Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/409

Rh and it is significant that, although the remains of gigantic dragon-flies discovered in it are very numerous and perfect, no traces of their sub-aquatic conditions have been found, although these as a rule are numerous in most of the other strata, hence the insects may be regarded as having been drowned in the sea and washed on shors. Many of these Solenhofen species differ considerably in form from those now existing, so that Dr Hagen, who has especially studied them, oays that for nearly all it is necessary to make new genera. A notice of fossil forms should not be concluded without the remark that indications of at least two species have been found in amber, a number disproportionately small if com pared with other insects entombed therein ; but it must be remembered that a dragon-fly is, as a rule, an insect of great power, and in all probability those then existing were able to extricate themselves if accidentally entangled in the resin.

1em  DRAGON'S BLOOD, a name applied to the resins obtained from several species of plants. Calamus Draco (Willd.), one of the Ilotaug or Hattau Palms, which pro duces much of the dragon s blood of commerce, is a native of Further India and the Eastern Archipelago. When young it grows erect, but with age it becomes climb ing. The leaves are pointed, about a foot, long, of a finger s breadth, and, like the stems, armed with spines. The flower has a three-cleft corolla, and the ovary is egg- shaped. The fruit is round, pointed, scaly, and the size of a large cherry, and when ripe is coated with the resinous exudation known as dragon s blood. The finest dragon s blood, called jernany or djernang in the East Indies, is obtained by beating or shaking the gathered fruits, sifting out impurities, and melting by exposure to the heat of the sun or by placing in boiling water ; the resin thus purified is then usually moulded into sticks or quills (the sanyuis draconis in baculis of pharmacy), and wrapped in reeds or palm-leaves, and is then ready for market. An impurer and inferior kind, sold in lumps of considerable size (sanguis draconis in massis), is extracted from the fruits by boiling. Dragon s blood is dark red-brown, nearly opaque, and brittle, contains small shell-like flakes, and gives when ground a fine red powder ; it is soluble in alcohol, ether, and fixed and volatile oils, and in the pure condition has, according to F. W. Johnston (Phil. Trans.,, p. 134), the composition Co H 21 O 4. If heated it gives off fumes of benzoic acid. In Europe it was once valued as a medicine on account of its astringent properties, and is now used for colouring plasters, dentrifice, and varnishes ; in China, where it is mostly consumed, it is employed to give a red facing to writing paper. The drop dragon s blood of com merce, called cinnabar by Pliny (^.//.xxxiii. 39), and sanyre de dragon by Barbosa, was formerly and is still one of the products of Socotra, the Dioscoridis insula of ancient geographers; it was known to the Arabs by the term Mtir, from which the name of the island may have been derived (see A. Sprengel, Alte Geographic Arabiens, ). It is the spontaneous exudation of a leguminous tree, Pierocarpus Draco, which grows at elevations between 800 and 2000 feet above sea-level (see Wellsted, Journ. 7i . Geog. Soc.,, p. 198). Jacquin states (Select. Stirpium Amer. Hist., p. 283, ) that the tree grows in tho woods of Tierra Bomba, off Cartagena, in Colombia, and that dragon s blood, obtained from it by incision, was at one time imported into Spain for medicinal purposes. The dragon s blood of the Canary Islands is a tonic and astringent resin procured from the surface of the leaves and from cracks in the trunk of Dracaena Draco, a tree of the natural order Liliacecc. The hardened juico of a euphorbiaceous tree, Crotou Draco, a resin resembling kino, is the sanyre del drayo or dragon s blood of the Mexicans, used by them as a vulnerary and astringent.

1em  DRAGUIGNAN, the chief town of the department of Var, in France, and of an arrondissement of the same name, on the River Pis, a branch of the Nartuby, lies at the foot of the wooded height of Malmont, in 43 32 18&quot; N. lat. and 6&quot; 27 56&quot; E. long. The prefecture, palace of justice, theatre, hospital, and prison are the most important public buildings. The town possesses a communal college, a training school for teachers, a botanical garden, a fine promenade, a library of about 18,000 volumes, collections of coins, pictures, and natural history objects, and an archaeological society. The inhabitants, who in numbered 8177, are engaged in agriculture and the manu facture of wine, coarse cloth, earthenware, silk, soap, candles, oil, brandy, copper wares, and leather.  DRAINAGE. See,, , and.  DRAKE, (c.–), a celebrated English admiral, was born near Tavistock, Devonshire, about according to most authorities, but Barrow, in his life, says the date may have been as early as. His father, a yeoman and a zealous Protestant, was obliged to take refuge in Kent during the persecutions in the reign of Queen Mary. He obtained a naval chaplaincy from Queen Elizabeth, and is said to have been afterwards vicar of Upnor Church, on the Medway. This, however, must te a mistake, as there is no evidence of any church ever hav ing existed at Upnor. Young Drake was educated at the expense and under the care of Sir John. Hawkins, who waa his kinsman ; and, after passing an apprenticeship on a coasting vessel, at the age of eighteen he had risen to be purser of a ship trading to Biscay. At twenty he made a voyage to Guinea ; and at twenty-two lie was made captain of the &quot; Judith.&quot; In that capacity he was in the harbour of San Juan de Ulloa, in the Gulf of Mexico, where he behaved most gallantly in the actions under Sir John Hawkins, and returned with him to England, having acquired great reputation, though with the loss of all the money which he had embarked in the expedition. In he obtained a regular privateering commission from Queen Elizabeth, the powers of which he immediately exercised in a cruise in the Spanish Main. Having next projected an attack against the Spaniards in the West Indies to indemnify himself for his former losses, he set sail in, with two small ships named the &quot; Pasha &quot; and the &quot; Swan.&quot; He was afterwards joined by another vessel ; and with this small squadron he took and plundered the Spanish town of Nombre de Dios. With his men he pene trated across the isthmus of Panama, and committed great havoc among the Spanish shipping. From the top of a tree which he climbed while on the isthmus he obtained his first view of the Pacific, and resolved &quot; to sail an English ship in these seas.&quot; In these expeditions he was much assisted by a tribe of Indians, who were then engaged in a desultory warfare with the Spaniards. Having embarked his men and filled his ships with plunder, he bore away for England, and arrived at Plymouth on the 9th August. His success and honourable demeanour in this expedition gained him high reputation; and the use which he made of his riches served to raise him still higher in popular esteem. Having fitted out three frigates at his own expense, he sailed with them to Ireland, and rendered effective service as a volunteer, under Walter earl of Essex, the father of the famous but unfortunate earl. After the death of his 