Skull of Dinotherium giganteum, seen from above.

3kull of the same, seen from below.

Portions of the skull of the same; a, posterior part of the skull, seen from below, showing the occipital condyle and foramen, &c.; b, roof of the mouth and molar teeth; the interval between the rows widening from before backwards.

In this view of the subject it becomes of importance to see what were the remains which were found in the strata of sand at Epplesheim, near Altzey, about 12 leagues south of Mayence, in company with those of the Dinotherium.

Dr. Kaup, in his 'Description d'Ossemens Fossiles' (Darmstadt, 1832), gives the following number of species:-Dinotherium, 2; Tapirus, 2; larger than living species. Chalicotherium (allied to Tapirs), 2; Rhinoceros, 2; Tetracaulodon (allied to Mastodon), 1; Hippotherium (allied to Horse), 1; Sus, 3; Felis (some as large as a Lion), 4; Machairodus (allied to Bear, Ursus cultridens); Gulo (Glutton), 1; Agnotherium (allied to Dog, but as large as a Lion), 1. Dr. Buckland, in the work and in the edition above quoted, after giving a description of the tusks of the Dinotherium, thus proceeds :"I shall confine my present remarks to this peculiarity in the position of the tusks, and endeavour to show how far these organs illustrate the habits of the extinct animals in which they are found. It is mechanically impossible that a lower jaw, nearly four feet long, loaded with such heavy tusks at its extremity, could have been otherwise than cumbrous and inconvenient to a quadruped living on dry land. No such disadvantage would have attended this structure in a large animal destined to live in water; and the aquatic habits of the family of Tapirs, to which the Dinotherium was most nearly allied, render it probable that, like them, it was an inhabitant of fresh-water lakes and rivers. To an animal of such habits, the weight of the tusks sustained in water would have been no source of inconvenience; and, if we suppose them to be employed as instruments for raking and grubbing up by the roots large aquatic vegetables from the bottom, they would, under such service, combine the mechanical powers of the pick-axe with those of the horse-harrow of modern husbandry. The weight of the head, placed above these downward tusks, would add to their efficiency for the service here supposed, as the power of the harrow is increased by loading it with weights. The tusks of the Dinotherium may also have been applied with mechanical advantage to hook on the head of the animal to the bank, with the nostrils sustained above the water, so as to breathe securely during sleep, whilst the body remained floating at perfect ease beneath the surface: the animal might thus repose, moored to the margin of a lake or river, without the slightest muscular exertion, the weight of the head and body tending to fix and keep the tusks fast anchored in the substance of the bank, as the weight of the body of a sleeping bird keeps the claws clasped firmly around its perch. These tusks might have been further used, like those in the upper jaw of the Walrus, to assist in dragging the body out of the water; and also as formidable instruments of defence. The structure of the scapula already noticed seems to show that the fore leg was adapted to co-operate with the tusks and teeth, in digging and separating large vegetables from the bottom. The great length attributed to the body would have been no way inconvenient to an animal living in the water, but attended with much mechanical disadvantage to so weighty a quadruped upon land. In all these characters of a gigantic, herbivorous, aquatic quadruped, we recognise adaptations to the lacustrine condition of the earth, during that portion of the tertiary periods to which the existence of these seemingly anomalous creatures appears to have been limited."

In his description of the figures of the remains of Dinotherium in the same work, Dr. Buckland observes that they were found in a sand-pit containing marine shells at Epplesheim, near Altzey, about 40 miles north-west of Darmstadt, where they are preserved in the museum. He adds, that bones of Dinotherium have lately been found in tertiary fresh-water limestone, near Orthes, at the foot of the Pyrenees; and with them remains of a new genus allied to rhinoceros; of several unknown species of deer; and of a dog or wolf, the size of a lion. The following conclusion terminates the note appended to the description in Dr. Buckland's first edition :-"From the near approximation of this animal to the living tapir, we may infer that it was furnished with a proboscis, by means of which it conveyed to its mouth the vegetables it raked from the bottom of lakes and rivers by its tusks and claws. The bifid ungual bone (Kaup, 'Add.,' table 11), discovered with the other remains of Dinotherium, having the remarkable bifurcation which is found in no living quadrupeds, except the Pangolins, seems to have borne a claw, like that of these animals, possessing peculiar advantages for the purpose of scraping and digging; and indicating functions concurrent with those of the tusks and scapula."

Upon referring to the view of the skull of Dinotherium giganteum seen from above, the width of the anterior portion of the cranium and the deep depression there visible, will strike the observer as very remarkable; and we find that Professor Kaup has, in his restoration of the animal, furnished it with a considerable proboscis, and given its general form as a good deal resembling that of the tapir.

