Page:LA2-NSRW-2-0038.jpg



DICKINSON

530

DIDO

ably no one Is so universally liked. His characters are taken from actual life, and call out the best sympathies of the reader. Among his works, besides those already noticed, may be mentioned Old Curiosity Shop, Dom-bey and Son, Little Dorrit, Tale of Two Cities, Our Mutual Friend, A Christmas Carol and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished). See his Letters and the Life by Forster.

Dick'inson, Anna Elizabeth, an American lecturer and author, was born at Philadelphia, Oct. 28, 1842. She early began to lecture on temperance and against slavery, and meantime was employed at the United States mint at Philadelphia, but afterward lost her position and then made lecturing lier profession. She spoke in the political campaigns of several states in 1863. She was opposed to the election of Lincoln in 1864, and favored that of Greeley in 1872. During the war she delivered many patriotic addresses, and since then has spoken often on woman's suffrage and other questions. In 1875 she went on the stage, writing two plays, in both of which she acted the principal part.

Dickinson, Emily, an American poet, was born at Amherst, Mass., Dec. 10, 1830, and died there, May 15, 1886. A recluse all her life, she wrote much but published little. In 1890, however, a collection of her verse appeared that severe critics recognized as revealing a rare genius and as enriching American literature with minor lyrics of unique form. Another collection was published in 1892, and her letters in 1894.

Diclinous (dWU-nus) Flowers. Those which contain either stamens or pistils, but not both. Staminate and pistillate flowers, therefore, are diclinous. This diclinism may involve not merely the flowers but the plants which bear [them. For example, staminate and pistillate flowers may occur on the same

?lant, in which case it is said to be monoecious. n other cases the staminate and pistillate flowers may be upon  different  plants,   in which case the plants are said to be dioecious. Dicotyledons  (di-kot't-le'duns). One  of the  two   subdivisions   of  the   great  plant

froup Angiosperms. Dicotyledons are the ighest group of plants in rank, and they also contain more species than any other group, nearly 100,000 having been described. They are herbs, shrubs and trees of every variety of size and habit. The name comes from the fact that the embryo develops two cotyledons. The other features which distinguish the group in general are the structure of the stem, in which the woody bundles form a hollow cylinder; the net-veined leaves; and the parts of the flowers in fives or fours. There are two great series of dicotyledons which are distinguished from one another by their petals. In the first series either there are no petals at all, or they are separate from one another. To this series belong the common forest-

trees (as oak, hickory, walnut, beech, elm, poplar), buttercups, water-lilies, mustards, roses, legumes and umbellifers. In the second series the petals are united to form urns, tubes, funnels and like forms. To this series belong the heaths, morning-glories, phloxes, gentians, mints, verbenas and composites.

Diderot (de'd'-rd'}, Denis, was born at Langres, in Champagne, France, on Oct. 5, 1713, of cutlery-manufacturing family. Refusing to become either a lawyer or a physician, his father cut off his allowance, and for ten years he led a haphazard life in Paris as tutor and hackwriter for booksellers. The first book he wrote got him into hot water, as it was ordered to be burned by the government. For writing another ne was imprisoned. His commanding position in the world of letters came with his appointment as editor of a new encyclopaedia. The various volumes appeared between 1751 and 1765. What the publishers had intended to be an encyclopaedia became, in Diderot's hands, an engine of war on what was known as the philosophical party in France. The beliefs and ideas of this party here found expression, and the leaders of the party came to be known as the encyclopaedists. When it is called to mind that these ideas were the first entering of the wedge that later upset France in the Revolution of 1789, it will be understood how bitter the government was against these philosophers. Diderot enlisted nearly all the important French writers of the time as contributors. For some twenty years he stood at his post in spite of dangers and drawbacks. The book was again and again threatened with persecution, and Diderot was all the time in danger of imprisonment or exile. Diderot was a very ready writer, and wrote a great deal. He wrote novels, plays, satires, philosophical essays and criticisms of pictures and books. In his later years the author fell into money-troubles, from which he was rescued by Catharine II of Russia, who bought his library and allowed him to keep it in Paris, paying him for taking care of it. Diderot died at Paris on the 3oth of July, 1784. See Diderot and the Encyclopaedists, by John Morley.

Dido (di'do), according to the old stories the founder of Carthage, was the daughter of the king of Tyre and the sister of Pygmalion. Pygmalion succeeded to the throne, and murdered Dido's husband and her uncle, Sichseus, who was a priest of Hercules, but searched in vain for the treasure that Sichseus was known to have. With this treasure and many Tyrians Dido escaped to sea. She landed in Africa near Utica, and built a city called Byrsa, meaning the hide of a bull, on a piece of land which she bought. It is said she bargained for as much land as could be covered by a bull's hide. Once the agreement