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lants are up and have made fome progrefs, they may 
e inured by degrees to the open air; and in June they 
may be wholly expofed, and may remain abroad until 
November, when it will be proper to let the pots under 
a hot-bed frame to protect them from hard froft, which, 
while they are very young, may. kill the tops of the 
plants ; but they mult have as much free air as pofiible 
in mild weather. The following fpring, before the plants 
begin to (hoot, they ftiould be tranfplanted into a nur- 
fery, in a warm fituation, where they may be trained up 
for two years, and then removed to the places where they 
are defigned to remain, Thefe are both hardy enough 
to refill the greateft cold of this country, after the plants 
have acquired ftrength. The other fpecies are natives of 
the Eaft Indies and other hot climates; they require there¬ 
fore the protection of the bark-ftove. They have not, 
however, yet been introduced into cultivation here. 
DIOSTET'WI, a town of Silefia, in the principality 
of Oels: three miles fouth-fouth-weft of Mittelwalden. 
DIO'TA, f. Among the old chemifts, a circulating or 
< double veil'd. 
DIOTOTHE'C A, f. in botany. See Morina. 
DIOTRO'PHES, [from the Greek.] A man’s name. 
DI'OU, a town of Perfia, in the province of Chorafan : 
270 miles north of Herat. 
To DIP, v. a. pret. dipped-, particip. dipped, or dipt: 
[bippan, Saxon ; doopen, Dutch.] To inunerge ; to put 
into any liquor.—The perfon to be baptized may be 
dipped in water ; and fuch an immerfion or dipping ought 
to be made thrice, according to the canon. Ayliffe. 
Now, on fancy’s eafy wing convey’d, 
The king defcended to th’ Elyfian fhade ; 
There in a dufky vale, where Lethe rolls, 
Old Bavius fits to dip poetic fouls. Pope. 
To moiften; to wet: 
And though not mortal, yet a cold” fliudd’ring dew 
flips me all o’er, as when the wrath of Jove 
Speaks thunder. Milton. 
To be engaged in any affair.—In Richard’s time, I doubt, 
he was a little dipt in the rebellion of the commons. 
Dryden. —To engage as a pledge; generally ufed for the 
firft mortgage : 
Be careful (till of the main chance, my fon; 
Put out the principal in trufiy hands, 
Live on the ufe, and never dip thy lands. Dryden. 
To DIP, v. n. To fink ; to immerge.—We havefnakes 
in our cups, and in our difhes; and whoever dips too 
deep will find death in the pot. VEJlrange. —To enter ; 
to pierce : 
The vulture dipping in Prometheus’ fide. 
His bloody beak with his torn liver dyed. Glanville. 
To enter (lightly into any thing.—When I think all the 
repetitions are (truck out in a copy, I fometimes find more 
upon dipping in the firft volume. Pope. —To take that 
which comes firfi:; to choofe by chance : 
With what ill thoughts of Jove art thou poflefs’d > 
Wouldft thou prefer him to fome man ? Suppofe 
I dipp'd among the word, and Staius chofe > Dryden. 
DIPE'TALOUS, adj. [h? and ■k-et«A cv, Gr.] A term 
in botany for flowers that have only two petals ; as 
circaea, commelina, &c. 
DIPH'THONG, f. [h^Soi/705, Gr.] In grammar, a 
coalition of two vowels to form one found ; as vain, leaf, 
Cf/ar.—We fee how many difputes the fimple and am¬ 
biguous nature of vowels created among grammarians, 
and how it has begot the miftake concerning diphthongs: 
all that are properly fo are fyliables, and not diphthongs , 
as is intended to be fignified by that word. Holder. _Make 
a diphthong of the fecond eta and iota, inftead of their being 
two fyliables, and the objedtion is gone. Pope. 
