decided contrasts of colour and of light and shade. His subjects embraced an unusually wide range: He availed himself of his travels in the East -in dealing with scenes from script-lire history, which he was probably the first of European painters to represent with their true and natural local background. Of this class were his Joseph sold by his Brethren, Moses taken from the Nile, and his scenes from the life of Samson, nine vigorous sketches in charcoal and white. Perhaps the most impressive of his historical pictures is his Defeat of the Gimbri, representing with wonderful skill the conflict between a horde of barbarians and a disciplined army. Decamps produced a number of genre pictures, chiefly of scenes from French and Algerine domestic life, the most marked feature of which is humour. The same characteristic attaches to most of his numerous animal paintings. He painted dogs, horses, &c., with great fidelity and sympathy ; but his favourite subject was monkeys, which he depicted in various studies and sketches with a grotesque humour that could scarcely be surpassed. Probably the best known of all his works is The Monkey Connoisseurs, a clever satire of the jury of the French Academy of Painting, which had rejected several of his earlier works on account of their divergence from any known standard. The pictures and sketches of Decamps were first made familiar to the English public through the lithographs of Eugene la Koux. See Moreau s Decamps et son (Euvre (Paris, 1869).
DE CANDOLLE, Augustin Pyramus (1778-1841), a
celebrated botanist, was born at Geneva, February 4, 1778.
He was descended from one of the most ancient families of
Provence, and his ancestors had been expatriated for their
religion in the middle of the 1 Gth century. His father was
a famous printer, and syndic of the university and republic.
Though a weakly boy he showed great aptitude for study,
and distinguished himself at school by his rapid attain
ments in classical and general literature, and specially by a
faculty for writing elegant verse, which led Florian to antici
pate that he might become famous as a poet. He showed
remarkable powers of memory, Avhich proved of the greatest
service to him in the science to which he ultimately devoted
himself. His interest in plants was first roused while he
was residing with his mother at a remote country village
during the siege of Geneva in 1792. He began his scientific
studies at the college of Geneva, by attending the courses
of Saussure and Vaucher, the latter of whom first inspired
him with the determination to make botanical science the
chief pursuit of his life. In 1796 he removed to Paris,
where he resided with Dolomieu, attended various courses
of lectures on natural science, and gained the friendship of
Jussieu and Desfontaines. Hi? first productions, Historia
Plantarum Succidentarum (4 vols., 1799) and Astragaloyia
(1802), introduced him to the notice of Cuvier (whose chair
in the College de France he supplied in 1802), Humboldt,
Biot, and Lamarck, who afterwards confided to him the
publication of the third edition of the Flore Franchise
(1803-15). The introduction to this work contained the
first exposition of his principle of classification according to
the natural as opposed to the Linnean or artificial method.
Having been elected (1804) doctor of medicine by the
medical faculty of Paris, he wrote, as an inaugural work,
the Essai sur les proprietes medicinales des plantes com-
parees avcc leurs formes exterieures et leur classification
naturelle, and soon after, in 1806, his Synopsis plantarum
in flora Gallica descriptarum. At the desire of the French
Government he spent the summers of the following six
years in making a botanical and agricultural survey of the
whole kingdom, the results of which he published in 1813.
In 1807 he was appointed professor of botany in the
medical faculty of the university of Montpellier, and in
1810 he was transferred to the newly founded chair of
botany of the faculty of sciences in the same university.
He was an admirable lecturer, and the gardens under his
charge were much improved during his occupancy of the
chair. From Montpellier he removed to Geneva in 1816,
having been invited by the now independent republic to
fill the newly created chair of natural history. The rest of
his life was spent in an attempt to elaborate and complete
his " natural " system of botanical classification. The
results of his labours in this department are to be found in
his Regni vegetabilis systema naturale, of which two
volumes only were completed (1821) when he found that
it would be impossible for him to execute the whole work
on so extensive a scale. He accordingly commenced in
1824 a less extensive work in the same direction his
Prodromus systematis regni vegetabilis, but even of this
he was able to finish only seven volumes, or two-thirds of
the whole. It was carried on after his death by his son
Alphonse, who in 1834 had succeeded him in his professor
ship. He had been for several years in delicate health
when he died on the 9th September 1841 at Turin, whither
he had gone to attend a scientific reunion. De Candolle
received diplomas or the honour of membership from most
of the learned societies of Europe, and was a very frequent
contributor to their Transactions. Louis Philippe decorated
him with the cross of the Legion of Honour. He was
highly esteemed in his native city, where he was for a long
period rector of the academy and a member of the legislature.
For an estimate of his place as a botanist see BOTANY, vol.
iv. p. 80.
See Flourens s iZloge de Candolle (1842), and Pe la Rive s
Candolle, sa Vie et ses Travaux (1851).
DECAPOLIS, a district of Palestine, or perhaps rather
a confederation of districts, situated, with the exception of
a small portion, on the eastern side of the Upper Jordan
and the Sea of Tiberias. Its boundaries are not accurately
known, and probably were never precisely defined. It
evidently takes its name from the fact that it included
ten cities ([Greek]), but the ancient geographers do not
agree as to which these ten cities were. This difference of
statement may be explained by the supposition that, like
the Cinque Ports of England, Decapolis preserved its
original designation after new members were received into
the confederation, and perhaps some of the old members
had lost their connection. Pliny recognizes the uncertainty,
but gives the following list : Damascus, Philadelphia,
Raphana, Scythopolis (on the west side of the Jordan),
Gadara, Hippo, Dion, Pella, Galasa (Gerasa), and Canatha.
Damascus is the only one that retains its importance ;
Scythopolis, or Beth-Shean, which seems to have been
anciently the next in size, is represented by the village of
Beisan ; and Gerasa, Canatha or Kenath, and Pella are
of interest only for their ruins. Decapolis was placed by
the Romans under the jurisdiction of the Syrian governor,
and seems to have enjoyed special privileges. Regarding
the rise and decay of the confederation we have no precise
information, but it was at the height of its prosperity in
the time of Christ.
DECATUR, a flourishing city of the United States,
capital of Macon county, Illinois, situated in the midst of
a rich agricultural district to the right of the Sangamon
river,- at a railway junction about 38 miles east of Spring
field. It is well built, and has 15 churches and 24 public
schools ; but none of its edifices are individually remarkable.
Among its industrial establishments is a large rolling mill.
Population in 1870, 7161.
DECCAN (Dakshin, the Country of the South), in
India, includes, according to Hindu geographers, the
whole of the territories situated to the south of the
Nerbudda. In its more modern acceptation, however,
it is sometimes understood as comprising only the