Dr. Buckland, in the supplementary notes to his second edition, has the following notice, with a reference to p. 135:-"The Dinotherium has been spoken of as the largest of terrestrial Mammalia, and as presenting in its lower jaw and tusks a disposition of an extraordinary kind, adapted to the peculiar habits of a gigantic herbivorous aquatic quadruped." The Doctor then alludes to the entire head found in 1836, and thus proceeds :-" Professor Kaup and Dr. Klipstein have recently published a description and figures of this head, in which

Restoration of Dinotherium giganteum.

This head has been exhibited at Paris, and seems to have excited great interest among the French zoologists; for we find in the Journal des Débats of the 21st of March in the year 1837 that at the sitting of the Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris on the day before M. de Blainville read a note detailing his particular views of the position which the animal held in the animal series-views which, it is there stated, were adopted both by M. Duméril and M. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire. These views were detailed in 'L'Institut' of the 22nd of March; and the subject is so interesting that we here present them to the reader, more especially as they are so much at variance with the restoration, a copy of which is above given. "M. de Blainville read a note on the fossil head of the Dinotherium giganteum recently exhibited at Paris by Messrs. Kaup and Klipstein. According to M. de Blainville the Dinotherium constituted a genus of mammifers of the family of the Dugongs and Lamantins, which family makes a part of the order or of the degree of organisation named by the last-mentioned zoologist Gravigrades, on account of their heavy progression, and of which the first family is formed by the Elephants. The following were the grounds stated for this opinion:

"As regards the teeth, the molars, five in number on each side of each jaw, have their crown squared and deeply traversed by two transverse elevations, the same as in the Lamantins. But as this character occurs also in the Tapirs and Kangaroos, and even in the Lophiodons, it would be far from sufficient for deciding the question, if it were not joined with the absence of false molars and canines (a formula which produces a considerable space between the first molar and the incisors), and with the number and form of these last, which entirely resemble small tusks; only they are implanted at the extremity of the lower jaw and are directed downwards. Whether or no there existed a pair of incisors in the upper jaw is an uncertain point, the two extremities of this jaw which have been found being more or less truncated. It may however be inferred, from the enlarged and thick form of a fragment found some years ago, that it is possible that the animal might have had upper incisors, but smaller than those below: perhaps only rudimentary.

"As to the form of the head and its parts it corroborates what the dental system had established. In fact, the occipital condyles are entirely terminal, or in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the head, as in the Lamantins and the Cetaceous Edentata, modified for existence in the water. The occipital surface is large, subvertical, and even inclined from before backwards, with a profound mesial depression, for the insertion either of a very strong cervical ligament, or powerful muscles for the elevation of the head, and the basilary part of the skull is narrow in its component parts; while the syncipitofrontal region is on the contrary very flat, very wide, as in the lamantins and dugongs, overplumbing the temporal fossa, which is extremely wide and extremely deep, indicating enormous levator muscles for the lower jaw, not only for the purpose of mastication, but adapted besides for the particular action of that jaw with its rakelike incisor teeth. This disposition of the temporal fossa is perfectly in harmony with the zygomatic arch, which is wide, thick, robust, and complete, as far as may be inferred from the portion which is

