backwards, and the petals broader and 

 growing so close together for the greater 



part of their length as to form a tube. 

 The fruit is of a beautiful shining deep 

 crimson colour, shaped like a little flo- 

 rence-flask ; it contains numerous seeds, 

 imbedded in a soft pinkish pulp, which has 

 a sweetish sub-acid taste. [A. S.] 



DISOCARPUS. A genus of the spurge- 

 wort family, composed of a few tropical 

 South American trees, with smooth oval 

 entire leaves two or three inches long, a 

 good deal like those of the Portugal laurel, 

 ! and axillary bundles of small sessile 

 i flowers of which the male and female are 

 on different plants. The males have a cup- 

 ' shaped calyx of five unequal divisions, no 

 i petals, and Ave stamens ; while the females 

 : have five petals, five rudimentary stamens, 

 and a three-lobed ovary. Three species 

 ' are known. The genus differs from its 

 near allies in the absence of petals in the 

 male flowers, and the presence of rudimen- 

 tary stamens in the females. [A. A. B.] 



DISOON". A genus of Myoporacece-, re- 

 ; presented by B. flaribundum, a smooth 

 | slender graceful bush, six feet high, found 

 : in South-eastern Australia. It has alter- 

 i nate linear leaves, and a great profusion of 

 j little bell-shaped flowers arranged in axil- 

 ; lary clusters, and having a five-toothed 

 : calyx which does noc grow larger after the 

 ' flower withers, a five-toothed border to 

 the corollas, and four protruding sta- 

 mens. The fruit is a little two-celled 

 drupe with two seeds. The nature of the 

 fruit, and the calyx not enlarging after 

 the fading of the flower, are the most 

 marked characters. [A. A. B.] 



DISPHEXIA. A small set of cyathea- 

 ceous ferns, now generally included in 

 Cyathea itself, but separated by some 

 authors on account of the elevated recep- 

 tacle being split into two wedge-shaped 

 divisions. [T.M.] 



DISPORUM. A genus of Melanthacece, 



belonging to the group connecting that 

 order with Liliacece, of which Uvularia is 

 the type. The species which occur in 

 India are herbs with subsessile leaves and 

 few-flowered axillary peduncles, the peri- 

 anth six-cleft, with each division keeled 

 and bulging at the base, the whole forming 

 an angular tube. [J. T. SJ 



DISSECTED. Cut into many deep lobe3. 



DISSEPIMENTS. The partitions in a 

 fruit caused by the adhesion of the sides 

 of carpellary leaves. — , SPURIOUS. Any 

 partitions in fruit which have not the 

 origin just explained. 



DISSOMERIA. A genus of Womaliacece, 



represented by a shrub native of Western 

 tropical Africa, the parts of whose flowers 

 are arranged in fours, the eight petals 

 alternate with as many glands ; the sta- 

 mens numerous, in eight bundles opposite 

 to the petals, the anther-lobes separated 

 by a thick fleshy connective : ovary one- 



1 celled ; styles four or three. Fruit inde- 

 hiscent, seeds few by abortion. [M. T. M.] 



j DISSOTHRIX. A genus of the composite 

 family found in Brazil. B. Gardner!, the 

 , only species, is a slender annual herb, a 

 foot and a half high, with erect stems 

 i terminating in a loose panicle of small 

 j flower-heads, and furnished with stalked 

 j nearly oval leaves toothed at the margin, 

 j opposite on the lower part of the stem and 

 alternate above. Each flower-head has 

 from five to eight tubular five-toothed 

 j florets, enclosed in an involucre formed 

 j of two series of lance-shaped scales. The 

 I achenes are five-angled, and crowned with 

 a pappus of numerous hairs of two sorts, 

 ! the greater proportion capillary, but five 

 longer than the rest, more rigid, and cor- 

 responding to the angles of the achenes. 

 The nature of the pappus serves to distin- 

 guish the genus from Stevia, to which it is 

 most nearly allied. [A.. A. B.] 



DISSOTIS. A genus of West African 

 ! melastomaceous herbs, nearly allied to 

 Osbeckia, from which it differs in having 

 dissimilar stamens. The few known spe- 

 cies are erect herbs one to three feet high, 

 with opposite lance-shaped three to five- 

 nerved leaves, which as well as the four- 

 sided stems, are clothed with soft-spread- 

 ing hairs. The rosy or purple flowers 

 generally in threes at the ends of the 

 twigs, and about an inch across, have the 

 tube of the calyx beset with hairy tuber- 

 cles, and its border five-toothed ; five 

 rounded petals ; and ten stamens, the latter 

 of two sorts, the five opposite the petals 

 having their anthers joined to the filament 

 by a long slender connective, while those 

 opposite the calyx teeth have a very short or 

 almost obsolete connective. B. Irvingiana, 

 a pretty species found in Abbeokuta, is 

 now cultivated in England. [A. A. B.] 



DISTEGANTHUS. The name of a para- 

 sitical bromeliaeeous plant, with yellow 

 flowers, which have a six-parted perianth, 

 the three inner divisions of which form a 

 kind of spiral tube below, while above 

 they are petal-like and somewhat concave ; 

 stamens six, thick, hidden by the scales of 

 the inner divisions of the perianth ; style 

 twisted at the base, divided above into 

 papillose convolute stigmas. [M. T.M.] 



DISTEGOCARPUS. A name sometimes 

 given to a few Japanese species of horn- 

 beam, Carpinus, which differ from the 

 others in having the bracts of the male 

 catkins narrowed into a stalk. In other 

 respects they are very like the common 

 hornbeam of our shrubberies. [A. A. B.] 



DISTEPHANUS. A genus of shrubs of 

 the composite family from Mauritius and 

 Madagascar, nearly related toVernonia, and 

 differing in having appendiculate apices to 

 the scales of the involucre. Of the three 

 known species, the most common is B. 

 populifolius, a bush with stalked oval 

 pointed leaves covered on both surfaces 

 with soft white pubescence. The flower- 

 heads, each about half an inch in diameter. 



