D I C 
flem arboreous. Found by fir Jofeph Banks and Dr. So- 
lander at St. Helena. Introduced in 1786, by Mr. An¬ 
thony Hove. It flowers mod part of the winter. 
2. Dickfonia culcita, or fhining-leaved Dickfonia : 
fronds fuperdecompound, fmooth ; leaflets ferrate. Found 
in the ifland of Madeira, where it is called feila brom ; and 
in the illand of St. Miguel, one of the Azores, by MafTon. 
The inhabitants make pillows and culhions of the roots. 
There .is little doubt but that this plant and the baro- 
mets , or Scythian lamb, arc one and the fame, though they 
come from countries 1 o remote. See Pliilof. Tran fa . 
for 1698 and 1723. 
DICK'VEL, a town of the ifland of Ceylon, near the 
fouth coaft : 102 miles fouth of Candy. 
DICK'WASSET, or Digdeguash, a river of North 
America, in the Britifh province of New Brunfwick, 
which empties into Palfamaquoddy bay. 
DICONAN'GI A, j. in botany. See Itea. 
DICOTY'LEDON,/ in botany, a plant which fprings 
up with two feed-leaves, the charadleriftic of the gene¬ 
rality of plants. 
DICRA'NUM, f A genus of crypiogamia mufci, in 
Schreber and Hedwig ; comprehending alio his fiflideus. 
It embraces feveral i'pecies of mnium, bryum, and hyp- 
num, of Linnaeus. 
DIC'RICH, a town of the duchy of Luxemburg, fitu- 
ated on the river Semoy, furrounded with a wall by John 
king of Bohemia and count of Luxemburg; it is the ca¬ 
pital of a jurifdiftion which extends over twenty-fix vil¬ 
lages and hamlets; in fpirituals, it is under the arch- 
bilhop of Treves. The Hollanders, under Philip comte 
of Naflau, thought to have made themfelves mailers of 
it in 1593, but the brave defence of the citizens gave 
time to the comte de Mansfelt to come up with his troops, 
who put them to flight. Fifteen miles north of Luxem¬ 
burg, and fifteen north-well of Treves. Lat. 50. 5. N. 
Ion. 23. 38. E. Ferro. 
DICRO'TUS,/. [from he, twice, and y.oovu, to ftrike.] 
An epithet applied to a pulfe, in which the artery fieems 
to ftrike double. With ancient naturalills, a deer in its 
third year. 
DIC'TAMEN, /. [from dico, Lat. to fpeak.] A pre¬ 
cept, a rule ; a lelfon dictated by a mailer to a lcholar. 
DICTAM'NUM, f. in botany. See Origanum. 
DICTAM'NUS, f [from tmtew, to bring down.] 
Fraxinella, [dimin. of fraxinus, an alh ; from the form 
of the leaves.] In botany, a genus of the clafs decandria, 
order monogynia, natural order of multifiliquae. The 
generic characters are—Calyx : perianthium five-leaved, 
very fmall, deciduous; leaflets oblong, acuminate. Co¬ 
rolla: petals five, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, with claws, 
unequal, of which two are bent upwards ; two placed ob¬ 
liquely at the (ides, one bent dowmwards. Stamina: fila¬ 
ments ten, fubulate, length of the corolla, lituated be¬ 
tween the two lateral declining petals, unequal ; fmall 
point-like glands fcattered over the filaments; anthene 
four-fided, riling upwards. Piftillum: germ five-cor¬ 
nered, elevated from the receptacle ; ftyle Ample, Ihort, 
bent downwards, incurved ; ftigma (harp, riling upwards. 
Pericarpium: capfules five, conjoined inwardly at the 
border, comprelfed, acuminate, with diftant tips, two- 
valved. Seeds: in pairs, ovate, very fmooth, within 
a common aril, which is two-valved, and cut down.— 
EJfential Character. Calyx five-leaved ; petals five, patu¬ 
lous ; filaments having glandulous dots fcattered over 
them ; capfules five, conjoined. 
