DEC 
The capital redeemed by the Commis; 
signers for the reduction of the national 
debt, is given as it stood on the 1st of Fe- 
bruary, 1807, their accounts being made up 
to that period. 
Tlie statement is exclusive of the capital 
of Imperial 3 per cent, annuities, being 
7,502,6331. 6s. 8d.; the dividends on which, 
amounting to 225,0791. per annum, and like- 
wise the annuities for 25 years of 230,0001. 
per annum, have become as regular a charge 
upon the consolidated fund as any part of 
the debt of Great Britain. 
For the terms on which the public debts 
have been contracted, see Loans. For the 
particulars of the dilFerent funds of which 
they consist, and the mode of transacting 
business therein, see Funds. 
DEBTS and o'edits, in military affairs. 
Every captain of a troop or company in 
the British service is directed to give in a 
monthly statement of the debts and credits 
of his men ; and it is the duty of every com- 
manding officer to examine each list, and 
to see that no injustice or irregularity has 
been countenanced or overlooked in this 
business. 
decagon, in geometry, a plane figure 
with ten sides and ten angles : it is called a 
regular decagon, when all the sides and an- 
gles are equal. 
If we suppose the radius of a circle to be 
r, then will |r- — jC, or ^ ’’ 
be the side of a decagon inscribed in that 
circle. Again, supposing the side of a de- 
cagon to be 1, the area thereof will be 8.69 ; 
whence, as 1 to 8.69, so is the square of the 
side of any given decagon to the area of 
that decagon. 
DECAGYNIA, in botanjr, the name of 
an order, or secondary division, in the class 
Decandria, of the sexual method, consist- 
ing of plants whose flowers are furnished 
with ten stamina, and the same number of 
styles. Neurada and American night shade 
furnish examples. 
DECALOGUE, the ten precepts or com- 
mandments delivered by God to Moses, af- 
ter engraving them on two tables of stone. 
DECANDRIA, in botany, the name of 
the tenth class’ in Linnaeus’s system, con- 
sisting of plants whose flowers, as the name 
imports, are furnished with ten stamina or 
mde organs. This class, as well as the 
other classes in Linnaeus’s method that are 
compounded with a numeral, has another 
character, which is not expressed in the ti- 
DEC 
tie, viz. that the flowers are all hermaphro* 
dite, that is, have both stamina and poin- 
tals, which, according to our author, are 
the male and female organs of generation 
vvithin the same covers. In this respect, 
the classes in question differ from the Mo- 
noecia and Dimcia of the same author, in 
which the male and female organs are sepa- 
rated j being placed, in the former, upon 
different parts of the same plant ; in the lat- 
ter, upon distinct plants. This observation 
merits attention, because character, which 
is the subject of it, is indispensably iieces- 
saiy ; and a plant having ten, or any num- 
ber of stamina, is not on that account to 
be referred to its respective numeral class, 
unless both male and female organs are 
found contained within the covers of the 
flower. To take an example from the class 
which we are now considering : the flowers 
of the curious exotic, papaw, or popo-tree, 
have ten stamina ; and yet the plant can- 
not be arranged under the class Decandria, 
because the male and female parts are not 
only placed within different covers, but 
likewise produced upon distinct plants : the 
popo seed ripened by the female flowere 
producing both male and female trees. Be- 
sides the sexes of the flowers, it is necessary 
thaf the stamina be of ah equal lengtli and 
distinct ; that is, neither joined at the bot- 
tom nor top ; circumstances which would 
remove tlie plants in which they are found, 
to classes whose essential character is no 
ways connected with the number of the 
male and female organs. 
The orders or secondary divisions in this 
numerous class are five, and take tlieir 
name from the number of styles, or female 
organs. Fraxenilla, lignum vit®, dvvarf 
rose-bay, and strawberry-tree, have one 
style ; soap-wort, and carnation, have two ; 
cucubalus, viscous campion, and sand-wort, 
three; hog-plum, navel- wort, and house- 
leek, five; neurada, and American night- 
shade, ten. 
Decandria is likewise the name of an or- 
der or secondary division in the dasses Mo- 
nadelphia, Diadelphia, Gynandria, and 
Dioecia, in all which, the classic character 
being unconnected with the number of sta- 
mina, that circumstance, properly enough, 
serves as a foundation for the secondai'y or 
subordinate division. 
DECEM tales, in law, a writ that issues 
directed to the sheriff, whereby he is com- 
manded to make a supply of jurymen, 
where a full jury does not appear on a trial 
at bar. 