352

broken, but which nevertheless offers the articulating surface of the corresponding bone, exactly as in the lamantins; perhaps however without the great enlargement which may be remarked at the jugal apophysis of the temporal bone in the latter. The orbit is, as in the animals last named, very small and lateral, but very largely open in the zygomatic fossa. The auditory aperture is small, narrow, and rather oblique from below upwards. The face is wide and flattened, prolonged and enlarged a little, as in the Cetacea, anteriorly. It presents in its middle a very large aperture, the composition of which it has not been possible to study on account of the position of the head, which is upside-down, but which aperture, though evidently wider and greater than that of the dugong, has evidently the greatest analogy to what exists in that animal. The posterior orifice of the nasal cavity is on the contrary very narrow. The sub-orbital hole is very considerable, but even less perhaps than it is in the dugong. With regard to the lower jaw, that again exhibits the greatest analogy to that of the dugong, from the manner in which its branches are curved downwards towards the anterior third part of their length; only, that of the Dinotherium being armed at its recurved extremity with a tusk, the ascending ramus offers, in its width and its condyle, which is as transverse as in the Carnivora, a concordant disposition; so that the only motions permitted should be those of elevation and depression, as in those animals. The ethmoid surface of the temporal bone also is, as it were, a portion of a hollow transverse cylinder, with an apophysary lamina, having an extremely strong ridge-'une lame apophysaire d'arrêt extrêmement forte.'With this element (says M. de Blainville) we may regard it as nearly beyond doubt that the Dinotherium was an animal of the family of the Lamantins, or Aquatic Gravigrades, its proper position being at the head of the family, preceding the Dugong, and consequently preceded by the Tetracaulodon, which ought to terminate the family of the Elephants. In a word, the animal, in our opinion, was a Dugong with Tusk Incisors. We must then suppose that it had only one pair of anterior limbs, with five toes on each. As to the supposition that the animal was provided with a trunk, which might be presumed from the great nasal opening, the enlarged surfaces which surround it, and the size of the suborbital nerve, as far as may be judged from the size of the suborbital hole, we believe that this is at least doubtful, and that it is more probable that these dispositions bear relation to a considerable development of the upper lip and the necessary modifi cation of the nostrils in an aquatic animal, as is equally the case in the dugong. We think even that the upper lip by its immense development embraced the lower one, and thus hid even the base of the tusks, and that the lower one was sufficiently small, as may be presumed from the chin-holes (trous mentonniers). After this it is easy to perceive that of the two principal opinions which have been broached and discussed concerning this singular animal, we are much further from considering it a great species of Edentata, near the sloths, with Dr. Kaup, than from considering it as a tapir, as G. Cuvier did, from an examination of the molar teeth, the only parts then known. In fact, there is, in our opinion, much less distance, in the natural method, between a dugong and a tapir than between a dugong and a sloth.' In this note M. de Blainville has not taken into consideration that the head of the Dinotherium, as well as a phalanx which was found in the same locality, are referred by Professor Kaup to the same animal; but M. de Blainville does not believe that this phalanx really belonged to the Dinotherium. In fact (says he), Mr. Lartet found with these same phalanges a portion of a tooth, which evidently indicates a great pangolin.'

"At the end of the reading, M. Duméril rose to confirm the views of M. de Blainville. He insisted particularly on the transversal form and great extent of the condyle of the lower jaw and of the articular fossa destined to receive it. He much regretted the loss of the zygo matic arch, the bases of which only remain on the jugal and temporal bones. The curvatures of this arch,' said he, would have given ideas of the volume and force of the masseter and temporal muscles, which must have been considerable. It would be important to know them to compare them with those of the Lamantin on one side, and on the other with the Megatherium, whose skeleton is at Madrid. With regard to the phalanges, which are believed to be those of the Dinotherium, they are certainly analogous to those of the Sloths: but in the Lamantin, the ungual phalanx, which is in fact a double pulley with a mesial projection at the base, offers at its other extremity a single point with a sort of hood (capuchon) below: that is to say, inverse to that which is found in the great species of Cats (Felis), and very different from those of the Sloths and the AntEaters."

In this statement there is one position that is rather staggering; and indeed we cannot but think it probable that M. de Blainville has not been quite accurately reported. He is made to observe that the articulation of the lower jaw is such that the only motions permitted should be those of elevation and depression, as in the Carnivora. Now, that with true grinding teeth, like those of the Dinotherium, the jaws should be limited to the motions of elevation and depression, so admirably fitted for working the cutting edges of the scissor-teeth of the Carnivora, is almost inconceivable. Without venturing to give any opinion as to the true position of this interesting genus in the animal series, we may be permitted to observe that the evidence on

which M. de Blainville is stated to have rested for the cetaceous character of Dinotherium, appears to us to be rather meagre and hardly sufficient to warrant the conclusion. At present the extremi ties of this creature have not been found. They would undoubtedly throw more light on its true character than the skull alone can do. In the British Museum is the femur of an animal from Epplesheim, supposed to belong to the Dinotherium. If this point could be satisfactorily determined it would at once clear up the difficulty, and constitute the Dinotherium a terrestrial species.

DIODONTA. [TELLINIDE.]

DICCIA, the twenty-second class in the artificial method used by Linnæus in arranging plants. It comprehends such genera as have male or stamen-bearing flowers on one plant, and female or pistilbearing flowers on another, as willows. Hence all plants having the sexes thus distinguished are called diœcious.

DIOMEDEINÆ, a family of Birds to which the Albatrosses belong. The characters of the genus Diomedea are given under ALBATROSS. In that article three species of this genus are referred to. We now give a complete list of the species of this important genus :Diomedea exulans, Linn. This bird is abundant between 30° and 60° S. lat., and equally numerous in all parts of the ocean bounded by those degrees; its range however extends much farther south, even to within the antarctic circle.

D. melanophrys, Temm. It is the most abundant species of the southern seas; equally numerous in every part between the 30th and 60th degrees.

D. cauta, Gould. This species was procured by Mr. Gould off the south coast of Van Diemen's Land.

D. chlororhynchos, Lath. It occurs between 30° and 60° S. lat., in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

D. culminata, Gould. This bird is rather abundant both in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, between 30° and 50° S. lat.

