Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/344

LEFT DECADE 292 DE CANDOLLE prix de Rome in 1884 with a cantata, "L'Enfant Prodigue." From Rome he sent a setting of Rossetti's Blessed Da- tnozel, which was refused by the Institut because of its excessive modernity of style. The rebuff only made him the more determined to adhere to his convic- tions. His most important compositions are: a "prelude symphonique" to Mal- larme's Afternoon of a Faun; orchestral pieces, "Clouds," "Fetes," and "Sirens"; settings for poems of Verlaine and Bau- delaire; a piano suite, "Images"; and his chief work, a lyric drama on Maeter- linck's Pelleas et Melisande, given at Paris, April 30, 1902, and performed with remarkable success at the Manhattan Opera House, New York, Feb. 19, 1908. Among his other compositions may be mentioned "The Sea," "Spring," "Three Nocturnes," "Prose Lyrics," etc. He died in 1918. DECADE (dek'ad) is sometimes used for the number 10 or for an aggre- gate of 10. The books of Livy's Roman History are divided into decades. In the French Revolution, decades, each consist- ing of 10 days, took the place of weeks in the division of the year. The term is now usually applied to an aggregate of 10 years. DECADENCE, a favorite modern term to express the idea that the successors in some degree are not as strong as the pre- decessors in the particular department about which an inquiry is made. It is the falling tide from some high-water mark. The word is intentionally of- fensive, but its use in the history of art is the least objectionable of all. Thus Grecian art attained its highest point of grandeur about 400 B. c, and all Grecian art of later date, some of it most ex- quisite in its genius, belongs to the deca- dent side of Grecian art. There are several periods of decadent art that may be found mentioned in the histories, but the one most discussed of late years is that of the French romancists of all schools. Those of the latter part of the last century are called decadents because they are thought less able, and more sen- sational than their predecessors. DECAGON, a plane geometrical figure of 10 sides. When the sides are equal, the figure is called a regular decagon. DECALCOMANIE, a transferable pic- ture or pattern, used generally for dec- oration, as on chinaware. The designs are printed lithographically on thin paper or foil, which is afterward at- tached face down to a thick porus paper, which serves to support it. It is applied to the surface to be decorated by moist- ening the film of gum or cement on the back of the design, after which the paper carrier is thoroughly wetted and peeled off, leaving the design behind. DECALOGUE, the Ten Command- ments given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. They were first introduced into the liturgy of the Church of England, in the prayerbook of Edward VI., in 1552. DECAMERON (de-kam'e-ron), any- thing of 10 days' occurrence; also the title given to a collection of tales by Boccaccio, written in 10 parts, each part containing 10 stories, and being supposed to occupy one day in the narration. Boc- caccio represents the stories as being told by seven ladies and three gentlemen, who had fled from Florence into the country to escape the fearful plague of 1348, and who had no other means of passing the time. DE CANDOLLE, AUGUSTIN PY- RAME (de-kon-dolO, a Swiss botanist, descended from an ancient noble family of Provence; born in Geneva, Feb. 4, 1778. In 1796-1797 he studied chemis- try, physics, and botany in Paris, where in 1797 his earliest work, on lichens, was published. Other works quickly fol- lowed, including his "Astragalogia" (1802), and "Essays on the Medicinal Properties of Plants" (1804). In 1802 he was elected to an honorary professor- ship in the Academy of Geneva, and de- livered his first botanical lectures in the College de France in 1804. His "French Flora" appeared in 1805. Employed by the government, he visited all parts of France and Italy in 1806-1812, inves- tigating their botany and agriculture. He was appointed in 1807 to a chair at Montpellier, where he lived from 1810 to 1816; he then retired to Geneva where a Professorship of Botany was founded for him, and where he spent the remainder of his life. He died Sept. 9, 1841. Among his greatest works is "Natural System of the Vegetable King- dom" (vols. i. and ii., 1818-1821). It was commenced on too grand a scale, but continued within more reasona- ble limits in the "Preliminary View of the National System of the Vegetable Kingdom" (17 vols. 1824-1873, the last 10 by his son and others). De Candolle died in 1841, bequeathing his collections — including a herbarium of more than 70,000 species of plants — to his son, Alphonse De Candolle (bom 1806). That son, himself a botanist of wide fame, also published several works of note, the most important being "Geo- graphical Botany" (2 vols. 1855), and "Origin of Cultivated Plants" (1883). He also edited the "Memoirs" of his father (1862). He died April 9, 1893.