superior, and becomes an ovate fleshy one- 

 seeded edible warted fruit. The genus is 

 referred to the Salvadoracece. [M. T. M.] 



DOBINEA. An Eastern Himalayan bush 

 of the maple family. It grows to about 

 ten feet in height, and has opposite stalked 

 lance-shaped or oval toothed leaves, and 

 minute flowers, male and female on the 

 same plant, disposed in long terminal 

 panicles. The males have a four-toothed 

 bell-shaped calyx, four oblong clawed 

 petals, and eight stamens. The females 

 are quite naked, and sit on the middle of a 

 thin yellowish beautifully-veined bract, 

 which is nearly round, and about half an 

 inch in 'diameter. The circumstance of the 

 female flower arising from near the middle 

 of a veined bract is highly curious, and 

 not paralleled in the family, nor is it met 

 with in any family more nearly related 

 than that of the lime tree. [A. A. B.] 



DOCK. The common name for Bumex.— 

 GROVE, Bumex Xemolapathum, —WATER, 

 Bumex Rydrolapathum. 



DODARTIA orientals is an erect glabrous 

 herb with stiff rush-like very spreading 

 branches, and few small leaves, forming a 

 genus of Scrophidariacece, with flowers 

 much like those of the smaller Antirrhi- 

 nums, but with a globular capsule opening 

 in two short nearly equal valves. It is a 

 native of the dry saline steppes of southern 

 Russia. 



DODDER. Cuscuta. 



DODDER-CAKE. An oil cake made from 

 the refuse of Camelina sativa. 



DODDER-LAURELS. A name applied 

 by Lindley to the Cassythacece. 



DODECA In Greek compounds=12. 



DODECAS. A genus of Lythracece from 



Surinam. It consists of glabrous shrubs 



with four-angled branches, opposite ob- 



I long-obovate entire leaves, and axillary 



; usually one-flowered peduncles ; the calyx 



j is urceolate with a four-cleft spreading 



i limb, the petals four, small and round, 



and the stamens twelve. [J. T. S.] 



DODECATHEON. A genus of Primu- 

 lacece, known by the reflexed segments 

 of the deeply-cleft corolla, and the cylin- 

 drical capsule opening at the apex by Ave 

 teeth. They are smooth perennial herbs, 

 with fibrous roots, and rosettes of oblong 

 or obovate root leaves ; the scape is simple, 

 bearing an umbel of large nodding rose- 

 purple or white flowers, with long reflexed 

 segments, and five short monadelphous 

 filaments with long anthers which are ex- 

 serted and form a slender cone. The well- 

 known American Cowslip, D. Meadia, 

 grows in woods in the warmer parts of 

 North America In the Western States, 

 where it is more common, it is called 

 ; the Shooting Star. The name, signifying 

 twelve divinities, is one of fanciful appli- 

 cation. [J. T. S.] 



, of the order Sapijidacec?, comprising about 



: ninety species, the greater proportion of 



which are found in extratropical Australia, 



J and the remainder are thinly scattered 



over other tropical countries. Few of them , 

 | exceed ten feet in height, and almost all 

 I have their leaves more or less covered 

 ! with a clammy gum. In the most com- 

 monly diffused group theseorgans are lance- 

 shaped or spathulate ; in another they are 

 linear ; in a third they are wedge-shaped 

 and toothed ; while in a fourth they are 

 pinnate, made up of numerous little wedge- 

 shaped or linear leaflets. The apetalous 

 flowers are unisexual or polygamous, 

 arranged in axillary or terminal racemes or 

 panicles. The fruits are menibranous.with 

 their angles produced into thin papery 

 roundedwings. The leaves o£D.viscosa,one 

 of the most widely diffused species, have a 

 somewhat sour and bitter taste, and the 

 plant is from this circumstance, called in 

 Jamaica, Switch Sorrel. According to Mr. 

 Bennett, this plant is known in Tahiti as 

 Apiri, and ' fillets of it were once used for 

 binding round the heads and waists of 

 victors after a battle, and during the pur- 

 suit of the vanquished.' The leaves of D. 

 Thunbergiana, a native of South Africa, 

 are said to be used against fevers, and as a 

 purgative. The genus bears the name of 

 Dodoens, a Belgian botanist and physi- 

 cian of the sixteenth century. [A. A. B.] 



DODRANS (adj. DODR ANT ALLS). Nine 

 inches, or the space between the thumb 

 and the little finger separated as widely 

 as" possible. 



DOGBANES. A name given by Lindley 

 to the Apocynacece. 



DOGBERRY-TREE. Cornus sanguined. 

 DOG MERCURY. Mercurialis. 

 DOG-POISON. JEthusa Cynapium. 

 DOGS-BANE. A common name for 

 Apocynum ; also Aconitum Cynocf.onum. 



DOG'S-CHOP. Mesembryanthemum cani- 

 nvmi. 



DOGWOOD. A common name for Cor- 

 nus. — , AMERICAN. Cornus florida. 

 — , BLACK. Piscidia carihaginensis. —, 

 JAMAICA. Piscidia Erythrina. —NEW 

 SOUTH WALES. Jacksonia scoparia. — , 

 TASMANIAN or VICTORIAN. Bedfordia 

 salicina. — , WHITE. Piscidia Erythrina. 



DOH. A Javanese name for the horse- 

 hair-like fibres of the Gomuti palm, Sa- 

 guerus saccharifer. 



DOL ABRIPORM. Fleshy, nearly straight, 

 somewhat terete at the base, compressed 

 towards the upper end ; one border thick 

 and straight, the other enlarged, convex, 

 and thin. 



DOLIA. A genus of Nolanacece, con- 

 taining a few South American littoral 

 plants with the habit of some of the 

 smaller maritime Chenopodiacea?. Heath- 

 DODOX.EA. A genus of viscous shrubs , like branched shrubs with fleshy linear 