D. fuliginosa, Gmel. It occurs in all parts of the ocean between 30 and 60° S. lat.; equally common off Van Diemen's Land, Cape Horn, and the Cape of Good Hope.

D. brachyura, Temm. Found in the North Pacific Ocean.
D. gibbosa, Gould. An inhabitant of the North Pacific Ocean.
D. olivaceorhyncha, Gould. China seas (?).

Mr. Gray, in his 'Genera of Birds,' also gives D. spadicea as a species. He also makes D. gibbosa (Gould) synonymous with D. nigripes, Audubon, 'Orn. Biog.,' vol. v. p. 327, and adopts the latter name as having the priority.

DION. [CYCADACEE.]

DIONÆÀ, a most singular genus of herbaceous Plants belonging to the natural order Droseracea. There is one species, the D. muscipula, which is remarkable for the irritability of its leaves, which, when brushed against by an insect, will suddenly close upon it and hold it fast, whence it is often called Venus's Fly-Trap and the Carolina Catchfly Plant. It is botanically related to the Drosera, or Sundew, which has also the property of seizing insects by its viscid hairs, but differs so much as to have led some botanists to doubt whether it really belongs to the same natural order. Its flowerbranches, for example, are not rolled up before they unfold, but have a straight aestivation; the placentae of the fruit are stationed at the base of the one-celled capsule; the stigma is a lacerated fringed brush, and there are other differences; but upon the whole it is probably a genuine portion of the Droseraceous Order.

Dionaea has broad stalked leaves, spreading in a circle round the bottom of the flower-stem. Its flower-stem rises straight to the height of 6 or 8 inches, and is terminated by a cyme of small greenish-white flowers, each of which has a calyx of 5 sepals, 5 wedge-shaped notched petals, 10 hypogynous stamens, and an ovary shaped like some of the old German wine-bottles, round at the bottom, and tapering suddenly into a short neck or style. The best modern account of its habits has been given by Mr. M. A. Curtis, who thus speaks of it from his observations upon the plant in its native bogs:-" :-"The Dionaea muscipula is found as far north as Newbern, North Carolina, and from the mouth of Cape Fear River to Fayetteville. It is stated moreover to grow along the lower branches of the Santee, in South Carolina; and it is not improbable that it inhabits the savannahs, more or less abundantly, from the latter place to Newbern. It is found in great plenty for many miles around Wilmington in every direction. The leaf, which is the only remarkable part, springs from the root, spreading upon the ground at a little elevation above it. It is composed of a broad stalk, like the leaf of an orange-tree, winged, and from 2 to 4 inches long, which at the end suddenly expands into a thick and somewhat rigid blade, the two sides of which are semicircular, about two-thirds of an inch across, and fringed round their edges with somewhat rigid ciliæ, or long hairs, like eye-lashes. The leaf indeed may be aptly compared to the two upper eyelids, joined at their bases. Each portion of the leaf is a little concave on the inner side, where are placed three delicate hair-like organs, in such an order that an insect can hardly traverse it without interfering with one of them, when the two sides suddenly collapse and inclose their prey, with a force surpassing an insect's attempts to escape. The fringe or hairs of the opposite sides interlace, like the fingers of the two hands clasped together. The sensitiveness resides only in these hair-like processes on the inside, as the leaf may be touched or pressed in any

NAT. HIST. DIV. VOL. II.

other part without sensible effects. The little prisoner is not crushed and suddenly destroyed, as is sometimes supposed; for I have often liberated captive flies and spiders, which sped away as fast as fear or joy could hasten them. At other times I have found them enveloped in a fluid of mucilaginous consistence, which seems to act as a solvent, the insects being more or less consumed by it. This circumstance has suggested the possibility of the insects being made subservient to the nourishment of the plant, through an apparatus of absorbent vessels in the leaves. But as I have not examined sufficiently to pronounce on the universality of this result, it will require further observation and experiment on the spot to ascertain its nature and importance.

"It is not to be supposed, however, that such food is necessary to the existence of the plant, though, like compost, it may increase its growth and vigour. But however obscure and uncertain may be the final purpose of such a singular organisation, if it were a problem to construct a plant with reference to entrapping insects, I cannot conceive of a form and organisation better adapted to secure that end than are found in the Dionaea muscipula. I therefore deem it no credulous inference that its leaves are constructed for that specific object, whether insects subserve the purpose of nourishment to the plant or not. It is no objection to this view that they are subject to blind accident, and sometimes close upon straws, as well as insects. It would be a curious vegetable indeed that had a faculty of distinguishing bodies, and recoiled at the touch of one, while it quietly submitted to violence from another. Such capricious sensitiveness is not a property of the vegetable kingdom. The spider's net is spread to ensnare flies, yet it catches whatever falls upon it; and the ant-lion is roused from his hiding-place by the fall of a pebble; so much are insects also subject to the blindness of accident.'