DIPHY SA , f. [aso rov Hu; xou rxiv poo-aiy, Jacquin ; 
ip called on account of the two bladders (pvcrcc) of the 
D I P 
legume.] In botany, a genus of the clafs diadelphia, or¬ 
der decandria, natural order of papilionacese or legumi- 
nofae. The generic characters are—Calyx : perianthium 
on'e-leafed, bell-lhaped, (lightly comprefled, half five- 
cleft; the two upper fegments roundilh, obtufe, plane, 
fpreading very much ; the two lateral ones ovate, acute, 
erect, flattifii ; the lowed lanceolate, acuminate, con¬ 
cave, erett, a little longer than the reft. Corolla: papi¬ 
lionaceous ; ftandard obovate-oblong, emarginate, plane-, 
broad, reflex, on a claw the length of the calyx ; wings 
fiiorter than the ftandard, oblong, obtufe, afeending, con¬ 
verging behind, diverging in front ;. keel fickle-ftiaped, 
acuminate, .comprefled, afeending, (horter than the wings. 
Stamina: filaments ten, diadelphous, fimple, and nine- 
cleft, afeending; antherse ovate, fmall. Piftillum: germ 
fubcylindrical, pedicelled ; ftyle capillary, rifing; ftigma 
fimple, acute. Pericarpiurn : legume linear, compreifed, 
fiat, obtufe, augmented longitudinally on each fide by a 
membranaceous, very large, inflated, bladder, doled all 
round, one-celled. Seeds: feveral, oblong, obtufe, com¬ 
prefted, furnifhed with a little hook. The future is com¬ 
mon both to valve and bladder. The legume divides 
into joints between the feed.— EJfential CharaEler. Calyx 
half five-cleft ; legume with a bladder on each fide 3 
feeds hooked. 
Diphyfa Carthaginenfis, or Carthaginian diphyfa, ((in¬ 
gle fpecies,) is a fmall, unarmed, inelegant, ereft, branch¬ 
ing, tree, ten feet in height, and approaching to the ar- 
borefeent mimofas. Leaves pinnate, fmooth, two inches 
long, on the younger branches: there are ufually five 
leaflets on each fide, with an odd one, though not unfre- 
quently more or lefs ; they are oblong, emarginate, (mail, 
fome alternate, others oppofite. Common peduncles two- 
flowered or three-fiowered, axillary, filiform, the length 
of the leaves. Flowers yellow, with fcarcely any fmell. 
Legumes have thin, dry, whitifh bladders to them,whence 
the name. They continue long upon the tree without 
opening, till at length they fa’,' in tranfverfe pieces at the 
joints. Seeds five or fix, yellowifh. It grows every where 
about-Carthagena in New Spain; and flowers in Auguft 
and September. 
DIPLO'E,/.’ [from to double.] Inanatomy, 
the doubled lamina between the two tables of the bones 
of the fcull. Alfo the double coat of the uterus. 
DIPLO'MA,/. [of &9 tA ocj, Gr. to double up.] A 
royal charter, or prince’s letters patents. An inftrument 
given by colleges and focieties, on commencement of any 
degrees. A licence for a clergyman to exercife the mi- 
nifterial function, or a phyfician, &c. to praftife his art. 
DIPLOMA'TTC, adj. Privileged.—Henceforth we 
muft confider them as a kind of privileged perfons, as no 
inconfiderable members in the diplomatic body. Burke. 
DIPLOMA'TICS, f. The fcience of diplomas, or of 
ancient literary monuments, public documents, &c. It 
does not, however, nor can it, abfolutely extend its re- 
fearches to antiquity ; but is chiefly confined to the mid¬ 
dle age, and the firft centuries of modern times. For, 
though the ancients were accuftomed to reduce their 
contracts and treaties into writing, yet they graved them 
on tables, or covered them over with wax, orbrafs, cop¬ 
per, (tone, or wood, &c. And all that in the firft ages 
were not traced on brafs or marble, have pefilhed by the 
length of time, and the number of deftrudtive events. 
The word diploma fignifies, properly, a letter or epiftle, 
that is folded in the middle, and that is not open. But, 
in more modern times, the title has been given to all an¬ 
cient epillles, letters, literary monuments, and public 
documents, and to all thofe pieces of writing v\ hich the 
ancients called fyngrapha, ckirographa, codicilli, &c. In 
the middle* age, and in the diplomas themfelves, thefe 
writings are called litters, pracepta, placita, charta indi- 
cula, figilla, and bulla: ; as alfo panchart a, pantocharta , 
tradloria, deferiptiones, &c. The originals of thefe pieces 
are named exemplaria, or autographa, ckarta authentica , 
originalia, &c. and the copies apographa, copia, particular 
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