Species. 1. Dactamnus albus, or fraxinella: leaves pin¬ 
nate, (lent Ample. Root perennial, linking deep into the 
ground, and the head annually increaling in fize. Stalks 
many, two or three feet high, round, here and there 
(lightly grooved, fometimes fubancipital, not branched, 
at the bottom green and befet with white hairs, ferrugi¬ 
nous red towards the top, with refinous glands. Leaves 
alternate, the larger above a foot in length, fpreading 
out horizontally, afeending towards the end; the mid- 
D 1 C 8013 
rib flat at the top and edged onboth fides, convex be¬ 
neath and hairy; leaflets from two to five pairs, with an 
odd one at the end, moll of them alternate, except the 
top pair or two, fellile or fubfefliie, except the end one. 
which is on a long winged petiole, fmooth, ft iff, oblique, 
except the end one, ovate, acute, ferrate.,, (Fining on both 
fides, about two inches long and an inch wide. The 
whole fomewhat refembling an alh-leaf. Flowers in a 
long pyramidal loofe fpike or raceme, nine or ten inches 
long: to each flower fucceeds a fruit confiding of five 
comprelfed capfules, fpreading out like the points ot a 
liar, rough with hairs and glandular tubercles, ending at 
the top in a ftraigln line, with a Ihort upright tooth or 
procefs at the inner end, and a long red one ftretching 
out at the other. Within this (kin is a cartilaginous 
ovate-oblong (hell, obliquely truncate at the top, deeply 
emarginate and cut out on the inner fide for the recep¬ 
tion of the receptacle, two-valved, one-celled, opening 
elaftically within. Seeds two, according to Linnaeus ; 
Scopoli lays only one ; Gamtner affirms that there are fix 
or eight in a capfule, but that only one or two come to 
maturity ; they are pear-lhaped, very Imooth, black, and 
fliining. The whole plant, efpecially w hen gently rubbed, 
emits an odour like that of lemon-peel, but when bruifed 
it has fomething of a balfamic feent. This fine feent is 
lb ongeft in the pedicels of the flowers, which are covered 
with glands of a rufty red colour, exiuding a vifeid juice 
or refin, which exhales in vapour, and in a dark place 
may be feen to take fire. Fraxinella is a native of Ger¬ 
many, France, Spain, Auftria, and Italy. It flowers with 
11s at the end of May and in June, and the feeds ripen in 
September. For its beauty and fine feent it deferves a 
place in every good garden. It was cultivated by Ge- 
rarde in 1596, and is named by him bajlard or fa.lfe dittany. 
Parkinfon calls it j'alfe white dittany. 
2. DiCtamnus Capenfis, or Cape fraxinella : leavesfim- 
pie ; Hem branching. This refembles the firlt fpecies 
very nearly. The Ample leaves are alternate, and like 
the leaflets of the preceding. The raceme is the fame 
in both.. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope. The 
fame with Cai.odendrum Capenfe ; which fee. 
Propagation and Culture. Fraxinella is propagated by 
feeds, which if fown in the autumn foon after they are 
ripe, the plants will appear the following April; but, 
when they are kept out of the ground till the fpring, 
the feeds feldorn lucceed ; or if they do grow, it is the 
following fpring before the plants appear, fo that a whole 
year is loft. When the plants come up, they mull be 
conftantly kept clean from weeds.; and in the autumn, 
when their leaves decay, the roots ftiould be carefully 
taken up, and planted in beds at fix inches diftance every 
way ; thefe beds may be four feet broad, and the paths 
betu'een them two, that there may be room enough to 
pafs between the beds to weed them. In thefe beds the 
plants may (land two years, during which time they mull 
be conftantly kept clean from weeds: and, if they thrive 
well, they will be ftrong enough to flower; in the au¬ 
tumn they fhould be carefully taken up, and planted in 
the middle of the borders of the flower-garden; where 
they will continue thirty or forty years, producing more 
Items of flowers in proportion to the fize of the roots. 
All the culture thefe require, is to be kept clean from 
weeds, and the ground about them dug every winter. 
To DIC'TATE, v. a. \_diClo, Lat.] To deliver to ano¬ 
ther with authority ; to declare with confidence.—What- 
loever is dictated to us by God himfelf, or by men who are 
divinely infpired, mull be believed with full alfurance. 
Watts. 
The fpoils of elephants the roofs inlay, 
And lludded amber darts a golden ray; 
Such, and not nobler, in the realms above. 
My wonder dictates is the dome of Jove. Pope. 
DIC'TATE,/. [ \diClatum , Lat.] Rule or maxim de¬ 
livered with authority ; prefeription; prefeript.—Thofe 
light 