We may add, with reference to the American author's conjecture that the trapped insects may contribute to the nourishment of the leaf of Dionaea, that leaves have actually been fed with chopped meat, and have been found to become more healthy and vigorous in consequence of this artificial stimulus; but still no argument can be drawn from this fact in favour of the supposition that the plant catches flies for nutriment, as most plants would be benefited by such treatment.

DIOPSIDE. [AUGITE.]

The illustration represents the Diopsis Sykesii, one of the largest species of the genus, and which has been selected as possessing the longest eye-stalks; these processes in this insect are of a pitchy red colour, and the body is of the same tint. The head and thorax are black, and the wings are clouded with brown.

But little is known of the habits of these insects. Colonel Sykes, who collected great numbers of the above species during his residence in India, furnished Mr. Westwood with the following notice respecting their habitat and habits ::

"Habitat. The hill fort of Hurreechunderghur, in the western

ghauts of the Deccan, at an elevation of 3900 feet above the level of the sea, 19° 23' N. lat., 73° 40' E. long.

"This insect affects chasms or ravines in the lofty woods which encircle the mountain in belts. In various places, where the sunbeams occasionally pierce the woods and fall upon isolated or salient rocks in the above localities, they are seen in myriads, either poising themselves in the rays, or reposing on the spots on which the rays fall."

All the known species are from the tropical parts of the Old World. (Westwood, Transactions of Linnæan Society.)

DIOPTASE, a Silicate of Copper. [COPPER.]

DIORITE, a rock consisting of Albite and Hornblende, also called Greenstone.

DIOSCO'REA, a genus of Plants which furnish the tropical esculents called Yams. It is the type of the natural order Dioscoreaceae. The genus consists of perennial fleshy-rooted or tuberous dicecious plants, with annual twining stems, broad alternate leaves having a somewhat netted arrangement of their veins, and loose clusters of small green flowers. The corolla and the calyx taken together consist of 6 small equal segments, which, in the females, stand upon the top of the ovary. The male flowers have 6 stamens; the females 3 styles. The seed-vessel is a thin compressed 3-winged capsule, containing one or two membranous seeds.

The best account of the species is that of Dr. Roxburgh, who cultivated seventeen sorts in the Botanic Garden, Calcutta; others are known to botanists, but far from perfectly.

D. alata, the common West India Yam. It is a native of the West Indies, but is met with in the East Indies also, but only in a cultivated state. A figure of it is given in Rheede's 'Hortus Malabaricus,' vol. vii. t. 38, under the name of Katsji-kelengu. Its tubers are oblong, brown externally, white internally, and often of great size, weighing sometimes as much as 30 lbs.; they perish after the first year, if left in the ground, having first produced the young ones that are to replace them. "Besides the tubers the proper roots of all these plants are fibrous, springing from and chiefly about the union of the stems with the tubers, and spreading in every direction." The stems are furnished with four crested leafy wings, and spread to a great extent twining round trees and bushes; they often bear prickles near the ground. The first leaves that appear on the stem are alternate, the succeeding are opposite, seated on long stalks, deeply heart-shaped at the base, sharp-pointed, smooth, with from five to seven ribs. The flowers are small and green, and appear in compound panicles. The remainder of the species are very similar to this in general characters; a few short notes will sufficiently indicate their differences.

D. globosa, cultivated in Bengal under the name of Choo-PureeAloo, is most esteemed of the Indian Yams. Its flowers are highly fragrant; the tubers are white internally; the leaves arrow-headed.

D. rubella, the Guranya-Aloo, is another Indian sort with large tubers stained with red immediately below the cuticle; it is much esteemed; its tubers are sometimes three feet long; its flowers are fragrant.

D. purpurea, called Lal-Guranya-Aloo in Bengal. The tubers are permanently stained purple throughout.

At Malacca is cultivated another purple-rooted sort, the D. atropurpurea, whose tubers are large and irregular, and grow so near the surface of the ground as to appear in dry weather through the cracks that they make in the soil by raising the earth over them.

Other eatable sorts are numerous, but are less valuable, and therefore not cultivated. In Otaheite the D. bulbifera, which bears small fleshy angular tubers along the stem in the axils of the leaves, is the favourite species.

