409 



&)t Crca^urn of 23flfcm». 



[dion 



flowers. In B. parvifolia the leaves are 

 scarcely a quarter of an inch long, and 

 the flowers are in terminal clusters of four 

 or five, of a pale-yellow colour, with the stan- 

 dard marked at the base by a reddish tint. 

 One of the most desirable species, from its 

 flowering while not more than eight inches 

 high, is B. scabra, which has linear leaves 

 about half an inch long covered with 

 minute tubercles ; this is remarkable in 

 having stalked corymbs of bright nearly 

 scarlet flowers at the ends of the twigs. 

 The genus is named after L. "W. Dillwyn, 

 Esq., an English botanist. [A. A. BJ 



DILOPHIA. A genus of Cruciferce from 

 Thibet, a small annual with spathulate 

 leaves, and the flowering racemes con- 

 tracted into umbels ; pouch tuberculated 

 with a partition, having a wide opening 

 through it. [J. T. SJ 



DIMIDIATE. "When one half of an organ 

 is so much smaller than the other as to 

 seem as if missing ; hardly different from 

 oblique except in degree ; also slit half-way 

 up. 



DlillDIATO-CORDATE.Whenthelarger 

 ; half of a dimidiate leaf is cordate. 



' DDIORPBTAXTHUS. A genus belong- 

 j ing to ivyworts. The name means ' two- 

 formed flower,' indicating that there are 

 some flowers which are in every respect 

 perfect and produce fruit, and others in 

 which no perfect seeds are 'formed. The 

 flowers of the first kind have the calyx 

 , oblong and bell-shaped, or ovate and pent- 

 ; agonal ; the styles or appendages on the 

 i upper part of the seed-vessel are more or 

 i less spreading; in the other flowers the 

 tube of the calyx is in the form of a hemi- 

 sphere and very short, while the styles ap- 

 proach each other. The species are shrubs 

 ; or herbs, natives of China and Japan ; j 

 . some are prickly, others unarmed ; the 

 . leaves are alternate, once or twice pinnate, | 

 ; the leaflets serrate. Dr. Lindley, in his 

 j Vegetable Kingdom, states that ' B. edulis \ 

 is employed in China for exciting the 

 action of the skin and producing perspira- 

 I tion ; its young shoots are a delicate article 

 j of food, and its root, which is bitter, aro- 

 matic, and pleasant to the taste, is em- 

 I ployed by the Japanese in whiter, as we 

 use Scorzonera.' [G. D.] 



DMORPHOLEPIS. An Australian genus 

 of the composite family represented by one 

 species, B. anstralis, an annual branching 

 herb one to three inches high, with linear 

 nearly smooth leaves, and stems clothed 

 with loose tawny hairs, and terminated by 

 small yellow flower-heads, which have an 

 involucre of two sorts of scales, while the 

 florets are all tubular, and the few outer 

 female ones three-toothed. [A. A. BJ 



DIMORPHOTHECA. The Cape Marigold, 

 known also under the names of Calendula 

 pliivialis and Meteorina gracilipes. An 

 annual herbaceous plant with narrow sin- 

 uated and toothed leaves, very slender 

 weak stems, and pretty flowers which 



bloom from June to September. These have 

 the florets of the ray white above, violet 

 below, and those of the disk brown. B. 

 pliivialis is so called because the florets 

 of the ray fold together and close at the 

 approach of rain. French, Souci pluvial or 

 hygrometre. [C.A. J.] 



DINEMANDRA. A genus of heath-like 

 Peruvian shrubs, belonging to the Mal- 

 pighiacecB. They bear flowers in clusters, 

 on small jointed stalks ; the calyx in five 

 divisions, each provided with one or 

 more glands at its base; the stamens 

 ten, united below, eight being sterile and 

 short. The fruits consist of three-winged 

 carpels. [M. T. MJ 



DISTKEL. (Fr.) Triticum monococcum. 



DINOPHORA. A genus of the Melas- 

 tovia family, nearly related to Spennera, 

 from which it differs in its five, not three- 

 celled ovary. It is represented by a single 

 species, B. spenneroides, which is a smooth 

 slender branching bush of three to five 

 feet, found in moist places in Fernando 

 Po, and bearing opposite stalked oval-acute 

 leaves, the branches terminated by loose 

 panicles of little pink flowers, which have 

 a top-shaped calyx tube, five oval acute 

 petals, and ten stamens. [A. A. B.] 



DIODIA. A genus of Cinchonacece, con- 

 sisting of herbaceous plants or small 

 shrubs, natives of Tropical America and 

 Africa. They have small white flowers, 

 with a calyx divided into two or four equal 

 or unequal segments; a funnel-shaped 

 corolla, the tube of which is lined with 

 hairs, and the limb divided into four lanceo- 

 late divisions; four stamens inserted into 

 the throat of the corolla ; and an ovary ad- 

 herent to the calyx tube, surmounted by a 

 fleshy disk, and internally divided into two 

 compartments, each containing a single 

 ovule. [M. T. MJ 



DKECIA (adj. DICECIOF/S, DIOICUS). 

 When the sexes of a plant are borne in 

 different flowers by distinct individuals, 

 as in willows. Expressed by the signs 



DIOICO-POLYGAMOTTS. When some of 

 the flowers of a dioecious plant produce 

 hermaphrodite flowers. 



DIOLENA. A genus of Melastomacece 

 found in Venezuela, and nearly allied to 

 Sonerila, but differing in having the parts 

 of the flower in fives ; and also to Berto- 

 linia, from which it is recognised by the 

 form of the anthers, which are ten in 

 number, short obovate and open at top 

 by two pores, while at the junction of the 

 anther with its stalks there are tAvo slender 

 erect spur-like appendages. The only 

 known species, B. hygrophila, is a dwarf 

 unbranched herb, with opposite long- 

 stalked oval pointed entire leaves, and 

 terminal one-sided raceme of small white 

 flowers, succeeded by three-celled and 

 three-winged capsules. [A. A. BJ 



DION^E ATTRAPE-MOUCHE. (Fr.) 

 Bioncea vmscipula. 



