DIO 
tier. Calyx five-cleft ; corolla five-petalled ; 
berries two, one-seeded, large. One spe- 
cies, found in China. 
DIMORPHA, in botany, a genus of the 
Diadelphia Decandria class and order. Na- 
tural of Papillonaceae or Leguminosae. 
Essential character: petals one large con- 
volute, in place of the keel ; standard and 
wings none. There are three species, na- 
tives of the woods and banks of rivers of 
Guiana. 
DIOCESE, the circuit of every bishop’s 
jurisdiction. For this realm hath two sorts 
of divisions ; one into shires or counties, in 
respect of the temporal state ; and another 
into provinces, in regard to the ecclesias- 
tical state ; which provinces are divided into 
dioceses. The provinces are two ; Canter- 
bury and York, whereof Canterbury- in- 
cludes twenty-one dioceses, or sees of suf- 
fragan bishops ; and York three, besides 
the bishopric of the Isle of Man, which was 
annexed to the province of York by king 
Henry the Eighth. 
DIODIA, in botany, a genus of the 
Tetrandria Monogynia class and order. 
Natural order of Stellat®. Rubiacem, 
Jussieu. Essential character : corolla one- 
petalled, funnel-form ; capsule two celled, 
two seeded. There are six species, most 
of them natives of the W est Indies. 
DIODON, in natural history, a genus of 
fishes of the order Cartilaginei. Generic 
character: jaws bony and undivided; aper- 
ture of the gills linear ; body covered on all 
sides with long moveable spines ; no ventral 
fins. There are three species according 
to Gmelin, and five according to Shaw. 
D. hystrix, or the sea porcupine, as it is 
termed popularly, grows to nearly two feet 
in length, and inhabits the Indian and Ame- 
rican seas. In some of the West India 
islands it is used for food, but, in general, is 
little valued. Its resemblance to the porcu- 
pine and hedge-hog, and likewise to the sea- 
urchins, is considerable both in appearance 
and manners. It possesses the faculty of 
raising and depressing its spines at pleasure, 
and likewise of flattening its body, or ex- 
tending it to a globular form, and is often 
fished for with a rod and line merely for the 
sake of the curious spectacle it exhibits by 
these violent alternations. On first perceiv- 
ing the hook, it appears agitated by the ex- 
treme of rage. Its spines are erected witli 
the utmost intenseness, and its body is 
swelled to the form of a ball, and tlius, for 
a considerable time, it moves rapidly in 
various directions, as if surprised and mad- 
DIO 
dened by the failure of all its efforts at re- 
venge and extrication. Being at length ex- 
hausted, its spines are levelled, and the air 
is expelled frotn its body, which, from the 
form of a globe assumes that of a wafer. 
Its strength, however, is partially renewed 
before it is drawn on shore, and it exhibits 
again all the intensity and fierceness of its 
agitation in the repetition of the symptoms 
above described, in which state it is thrown 
upon the land, and there suffered for some 
time to remain till the langours of death 
prevent the possibility of injury, and extin- 
guish at once its resentments and vitality. 
See Pisces, Plate IV. fig. 1. 
DKECIA, two houses. The name of 
the twenty-second class in Linnsens’s sexual 
method, consisting of plants, which, having 
no hermaphrodite flowers, produce male 
and female flowers on separate roots. These 
latter only ripen seeds, but require, for that 
purpose, according to the sexualists, the 
vicinity of a male plant, or the aspersion of 
the male dust. From the seeds of the fe- ' 
male flowers are raised both male and fe- 
male plants. The plants then in the class 
dicecia, are all male or female ; not her- 
maphrodite as in the greater number of 
classes ; or with male and female flowers 
upon one root, as in the class mouoecia of 
the same author. 
DIOMEDEA, the albatross, in natural 
history, a genus of birds of the order Anse- 
res. Generic character : bill strong, bend- 
ing in tlie middle, and hooked at the end 
of the upper mandible ; the lower mandi- 
ble truncated ; nostrils oval, wide, promi- 
nent, and covered with a large convex 
guard ; tongue hardly perceivable ; toes 
three, and all placed forward. There are 
four species, of which we shall notice, the 
D. exulans, or the wandering albatross. 
This bird is an inhabitant of not only many 
countries between the tropics, but also be- 
yond them both to the north and south. It 
is found in Kamtschatka, and is particularly 
abundant at the Cape of Good Hope. Its 
weight is from twelve to twenty-eight 
pounds ; its length is occasionally four feet, 
and its extent, from wing to wing, ten. 
Its sounds are harsh, and thought not a lit- 
tle to resemble the braying of an ass. Its 
arrival at Kamtschatka is regarded as an 
infallible presage of the speedy arrival of 
shoals of fish, and upon these, however, 
emaciated when it arrives, it fattens within 
a very short time. It feeds, indeed, with 
uncommon voracity, and will often attempt 
to swallow a fish of four pounds weight, the 