It is not a little remarkable that while so many species are nutritious in this genus, some should be highly dangerous; but such is unquestionably the fact. D. Dæmonum and D. triphylla, both ternate-leaved species, have very nauseous and dangerous tubers. DIOSCOREA'CEE, Yams, the Yam Tribe, a natural order of Plants belonging to the class Dictyogens. They are particularly distinguished by the following characters :

Flowers dioecious; calyx and corolla superior; stamens 6; ovary 3-celled, with 1 or 2-seeded cells; style deeply trifid; fruit leafy, compressed, occasionally succulent; embryo small, near the hilum, in a large cavity of cartilaginous albumen. The affinities of this order are with Smilacea and Aristolochiacea. It contains 6 genera and 100 species.

All the species are twining shrubs, with alternate or spuriously opposite leaves. They consist, with the exception of Tamus, Black Bryony, of tropical plants, or at least of such as require a mild frostless climate. Some of them produce eatable farinaceous tubers, or yams, as the various species of Dioscorea and Testudinaria; but there is a dangerous acrid principle prevalent among them, which renders the order upon the whole suspicious. It exists in a perceptible degree in Tamus, and is still more manifest in the 3-leaved Dioscorea. [TAMUS; TESTUDINARIA; DIOSCOREA; RAIANIA.]

DIOSMA, a genus of Rutaceous Shrubs inhabiting the Cape of Good Hope. They have alternate simple leaves, strongly marked with dots of transparent oil, and diffusing a powerful odour when bruised. Some of the species are offensive to the European taste, as

1, a shoot of Raiania cordata; 2, a male flower; 3, a female flower; 4, a

portion of a ripe fruit with the seed exposed; 5, a section of the seed. the Buckus with which the Hottentots perfume themselves, and which are chiefly yielded by D. crenata and D. serratifolia. The flowers of most are white; those of a few are red. By most modern botanists the old genus Diosma is broken up into eight, namely, Adenandra, Coleonema, Diosma proper, Euchatis, Acmadenia, Baryosma, to which the Buckus belong, Agathosma, and Macrostylis.

The following are the best known species of the old genus Diosma :

D. serratifolia has linear lanceolate leaves, acuminate, serrulated, smooth, glandular at the edges, and 3-nerved. The flowers are lateral, white, upon short axillary bracteate peduncles. This species is an erect shrub, smooth in every part, and growing a foot or SO high; branches tapering, purplish, long, lax; branchlets somewhat whorled, ternate or scattered, angular, purple, twiggy, incurved, loose. Leaves alternate on short stalks, ovate-oblong, blunt, flat, smooth, deep green above, paler beneath, dotted with sunken glands, the midrib somewhat keeled, the margin scolloped, glandular-dotted, and shining. Flowers solitary, white, middle sized. Peduncles filiform, shorter than the leaves.

D. crenulata is an upright shrub between two and three feet high, with twiggy branches of a brownish purple tinge. The leaves are decussate, spreading, about an inch long, oval-lanceolate, on very short petioles, very obtuse, delicately and minutely crenated, quite glabrous, rigid and quite smooth above; the peduncles about as long as the leaf, axillary, and terminal, chiefly from the superior leaves.

D. crenata (Linn.), D. serratifolia (Vent.), and D. crenulata yield leaves which at the Cape of Good Hope are termed Buchu, or Bucco, and which are sometimes used alone, but more frequently mixed. When bruised they emit a strong peculiar odour resembling rosemary or rue. The taste is aromatic, but not bitter or disagreeable.

Cadet de Gassincourt analysed the leaves, and found no alkaloid, but 665 of volatile oil; 21 17 extractive; 2.15 resin; 63 lignin; 1.10 chlorophylle. Brandes considers the extractive to be peculiar, and terms it Diosmin, analogous to Cathartin. The volatile oil and the extractive appear to be the active ingredients. They are usually administered in the form of infusion. [BUCHU, in ARTS AND Sc. Div.]

DIOSPYROS (from dios and Tupòs, which may be translated 'celestial food'), a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Ebenacea. They all form large trees, with alternate thick often coriaceous leaves. The flowers are usually single and axillary, the male and female flowers separate or united. Calyx and corolla 4-cleft, rarely 5-cleft. Stamina often 8, but varying in different species. Germ superior, often 8-celled; cells 1-seeded; attachment superior. Styles 3 or 4, rarely 5, or 1, and variously divided. Berry from 1- to 12-seeded, often 8-seeded. Embryo inverse, and furnished with albumen. Male flower frequently with twin anthers. The species are found chiefly in the tropical parts both of Asia and America, as in the Malayan Archipelago and Peninsula,

