DIG 
DIM 
Digit is also a measure taken from tlie 
breadth of the finger. It is properly three- 
fourths of an inch, and contains the mea- 
sure of four barley corns laid breadtli- 
wise. 
Digits, in aritlimetic, signify any inte- 
ger under 10 , as 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 . 
DIGITALIS, in botany, English fox- 
glove, a genus of the Didynamia Angiosper- 
ma class and order. Natural order of Lu- 
ridae, Linnaeus. Scrophulariae, Jussieu. Es- 
sential character : calyx five-parted ; corolla 
bell form, five-cleft, bellying ; capsule ovate, 
two- celled. There are twelve species. 
These are large plants, with alternate leaves 
and flowers in spikes at the ends of the 
stem and branches. D. purpurea, purple 
fox-glove, is biennial; the stem is from 
three to six feet high, upright ; leafy, round, 
pubescent; leaves alternate, acute, veiny, 
and wrinkled underneath ; flowers^ipi a long 
spike, nodding, imbricate, all directed the 
same way ; peduncles one-flowered, pubes- 
cent, thickest at top ; calyx also pubescent ; 
corolla purple, the bellying part sprinkled 
on the inside with spots like little eyes ; fila- 
ments a little broader' at top, crooked at 
bottom ; anthers large, cloven almost to the 
base, yellowish, and frequently spotted; 
stigma bifid ; nectary a gland, surrounding 
the base of the germ ; seeds dark brown, 
truncate at botli ends. It is a native of 
Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, 
in sandy and gravelly soils ; near London it 
grows plentifully. It flowers from June to 
August. 
DIGITATED, among botanists, an ap- 
pellation given to compound leaves, each of 
which is composed of a number of simple 
foliola, placed regularly on a common pe- 
tiole; though, strictly speaking, there must 
be more than four foliola to make a digi- 
tated leaf. 
DIGNITARY, in the canon law, a per- 
son who holds a dignity, tliat is, a benefice 
which gives him some pre-eminence over 
mere priests and canons. Such is’ a bishop, 
dean, archdeacon, prebendaiy, &c. 
DIGNITY, as applied to the titles of 
noblemen, signifies honour and authority. 
As the omission of a name of dignity may 
be pleaded in abatement of a writ ; so may 
it be where a peer or nobleman, who has 
inore than one name of dignity, is not named 
by that which is most noble. 
DIGYNIA, the name of an order or se- 
condaiy division in each of the fii-st thirteen 
classes, except tlie ninth, in Linnaeus’s me- 
thod ; consisting of plants, which, to the 
classic character, whatever it is, add the 
circumstance of having two styles or fe- 
male organs. 
DILAPIDATION, is where an incum- 
bent of a church living suffers the parsonage- 
house or out-houses to fall down, or be in 
decay for want of necessary repamtions ; or 
it is the pulling down or destroying any of 
the houses or buildings belonging to a spi- 
ritual living, or destroying of the woods, 
trees, &c. appertaining to the same ; for it 
is said to extend to committing or suffering 
any wilful waste, in or upon the inheritance 
of the church. 
DILATATION. See Expansion. 
DILATRIS, in botany, a genus of the 
Triandria Mouogynia class and order. Na- 
tural order of Ensatce. Irides, Jussieu. 
Essential character : calyx none ; corolla 
slx-petalled, hirsute ; filaments one less than 
the others ; stigma simple. There are tliree 
species, all natives of the Cape. 
DILEMMA, in logic, an argument con- 
sisting of two or moi e propositions, which 
divides the whole into alt its parts, or mem- 
bers, by a disjunctive proposition, and then 
infers something concerning each part, 
which is finally referred to concerning the 
whole. 
DILL. See Anethum. 
DILLENIA, in botany, so named in 
honour of J. J. Dillenius, professor of bo- 
tany at Oxford, a genus of the Polyandria 
Polyginia class and order. Natural order 
of Coadunatae. Magnoliae, Jussieu. Essen- 
tial character : calyx five-leaved ; petals 
five-cleft ; capsule many-seeded ; connate 
filled with pulp. There are seven species. 
These are very handsome trees, natives of 
the East indies ; the leaves are large, and 
of a leathery substance; tlie flowers are 
axillary or terminating, and frequently very 
large. 
DIMENSION, in geometry, is either 
length, breadth, or tliickness; hence a line 
hath one dimension, viz. length ; a superfi- 
cies two, viz. length and breadth ; and a 
body, or solid has three, to wit, length, 
breadth, and thickness. 
DIMINUTION, in rhetoric, the exag- 
gerating of what you have to say by an ex- 
pression that seems to diminish it. 
DIMINUTIVE, in grammar, a word 
formed for some other, to soften or diminish 
tlie force of it, or to signify a thing is little 
in its kind. Thus cellule is a diminutive of 
cell, globule of globe, liillock of hill. 
DIMORCARPUS, in botany, a genus 
of the Octandria Monogynia class and or- 
