France, at that time uninhabited, 

 immediately after the discovery of 

 the passage to the East Indies by 

 the Cape of Good Hope. It was of 

 a large size, and singular form ; its 

 wings short like those of an ostrich, 

 and wholly incapable of sustaining 

 its heavy body, even for a short 

 flight. In its general appearance 

 it differed from the ostrich, casso- 

 wary, or any known bird. Many 

 naturalists gave figures of the dodo 

 after the commencement of the 

 seventeenth century ; and there is a 

 painting of it in the British Museum, 

 which is said to have been taken 

 from a living individual. Beneath 

 the painting is a leg, in a fine state 

 of preservation, which ornithologists 

 are agreed cannot have belonged to 



any other known bird. In the 

 museum at Oxford, also, there is a 

 foot and a head." "The dodo," 

 as Dr. Man tell observes, "has been 

 annihilated, and become a denizen 

 of the fossil kingdom, almost before 

 our eyes. The bones of the dodo 

 have been found in a tufaceous 

 deposit, beneath a bed of lava, in 

 the Isle of France ; so that if the 

 very few remains of the recent bird, 

 above alluded to, had not been 

 preserved, these fossil relics would 

 have constituted the only record 

 that such a creature had ever ex- 

 isted on our planet. Nevertheless, 

 two centuries since, the dodo formed 

 the principal food of the inhabitants 

 of the Isle of France." No living 

 dodo has been seen since the year 

 1691. 



DOLABE'LLA. A genus of univalvular 

 molluscs, the known species of 

 which are found in the Indian 

 ocean and in the Mediterranean. 

 They differ from Aplysias only in 

 the position of their branchia3 and 

 their surrounding envelope. 



DOLA'BRIFOBJI. (from dolabra and 

 forma, Lat.) Hatchet-shaped; a 

 term more commonly applied to 

 leaves, cylindrical at the base and 

 having the upper part dilated, 

 thick on one edge and cutting on 

 the other. 



DO'LEBJTE. A crystalline, granular, 

 distinct mixture of labradorite and 

 augite, with some titaniferous mag- 

 netic iron ore, and also with some 

 carbonate of iron and carbonate of 

 lime. General colour, dark grey ; 

 an augitic lava. Juices. 



DO'LITTM. (dotium, Lat. a tub, a tun.) 

 A subglobular ventricose univalve, 

 spirally ribbed in the direction of 

 the whorls; the inferior whorl 

 ample and ventricose; outer lip 

 crenated, or dentated, throughout 

 its whole length. Aperture oblong, 

 ample, and notched ; epidermis 

 light and horny. 



DO'LOMITE. A variety, or modification, 