and in almost every part of India. One species extends southward to Australia; one, D. Lotus, to Switzerland; and D. Virginiana into the United States of America. As some are remarkable for the wood which they afford, and others on account of their fruit, it is necessary only to notice a few of each, though the whole require the labours of a monographist. D. Ebenus, the True Ebony, and that which is considered to be of the best quality, is a large tree, a native of Mauritius, Ceylon, and apparently also of Madagascar; for D. lanceolata, Poir., collected by Commerson in that island, is considered the same. The leaves are very smooth, short, petioled, alternate, bifarious, oblong in shape, the buds very hairy; male flowers sub-racemed, with about twenty anthers, the hermaphrodite solitary, octandrous. Large quantities of the ebony of this species have been sometimes imported into Europe. Ebony is well known as a hard black-coloured wood brought from the hot parts of the world. The Greek name is Bevos, from which the Latin Ebenus and our word Ebony have been immediately derived. It is first mentioned by Ezekiel, xxvii. 15, but in the plural, hobnem, where the men of Dedan are described as bringing to Tyre horns of ivory and ebony. The Persian name, abnoos, is that by which it is commonly known all over India; it is probable therefore that the name, like the wood itself, had an eastern origin. From its hardness, durability, susceptibility of a fine polish, and colour, which has almost become another name for blackness, ebony has always been in high estimation, and in the present day is much used for mosaic work and ornamental inlayings, though cheaper woods dyed black are frequently substituted.

Herodotus (iii. 97) mentions ebony as part of the presents brought in considerable quantities to the king of Persia by the people of Ethiopia. Dioscorides describes two kinds-one Ethiopian, which was considered the best; and the other Indian, which was intermixed with whitish stripes and spotted; and hence commentators have disputed whether there were one or two kinds of ebony. But the fact is that several trees yield this kind of wood, and all belong to the genus Diospyros. Owing to the known geographical distribution of this genus, the ancients must have derived their ebony either from the peninsula of India and the island of Ceylon, or by the coasting trade from Madagascar; for no species of Diospyros has yet been discovered by botanists in the upper parts of Egypt or in Abyssinia, though it is not improbable that some may be found, as the climate is well suited to their existence.

D. Ebenaster. This is also a tree of considerable magnitude, a native of Ceylon, of which the leaves are coriaceous and smooth on both sides, and the buds smooth.

D. reticulata (Tesselaria, Poir.) is another elevated tree, a native of Mauritius, of which the heart-wood forms Ebony.

D. melanoxylon, described and figured by Rumph, iii., Corom. Plants,' 1 to 46, by Dr. Roxburgh, is the Ebony-Tree of the Coromandel coast. It is found on the mountains of that coast as well as of Malabar and in Ceylon. It grows to be very large, particularly the male tree, of which the wood is also most esteemed. The leaves, which are sub-opposite, oval, oblong, obtuse, and villous, are deciduous in the cold season, the new ones appearing with the flowers in April and May; as in other species, it is only the centre of large trees that is black and valuable, and this varies in quantity according to the age of the tree. The outside wood, which is white and soft, time and insects soon destroy, leaving the black untouched. The ripe fruit is eaten by the natives, though rather astringent, as is also the bark. D. tomentosa and D. Roylei are other Indian species which yield ebony.

Several species of the genus bear fruit, which, though clammy and sub-astringent, is eaten by the natives of the countries where the trees are indigenous. We need name only the most celebrated, as D. lotus, a native of Africa, and now common in the south of Europe, which bears a small yellow sweetish fruit about the size of a cherry, and which has by some been supposed to be the famous Lotus of the Lotophagi; but this is more likely to have been the Jujube, called by botanists Zizyphus Lotus.

D. Kaki is celebrated in China and Japan: specimens introduced into the Botanic Garden of Calcutta were found to be identical with others from Nepaul. The fruit is described by Dr. Roxburgh as being tolerably pleasant. It is esteemed in China, where it attains the size of an orange, and is frequently sent to Europe in a dried state, and called the Date-Plum of China, and also Keg-Fig of Japan.

D. discolor of the Philippine Islands also bears a fruit which is esteemed, and called Mabolo.

D. Virginiana, the Persimmon-Tree, is indigenous in North America, especially in the middle and southern parts of the United States, where it attains a height of 60 feet, but it does not flourish beyond 42° N. lat. The fruit while green is excessively astringent, but when ripe, and especially after it has been touched by the frost, it is sweet and palatable. The fleshy part separated from the seeds is made into cakes, which are dried and preserved. A kind of cider has also been made from this fruit, and a spirituous liquor distilled from its fermented infusion.

D. glutinosa also affords a fruit which, though edible, is far from palatable, but more valuable as an article of commerce. The tree is

middle-sized, a native of the moist valleys amongst the mountains of the Circars, and all along the foot of the Himalayas to 30° N. lat. Sir William Jones first mentioned what is well known throughout Bengal, that the astringent viscid mucus of the fruit is used for paying the bottoms of boats. The unripe fruit contains a large proportion of tannin, and its infusion is employed to steep fishing-nets in to make them more durable.

