DEC 



DEC 



name imports, are furnished with ten sta- 

 mina or male organs. This class, as well 

 as the other classes in Linnaeus's method 

 that are compounded with a numeral, has 

 another character, which is not expressed 

 in the title, viz. that the flowers are all 

 hermaphrodite, that is, have both stamina 

 and pointels, which, according to our au- 

 thor, are the male and female organs of 

 generation within the same covers. In 

 this respect, the classes in question differ 

 from the Monoeciaand Dioeciaof the same 

 author, in which the male and female or- 

 gans are separated ; being placed, in the 

 former, upon different parts of the same 

 plant: in the latter, upon distinct plants. 

 This observation merits attention, be- 

 cause character, which is the subject of 

 it, is indispensably necessary ; anil a plant 

 having ten, or any number of stamina, is 

 not on that account to be referred to its 

 respective numeral class, unless both male 

 and female organs are found contained 

 within the covers of the flower. To take 

 an example from the class which we are 

 now considering ; the flowers of the cu- 

 rious exotic, papaw, or popo-tree, have 

 ten stamina ; and yet the plant cannot be 

 arranged under the class Decandria, be- 

 cause the male and female parts are not 

 only placed within different covers, but 

 likewise produced upon distinct plants : 

 the popo seed ripened by the female flow- 

 ers producing both male and female trees. 

 Besides the sexes of the flowers, it is ne- 

 cessary that the stamina be of an equal 

 length, and distinct; that is, neither join- 

 ed at the bottom nor top ; circumstances, 

 which would remove the plants in which 

 they are found, to classes whose es- 

 sential character is no ways connected 

 with the number of the male and female 

 organs 



The drders- or secondary divisions in 

 this numerous class are five, and take 

 their name from the number of styles, or 

 females organs. Fraxenilla, lignum vitae, 

 dwarf rose- bay, and strawberry-tree, have 

 one style ; soap-wort, and carnation, have 

 two; cucubalus, viscous campion, and 

 sand-wort, three ; hog-plum, navel-wort, 

 and house-leek, five ; neurada, and Ame- 

 rican night-shade, ten. 



Decandria is likewise the name of an 

 order or secondary division in the classes 

 Monadelphia, Diadelphia, Gynandria, and 

 Dioecia, in all which, the classic character 

 being unconnected with the number of 

 stamina, that circumstance, properly 

 enough, serves as a foundation for the 

 secondary or subordinate division, 



DECEM tales, in law, a writ that issues 

 directed to the sheriff, whereby he is 



commanded to make a supply of jury- 

 men, where a full jury does not appear 

 on a trial at bar. 



DECIDUUS, in botany, a term expres- 

 sive of the second stage of duration in 

 plants, but, like caducus, susceptible of 

 different senses, according to the par- 

 ticular part of the plant to which it is 

 applied. A leaf is said to be deciduus 

 which drops in autumn; petals are de- 

 ciduus which fall off* with the stamina 

 and pistillum ; and this epithet is applied 

 to such flower-cups as fall after the ex- 

 pansion, and before the dropping of the 

 flower. This last is exemplified in ber- 

 berry, and the flowers of the class Tetra- 

 dynamia. 



Most plants in cold and temperate cli- 

 mates shed their leaves every year. This 

 happens in autumn, and is generally an- 

 nounced by the flowering of the common 

 meadow saffron. The term is only appli- 

 ed to trees and shrubs ; for herbs perish 

 down to the root every year, losing stem, 

 leaves, and all. AH plants do not drop 

 their leaves at the same time. Among 

 large trees, the ash and walnut, although 

 latest in unfolding, are soonest divested 

 of them ; the latter seldom carries its 

 leaves above five months. On the oak 

 and horn-bean the leaves die and wither 

 as soon as the colds commence ; but re- 

 main attached to the branches till they 

 are pushed off" by the new ones, which 

 unfold themselves the following spring. 

 These trees are doubtless a kind of ever- 

 greens; the leaves are probably destroy- 

 ed only by cold ; and, perhaps, would 

 continue longer upon the plant, but for 

 the force of the spring-sap, joined to the 

 moisture. 



With respect to deciduus trees, the fall- 

 ing off of the leaves seems principally to 

 depend on the temperature of the atmo- 

 shere, which likewise serves to hasten 

 or retard the appearance in question. 

 An ardent sun contributes to hasten the 

 dropping of the leaves. Hence, in hot 

 and dry summers, the leaves of the lime- 

 tree and horse-chesnut turn yellow about 

 the 1st of September ; whilst, in other 

 years, the yellowness does not appear till 

 the beginning of October. Nothing, how- 

 ever, contributes more to hasten the fall 

 of the leaves than immoderate cold or 

 moist weather in autumn ; moderate 

 droughts, on the other hand, serve to 

 retard it. It deserves to be remarked, 

 that an evergreen tree, grafted upon a 

 deciduus, determines the latter to retain 

 its leaves. This observation is confirmed 

 by repeated experiments, particularly by 

 grafting the laurel, or cherry-bay, an ever- 



