DRACUT 416 DRAGON, GREEN Japan, etc. The American skunk cab- bage was formerly referred to this genus; it is now called Symplocarpus foetidus. DRACUT, a town of Massachusetts, in Middlesex co. It is the center of an important agricultural region and its in- dustries include woolen mills. Pop. (1910) 3,461; (1920) 5,280. DRAFT, a written order for the pay- ment of a sum of money addressed to some person who holds money in trust, or who acts in the capacity of agent or servant of the drawer. Documents of this kind often pass between one depart- ment of a bank or mercantile house and some other department, and are distin- guished from bills of exchange and checks, in not being drawn upon a debtor. DRAGO, LUIS MARIA, an Argentine lawyer. He was born at Buenos Aires, 1859, and was educated at the university of that city. He practiced law and be- came a judge at Buenos Aires, after- ward being elected to Congress. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs under Pres- ident Roca, and while in that position sent to the Argentine Minister in Wash- ington the instructions known as the Drago Doctrine (1902). He was Argen- tine delegate to the Second Peace Con- ference and was one of the arbitrators nominated by agreement between Great Britain and the United States for the hearing of differences regarding fish- eries off the Nort?i Atlantic coast. His works include: "La Literatura del Slang"; "La idea del Derecho"; "Cobro Coercitivo de Deudas Publicas," etc. DRAGON, a fabulous animal, found in the mythology of nearly all nations, generally as an enormous serpent of ab- normal form. Ancient legends represent the dragon as a huge hydra, watching as sentinel the Garden of the Hesperides, or guarding the tree on which was hung the Golden Fleece at Colchis. In other places he appears as a monster, making the neighborhood around his cave un- safe, and desolating the land; his death being ascribed to a hero or god made for the task, which was a service to all mankind. In Christian art the dragon is the usual emblem of sin; is met with in pic- tures of St. Michael and St. Margaret, when it typifies the conquest over sin; it also appears under the feet of the Sa- viour, and under those of the Virgin. The dragon also typifies idolatry. In pictures of St. George and St. Sylvester it serves to exhibit the triumph of Chris- tianity over paganism. As a symbol of Satan we find the dragon nearly always in the form of the fossil Ichthyo.saurus. The dragon appears on the shield of the most famous of the early Grecian heroes, as well as on the helmets of kings and gen- erals. It is found on English shields aft- er the time of William the Conqueror. In modern heraldry it appears on the shield and helmet; and as supporter it is called a lindworm when it has no wings, and serpent when it has no feet; when it hangs by the head and wings it means a conquered dragon. DRAGON, the lizard, genus Draco, It has the first six ribs extended in a nearly straight line, and supporting an expansion of the skin on each side which acts like a pair of parachutes. This en- ables these animals to take long leaps, if need be, about 30 paces from branch to branch, but there is no beating of the air, and consequently no flying, in the ordinary sense of the word. There are various species in the United States, Africa, Java, etc. DRAGONET, a genus of spiny-rayed bony fishes near the Goby, remarkable for having the gill openings reduced to a small hole on each side of the nape, and the ventral fins placed und?r the throat, separate, and larger than the pectorals. The species are numerous, widely distributed in the temperate seas of the Old World, and generally finely colored. The gemmeous dragonet (C. lyra) of the British coasts — called gow- die (gowd, gold") in Scotland — is a fish about 10 or 12 inches long, and of a pre- vailing yellow color varied with spots of brown. At the reproductive season the male becomes very gorgeously adorned with blue and violet spots and stripes. This fish is also called skulpin or sculpin — a name given in the United States to a marine bullhead or cottus. DRAGON FLY, a popular name given to the family Libellulidse, the second family of the tribe Snbuliconiia, in which the hind wings are approximately of the same size as the anterior, a char- acter which serves to distinguish them from the Ephemerids;. Some 1,400 spe- cies have been described from all parts of the world. They are divided into three groups — AgHonides, ^schnidx, and Libellulides, ^schnc grandis, the great dragon fly, is nearly three inches long. Libelhda depressa is the horse stinger, an insect nearly two inches long and of a yellowish-brown color. DRAGON, GREEN, an araceous plant, with spotted petioles and handsome lobed leaves, and dark-colored fetid flowers, is common in Greece and other countries of southern Europe, and is occasionally to be seen in gardens.