DIOTIS (double-eared, from dis, double, and oùs, ŵrós, an ear), a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Compositæ, the tribe Senecionida, and the section Anthemidea. It has homogamous discoïdal heads; florets hermaphrodite, tubular, the tube compressed, with two auricles at the base; the receptacle convex with concave downy. topped scales; the involucre bell-shaped, imbricated; the fruit is compressed, and is crowned with the persistent auricled tube of the corolla.

D. maritima is the only British species. The whole plant is densely cottony and white; the stem is about a foot high, recumbent below, densely leafy and corymbose above; the leaves sessile, oblong, obtuse, flat, crenate, persistent; the heads in terminal corymbose tufts; the flowers are yellow. It is found on sandy sea-shores, but is a rare plant. Diotis is adopted by some botanists as the name of a genus of plants belonging to the Chenopodiacea, the Axyris ceratoides of Linnæus. It is a shrub of no great beauty, and is found wild in Siberia, and some parts of Austria. It thrives well in a light soil, and is easily increased by layers or cuttings under a hand-glass. (Babington, Manual; Koch, Flora Germanica.)

DIOXYLITE, a native Sulphato-Carbonate of Lead. [LEAD.]
DIPHANITE. [PREHNITE.]

DIPHUCE'PHALA, a genus of Coleopterous Insects belonging to the Lamellicornes, section Phyllophagi.

This genus appears to be confined to Australia, and the species of which it is composed are distinguished from those of allied genera chiefly by their having the clypeus deeply emarginated; they are of an oblong form; the thorax is attenuated anteriorly, the elytra are somewhat depressed, and the abdomen is very convex. The antennæ are 8-jointed, and the club is composed of 3 joints; the anterior tibiæ are generally dentated externally; the anterior tarsi of the males have the four basal joints dilated, and furnished with a velvetlike substance beneath, and all the claws are bifid.

A rich golden-green appears to be the prevailing colour of these insects, and we understand that they are found on flowers.

D. sericea (Kirby) is nearly half an inch in length, of a goldengreen hue, and has a silk-like gloss on the upper parts; the legs are red; the anterior tibiæ have an obtuse tooth-like process on the outer side, near the apex; the head and thorax are very thickly and delicately punctured; the elytra are covered with confluent punctures, which are arranged in longitudinal rows, and each elytron has two smooth elevated striæ; the under parts of the body are covered with white scale-like hairs. This is the largest species known; there are however many which are nearly equal to it in size. (Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, vol. i.) DIPHYDE. [ACALEPHE.] DIPHYDES. [ACALEPHE.] DIPHYES. [ACALEPHE.]

DIPHYLLIDIA. [INFEROBRANCHIATA.]
DIPHYSA. [ACALEPHE.]

DIPLACA'NTHUS, a genus of Fossil Placoid Fishes, from the Old Red-Sandstone of Scotland. Agassiz admits four species. (Reports of British Association for 1842.)

DIPLAZIUM, a genus of Ferns. The rhizomas of one species, D. esculentum, are eaten.

DIPLEU'RA, a genus of Trilobites, proposed by Green. DIPLOCLINIUM, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Begoniacea.

DIPLOCTE'NIUM, a fossil genus of Lamelliferous Corals, allied to Turbinolia, from Mæstricht. [MADREPHYLLICA.] DIPLODACTYLUS, a genus of Lizards established by Dr. J. E. Gray, and regarded by him as forming a new genus in the family of Geckos.

Generic Character.-Scales sub-conformable, minute, smooth; the abdominal scales rather large; the caudal scales annulate and larger; the labial scales moderate, distinct, the three anterior ones on each side much the largest; no gular scales. Tail cylindrical, ventricose. Toes 5, 5, simple, subequal, subcylindrical, the points subdilated, bifid beneath, with two oval oblique smooth fleshy discs; claws 5, 5, small, very retractile. No femoral pores. (Gray.)

This genus differs from Phyllodactylus of the same zoologist in having the under sides of the tips of the toes furnished with two rather large oblong tubercles, truncated at the tip, and forming two oval discs placed obliquely, one on each side of the claw, instead of having, as in Phyllodactylus, two membranaceous scales. The scales of Diplodactylus are moreover uniform, whilst in Phyllodactylus there is a row of larger scales, extending along the back.

D. vittatus, the Yellow-Crowned Diplodactyle. Brown, with a broad longitudinal dorsal fillet; limbs and tail margined with rows of yellow spots.

There are two rows of rather distant small spots on each side of the body; the spots become larger on the upper surface of the tail,