±15 



Cfjc Crca^uri? at SSatang. 



[dipt 



stems one to two feet high furnished at 

 intervals -with brown scales, and terminat- 

 ing in large racemes of numerous rose- 

 coloured nearly regular flowers about an 

 inch across. The oblong clawed lip is 

 | two-eared at the base and slightly bearded 

 I at the apex. There are two pollen masses 

 each with a separate caudicle, whence the 

 generic name signifying two feet. There 

 1 are three known species. A beautiful 

 figure of B. punctatum will be found among 

 ' the illustrations to Dr. Hooker's Flora of 

 j Tasmania. [A. A. B.] 



I DIPSACACE.E. (Teazelworts.) A natural 

 ' order of gamopetalous calycifloral dicoty- 

 ledons or Exogens, belonging to Lindley's 

 campanal alliance, embracing herbs or 

 undershrubs with opposite or whorled ex- 

 stipulate leaves, and flowers in heads sur- 

 rounded by an involucre ; calyx adherent, 

 membranous, surrounded by a separate 

 covering or involucel ; corolla tubular, 

 with an oblique four to five-lobed limb; 

 stamens four ; anthers distinct ; ovary one- 

 celled ; ovule pendulous. Fruit dry, not 

 opening, crowned by the pappus-like 

 calyx ; seed albuminous. Natives chiefly 

 ■ of the south of Europe, Barbary, the Le- 

 vant and the Cape of Good Hope. Astrin- 

 | gent qualities reside in some of the spe- 

 ! cies. Some are used in dressing cloth. 

 I Bipsacus Fullonum is the fuller's teazel, 

 I the dried heads of which,with their hooked 

 i spiny bracts, are used in fulling cloth, 

 i The opposite leaves of the wild teazel, B. 

 i eylvestris, unite at their bases so as to form 

 I a cavity in which water collects ; hence the 

 ' plant was called Bipsacus or thirsty. There 

 ! are six known genera and about 170 spe- 

 I cies. 2Iorina, Bipsacus, Cephalaria, and 

 | Scabiosa afford examples. [J. H. B.] 



DIP3ACT7S. The Teazel family, typical 

 of the order Bipsacacew. It forms a small 

 genus of prickly biennial plants, natives 

 of Europe and Northern Asia, having ob- 



I long or globular heads of flowers, sur- 

 rounded by an involucre of several narrow 

 bracts, the individual flowers separated by 

 long prickly scales, and inserted into a 

 small angular outer calyx (involucel). The 

 true calyx has a small cup-shaped border 

 surmounting the involucel, and the corolla 



, is divided into four unequal lobes. 



B. sylvestris, the common Teazel, is a 



i native of the southern parts of England 

 and Ireland, also of central and south 

 Europe, and Russian Asia. It grows from 

 four to six feet high, and is very prickly 

 in all parts ; the leaves long, lance-shaped, 

 and stalked, those on the upper part of 

 the stem growing together by their bases, 

 and forming a cup, which is generally 

 found full of clear water. The heads of 

 flowers are cylindrical, and between two 

 and three inches long, by one and a half 

 broad, having an involucre of from eight 

 to twelve stiff prickly bracts curved up- 

 wards, and the scales separating the flow- 

 ers terminate in a long straight sharp 

 point. 



: B. Fullonum, the Fuller's Teazel, is by 

 most botanists supposed to be merely a 



variety of the preceding, from which it 

 only differs in the scales of the flower- 

 heads being hooked instead of straight, 

 and the involucral bracts being shorter 

 and spreading. The flower-heads of this 

 plant, under the name of Teazels, form an 

 article of considerable importance to the 

 cloth manufacturer, who employs them 

 for raising the nap on cloth, no machine 

 having yet been invented to supplant 

 them. For this purpose they are fixed in 

 regular order upon cylinders, which are 

 made to revolve in such a manner that the 

 hooks of the Teazels come in contact with 

 the surface of the cloth, and thus raise a 

 nap, which is afterwards cut level. The 

 plant is cultivated in some parts of this 

 country, also in France, Austria, and other 

 parts of Europe. In 1859 the enormous 

 number of 18,907,120 teazel-heads were im- 

 ported, all of which came from France, 

 and were valued at five shillings per 

 thousand. [A. S.] 



DIPTERACANTHUS. A large genus of 

 Acanthacece, containing nearly 100 de- 

 scribed species, chiefly from Central and 

 South America and Asia, with a few from 

 Africa and Australia. They are creeping 

 or erect herbs or rarely shrubs, with soli- 

 tary or fasciculate flowers, collected at the 

 ends of the stem and branches into ra- 

 cemes. The lower flowers have large leafy 

 bracts, which become small and narrow in 

 the crowded racemes ; the calyx is more or 

 less deeply five-cleft, and the corolla is fun- 

 nel-shaped with a five-cleft limb ; the four 

 didynamous stamens are included, and 

 the stigma is bilamellate. [W. C] 



DIPTERACE^E. (Bipterocarpeo?, Bipter- 

 ads.) A natural order of thalamifloral dico- 

 tyledons or Exogens.belonging to Lindley's 

 guttiferal alliance, containing large trees 

 with resinous juice; alternate involute 

 leaves with convolute stipules ; long un- 

 equal calyx lobes ; twisted petals, and sta- 

 mens above twenty, distinct or united 

 in several bundles. Fruit leathery, one- 

 celled, surrounded by the calyx, the en- 

 larged divisions of which form winged ap- 

 pendages ; seeds single, without albumen. 

 Tropical Indian trees found especially in 

 the islands of the Indian Archipelago. 

 They yield a resinous balsamic juice. Bip- 

 terocarpus Irnvis or turbinatus, the gur- 

 jun of Chittagong, yields wood-oil which 

 exudes from the trunk, and is used as pitch, 

 varnish, and medicine. Bryabalanops 

 Camphora or aromatica, a tree from 100 to 

 130 feet high, supplies the hard cam- 

 phor of Sumatra, which exists in a solid 

 state in the interior of the stem, some- 

 times in pieces weighing from 10 to 12 lbs. 

 It also yields by incision a resinous oily 

 fluid called the liquid camphor or camphor- 

 oil of Borneo. Sometimes five gallons of 

 the liquid are found in a cavity in the 

 trunk. The wood of Vateria or Shorea ro- 

 busta is used in India under the name of 

 sal. Dhoona pitch is also procured from 

 the plant. Vateria indica yields the piney 

 resin or piney dammer of India, which is 

 used as a varnish, and for lighting. There 



