DEC 
Stigma capitate, with about ten 
urrowed, crowned 
Seeds 
Style fhort, columnar. 
urtows.  Peric.é Capfule turbinate, 
with the calyx and aed of from eight to ten cells. 
numerous, imbricate ally. 
alyx ureolate, 
la ule of about ten cells. 
ith about ten teeth. Petals 
ten. Seeds numerous, 
izht— 
faba c 
D. ba 
rbara, Tn. Sp. Pl. 1663, the only fpecies, is a a 
native of Carolina, not, as Schreber and Linnzeus a ani 
of Africa. Tis isa fhrub, whofe ftem clinging by m 
of fibres to the trunks and branches of trees, climbs 
great height. The leaves are oppolite, ftalked, cliptical or 
obovate, varying iu breadth, of a deep fhining green, veiny, 
{mooth except when very young, ferrated chiefly towards 
the point. Stipulas none. Flowers in a terminal corym- 
bofe panicle, cream-coloured, fragrant, fomewhat refembling 
& 
of the lime-tree, but {maller. Bt apfules of an elegant 
rn-like form, with longitudinal 4 
ONThis i is the x "Or fthia. par f Wa Iter in 7 Flora Ca- 
roliniana; nor aria a farm entofa ef Bofc, A&. Soc. 
Hitt. N , as far as we can difeern, at all 
LE, in Arithmetic, a term of relation, or propor- 
tion, implying a thing to be ten times as much as another. 
DECURIO, the chief, or commander of a decury, both 
nthe Roman vet and in the college or affembly of the 
Hee See Decury. 
ECURIO runic was a name given to the fenators of 
the Romanc 
They were called decuriones, becaufe their court or com- 
pany always eonfilted of ten ileal or becaule, as fome fay, 
when the colony was firft planted, every tenth man was 
made a fenator. The one requifite for being elected a 
decurio, under the Su pale was 1co,0co feltertii. Plin. 
Epift. i. 19. See Decury 
means of this appointment, ha cities of Italy, at leaft, 
fuch as had cee i da fhor Aupuftus, in the 
election of the Roman magittrate 
tors of thofe cities, fa ag ia therein which they fent, 
fealed up, to Rome, a little before the ele&io 
Whilft, under the emperors, every thing that was ho- 
nourable or important in the a of the revenue, 
was committed to the wifdom of the prafeéts, and their 
provincial reprefentatives ; ; the laborious ee iia hee 
in expence and 
o for ie the 
m the ae of the 
ng of 
civil oon The title concerning the decurions (1. xii. 
tit. 1.) is ample in the whole Theodotan code ; 
fince it ees not tele than 192 diftiné laws, to afcertain 
the duties and piglet Sa — age a -_ of citizens, 
EcURIO was alfo iven o priefts intend- 
ed, as it fhouid feem, for (on aes facrife ces, or other 
religious c cerem ‘nies; or for the facrifices of private families 
and . ufes, as Struvius conjeures, who thence derives 
their me. 
Be he origin of the name what it will, we have an in- 
{cription in Gruter, which confirms what we have faid of 
their function: ANCHIALVS. CVB. AED a TER. IN. AEDE. 
DECVRIO. ADLECTVS. ane CONSENSY RIONVM. FAMI 
LIAE. VOLVNTATA is infeription proves that there was 
a decurio in the houfe of a private perfon, Q, Terentius. 
DECUR, , In the armies the ancient Ro 
empire, wa officer who held command over ten men, 
s the centurion r an hundred. The fyitem 
of dividing their forces into very {mall parties, each under 
DEC 
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oo 
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a 
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= 
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= 
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a 
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rg 
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“t 
a ecoaeay into very {mall parties, each.comm 
commifhioned. officer, to be highly 
mo yu of conteft; efpecially among new levies, which are 
o be too impetuous, Hence it has been remarked that 
ftand the oye of - aaa ese battalion of the 
78th, juft raifed in the Highlands. 
It would be difficult to fate which of the modern ranks 
of ferjeants or sel ge tallies with api general conformity 
to saa ancient rank of decurion ; mber of men the 
i?) 
oar 
5 Ee 
x 
Soe 
io] 
Be 
a 
Fon 
or 
= 
a 
a 
rt) 
if} 
a. § 
3B 0 
| 
We 
a) 
eo 
pat] 
ze 
M< 
2 
OQ 
[ on 
ts} 
oO 
.2) 
fo] 
on 
=¥4 
3 
ie] 
[ona 
i?) 
It appears 
obvious, that, in this anand our (lsat 18 ae deficient, 
dy. 
TIA Fouta, in Botany. See Lear. 
Roman Antiquity. See Campicursio. 
ECURY, ten perfons ranged under one chief, or leader, 
called the decur 
The Roman ale was divided into decurie 
Romulus divided the whole Roman ape into three 
tribes over each of whee: he appointed a anaes ne: each 
tribe he fubdivided into ten centuries, with centurions at 
their heads; and each century he fubdivided pale re 
ae decuries, over each of which a decurio commanded. 
1A. 
DE CUSSATA Fonta,i in Botany. See 
DECUSSATION, in Geometry and Oiien ae om 
wherein two lines or rays crofs or interfeQ each other: 
the ation itfelf of croffing. 
The rays of ue decuffate in the cryftalline, before they 
reach ie retina 
ATION of the Nerves, in Anatomy. The optic 
nerves, abla {eparately from the right and left fides of the 
other, and vine together before leaving 
the fkull, Their a Raye ae lies juft in = of the fella 
left nerves paffin 
through their relpeive jai ao 
tomifts have doubted e at 
this united part ; fo at the nerve arifing from the right optic 
thalamus fhould belong to the left eye, and wice verfd? A 
ire€t examination of the part in quettion i s not fufficient 
canno 
itances of difeafe and injury affecting one eye of an animal, the 
ai nerve of the difeafed fide has been found diminihed 5 in 
Thef € fe facts are hes in faveur of 
the fi explanation 
cf the eircomilance of our feeing objets fingle ak two eyes, 
has been Se decuffation ; but, if it be dee we 
do not {ce that the phenomenon becomes more intelligible. 
From 
we oy: a 
