DIP 



five-petalled ; nectaries five on the germ ; 

 capsule three or five conjoined: seeds 

 veiled. There are nineteen species. 

 These are all shrubs, bearing the resem- 

 blance of heaths. The leaves are either 

 opposite or scattered, frequently crowded 

 and linear, sometimes having the edge 

 underneath dotted. The flowers are in 

 corymbs, or heads, at the ends of the 

 branches. The calyxes of some are glan- 

 dulous and dotted. They are natives of 

 the Cape of Good Hope. 



DIOSPYNAS, in botany, a genus of the 

 PoJygamia Dioecia class and order. Na- 

 tural order of Bicornes. Guaiacanse, Jus- 

 sieu. Essential character: hermaphro- 

 dite ; calyx four-cleft ; corolla pitcher- 

 shaped, four-cleft ; stamina eight ; style 

 four-cleft ; berry eight-seeded. Male, ca- 

 lyx, corolla, and stamina of the other. 

 There are nine species, of which D. lotus, 

 European date plum, is a small tree, six 

 feethigh, with spreading branches: leaves 

 ovate lanceolate, quite entire, large, al- 

 ternate, smooth, with oblique prominent 

 ribs; flowers pale, terminating, solitary, 

 with a large leafy calyx four or five part- 

 ed, flat, permanent ; berry round, half an 

 inch in diameter, yellow, lanuginose, one- 

 celled, containing eight oblong com- 

 pressed bony seeds, with very little pulp. 

 The broad-leaved variety grows up into 

 very large trees in the southern parts of 

 Caucasus. It is also found abundantly on 

 the whole coast of the Caspian Sea. 



DIP, of the horizon, is an allowance 

 made in all astronomical observations of 

 altitude for the height of the eye above 

 the level of the sea. 



DIPHTHONG, in grammar, a double 

 vowel, or the mixture of two vowels pro- 

 nounced together, so as to make one syl- 

 lable. 



DIPHYSA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Diadelphia Decandria class and order. 

 Natural order of Papilionacese, or Legu- 

 minosx. Essential character : calyx half 

 five-cleft ; legume with a bladder on each 

 side ; seeds hooked. There is but one 

 species, viz. D. carthaginensis, a small 

 tree about ten feet in height, approach- 

 ing to the arborescent mimosas. It is 

 common every where about Carthagena 

 in New Spain, flowering in August and 

 September. 



DIPLOMA, an instrument or licence 

 given by colleges, societies, &c. to a cler- 

 gyman to exercise the ministerial func- 

 tion, or to a physician to practise the pro- 

 fession, &c. after passing examination, or 

 admitting him to a degree. 



DIP 



J 



DIPLOMATIC letters. The art of: 

 ing letters written in cypher must be 

 founded on the knowledge of the art of 

 writing according to this method of con- 

 cealment. In examining a piece in newly 

 invented characters, we should endea- 

 vour to ascertain whether the number of 

 the characters correspond, or nearly so, 

 with the ordinary number of alphabetical 

 letters. We may sometimes detect a 

 weakness in the writer of having selected 

 his most simple marks, either for the 

 vowels or the first letters of the alphabet, 

 and his complex marks for the conso- 

 nants, or the letters most remote from a, 

 6, c, &c. We must observe which of the 

 characters, whether taken singly or com- 

 bined, occur the oftenest in the whole 

 specimen : and of these probably the most 

 frequent will represent e, a, *, o , e being 

 much more common than the rest of the 

 vowels, but u and y are even less fre- 

 quent than many of the consonants. 



Endeavour next to ascertain the be- 

 ginning and ending of words, which are 

 sometimes distinguished by spaces or 

 points, or the insignificant marks or 

 nulls interposed; but, however it be done, 

 you must expect these signs to occur 

 after every few letters, and the frequency 

 of their occurrence may serve as some 

 guide. 



When you have found out the distinc- 

 tion between words, take particular no- 

 tice of the order, number, frequency, and 

 combination of the letters in each word ; 

 and first examine the characters of which 

 the shortest monosyllables are composed. 

 Remember, 1. That no word can be with- 

 out a vowel : a word of one letter must 

 therefore be a vowel, or a consonant with 

 an apostrophe. 2. That the vowels are 

 more frequently doubled at the begin- 

 ning of words than the consonants: indeed 

 the latter are only doubled at the be- 

 ginning of Spanish and Welsh words. 

 3. That the vowels mostly exceed the 

 consonants in short words ; and when 

 the double consonants are preceded by 

 a single letter, that letter is a vowel. 4. 

 That the single consonant which pre- 

 cedes or follows double consonants, is /, 

 m, n, or r. 5. That the letter q is al- 

 ways followed by u , and when two dif- 

 ferent characters occur, the latter of 

 which is often joined with other letters, 

 but the former never found alone, nor 

 joined with any than the latter, those 

 characters stand for qu, which two, ex- 

 cept in a few Scotch names, are always 

 fallowed by a vowel. 6. That, although 



