DIC 



277 



DIE 



mony. It is applied to ordinary music, 

 containing only the two greater and 

 lesser tones, and the greater semitone. 



DIAZEUX'IS, S<a?6y|<f, division. The 

 name given by the ancient musicians to 

 the tone which separated two disjunct 

 tetrachords. It was placed between the 

 niesis and paramesis. This diazeutic tone, 

 in our music, is from A to B. 



DI'AZOM, $toccafjiM, a zone. The term is 

 used to designate the diaphragm which 

 surrounds the cavity of the thorax. In 

 ancient architecture, the landings which 

 encircled the amphitheatre at different 

 heights. 



DI'CAST, Sizeurrr,;. An ancient officer 

 in Greece, answering nearly to our jury- 

 man. The radix is Sizy, justice. 



DICASTE'RIVM, a hall of justice in Athens. 



DI'CERAS, from dig, twice, and %s%ctf, 

 a horn ; a genus of fossil shells discovered 

 in granular limestone, and thus named 

 from possessing two prominent spiral um- 

 bones which resemble two twisted horns. 



DICHOT'OMOCS, Lat. bichotomus, bifur- 

 cate, forked ; applied to stems and plants 

 divided into two parts. 



DiCHOT'oMY,from $i%erofuet, a division. 

 1. A distribution by pairs. - 2. That 

 phasis of the moon in which she appears 

 bisected or shows only half her disc. 



DIC'HROISM, &j, double, ^ufMt, colour. 

 A property of certain crystallised bodies 

 of appearing under two distinct colours, 

 according to the direction in which the 

 light is transmitted through them. 



DICH'ROITE, a mineral of the gem order, 

 thus named from S/?, and %%o, colour, 

 from its showing different shades of colour 

 (usually blue) when viewed in different 

 directions. It is called also iolite. It oc- 

 curs in granite and gneiss. Its principal 

 constituents are silica, alumina, magnesia, 

 and oxides of manganese and iron. 



DICOC'EOUS, Lat. dicocetis, two-seeded, 

 & and ex8j,aberry ; applied to a cap- 

 sule which consists of two cohering grains 

 or cells with one seed in each. 



DiccTTi/EDoji.frorn J (f and a 



a cotyledon ; a plant which has two cotyle- 

 dons, seminal leaves, or seed lobes, exem- 

 plified in the bean. The dicottiledones 

 form the third great division of plants in 

 ."lussii-u's natural method, and the term 

 dicotyledonous is applied to all plants of 

 this division. See COTYLEDON. 



DICTAM'KUS, the Dittany or Fraxintlla ; 

 & genus of perennial plants. Decandria 

 Sl'iiiiiiii/iiia. Name from Dicte, a moun- 

 tain in Crete, where the red-flower frax- 

 Inella, the first known species, grows 

 plentifully. The frarinella of the shops is 

 the root of the 1). albus or bastard dittany, 

 found in Germany. 



DICTA roa, the title given in ancient 



Rome to a magistrate created in times of 

 exigency, and invested with unlimited 

 power. The ordinary duration of his 

 office was six months, during which time 

 all other magistracies ceased, the tribune- 

 ship alone excepted. Sylla and Ca'sar 

 rendered the dictatorship perpetual and 

 the name odious. 



iDAC'TTLE,J/3aTyXoj, an animal hav- 

 ing only two toes ; hence didactylous, two- 

 toed. 



DIDECAHE'DRAI,, from di and decahedral ; 

 having the form of a decahedral (ten- 

 sided) prism with pentahedral (five-sided) 

 summits. A crystal of this form may be 

 called a didecahedron. 



DIDODECAHE'DRAL, from di and dodeca- 

 hedral; having the form of a dodecahe- 

 dral (twelve-sided) prism with hexahedral 

 (six-sided) summits: such a crystal is a 

 didodecahedron. 



DIDEL'PHIS, \ A. genus of mammalia: 



DIDEL'PHYS, J order Feres, Lin., and 

 Marsupiata, Cuv. Name from ); and 

 pwf , having two wombs, all the species 

 possessing an external abdominal pouch 

 (marsupiittn),m which the foetus is placed 

 after a very short uterine gestation, and 

 where it remains suspended to the nipple 

 by the mouth till sufficiently matured to 

 come forth to the external air. This 

 genus, formed by Linnaeus, is now divided 

 into the following genera : Didelphis, pro- 

 perly so called, including the Chironectea , 

 Illiger, and the Thylacinus and Phascocialc, 

 Temminck (Ex. opossums of America 

 and the dog -headed opossum of Tan 

 Diemen's Land) ; the Dasyurus, Geoffroy , 

 the Phalangista, Cuvier, the Hypsiprym- 

 mis, Illiger, the Hacropus, Shaw, or Pal- 

 maturus, Illiger, the Koala, Cuvier, and 

 the Phascalomys, Geoffroy. These genera 

 form the order Marsupiata of Cuvier. 



DI'DERON (Gr.) In ancient architecture, 

 a biick one foot long and six inches 

 broad. 



DIDRACH'MA, an old Grecian silver coin 

 of the fourth of an ounce. 



DIDYNA'MIA, from $1$, and ovvetu.it, 

 power; thenameof the 14th class of plants 

 in the sexual system of Linnaeus, having 1 

 four stamens, two long and two short. 

 The orders are G-ymnospermia and Angio- 

 spermia, and the bugle, germander, mint, 

 betony, balm, thyme, snapdragon and 

 broom-rape, are generic examples. Epi- 

 thet, didynamic. 



DIE. 1. A stamp used in coining, strik- 

 ing medals : plural dies. 2. One of a 



pair of dice. 3. The cubical part of the 



pedestal of a column between its base and 

 cornice. 



DIES. 1. Plural of die, for coining. 



2. Latin, plural of dies, a day, as D. cani- 

 eulares, the dog-days. D. no (juridici). 

 days oil which no court is held ; V. datut, 



