DICTUM. 224 DICYNODON. tant legal doctrines established in deference to sui-h authority, in this view of the matter, judii'ia! ilirlu constitute a lony and valuable scries of eoiniiu-ntaries on the law of the land, scattered throu};li the law reports, to which resort may be bad as to the more systematic writings uf eminent lawyers and judges, as those of Coke, IJlaokstone, Kent, and Story. (See JlUcllK.NT: OlMMo.N.) Wamliaugh, The Sltidy of Cants (-.id eil., IJosUm, 1S!)4).' DICTUM OF KENILWORTH. An agree- ment between Henry 111. and the rebellious barons, xi called l)eiause made during the siege of Kenilwnrtb. in 12fiG. DICTYNI'ID.a! (Neo-Lnt. noni. pi., from C;k. SiKTvoii, dihlj/oii. net + eiSos. riilos. form). . family of spiders that weave irregiilar webs in ubitli two kimls nf silk are used. See Spiuer. DICTYONE'MA (Neo-l.nt.. from Gk. SiATuoe, (iiktyon, net + vf/iia, ninnu. thread). A genua of fossil graptolites in which the colony, when found pressed out on the surface of a slab of shale, has the appearance of a network of deli- cate filaments made tip of heavier cell-bearing branches that radiate from a eommon base and are tinited at frequent intervals by slender hori- zontal threads. The genus ranges from the upiKTiiiost Cambrian to the lower Devonian rocks, and is especially abundant in upper Cambrian "Dictyonema shales.' which form such a |jersistent zone just below the Ordovieian system in the Haltic Provinces. Scandinavia. England, and Kastern Canada. Dietycmema flaltelliforme, the Iiest-known species, had a colony five to ten inches long that grew in the .shape of a funnel from a single lootstock. See (ili.l>TOl.lTE. DIC'TYOSPON'GID.ffi (Xeo-Lat. nom. pi., from Gk. SIktvov. dilctyoii. net -- airbr^yot, spoiigot, gponge). A lainily of usually large, fossil lyssa- ciiie sponges somewhat closely allied to the ex- isting grass-sponges ( Euplectella ) . and founnia, llydnoceras, Prismodictya. and Thysanodictya of the Chemung rocks, and I'hraginodictya and Physospongia of the Keokuk group of Lower Carboniferous age. .l)out '200 species arc known, of which number scarcely more than half a dozen are European. An elegant monograph, with fine lithographic plates of these fossil sponges, was published by .James Hall and J. M. Clarke as "A Memoir on the Paleozoie Keliculate Sponges of the Family Diclyospongida-," in Memoirs of the .Vcir York Stale Museiim of Tiat- iiral Uistory. vid. ii. (Albany, 1898). See Sl'O.NCiE: Sl'OXGlOZOA. DIC'TYS (Lat.. from Gk. Mktvs. DiKlys) of Crete. A Greek writer. lie was supposed to have been a companion of Idoineneus in the Trojan War, of which he wrote an account. The Latin version (dating from the fourth century .v.n. ) of this falnilous history is alone extant. It has been maintained that no (ireek original ever existed; but it now seems clear that this view is incor- rect, and that the (Jreek version was used by Malalas in his chronography (c.570 a.d. ) and by other Uyzantine writers. The prologue of the Latin version anil Suidas inform us that the orig- inal work of Dietys was written in Pluenician letters on bark and buried with him at Cnosus, ill Crete, but in tlir thirteenth year of Xero's reign (a.u. (!(!I the loud) was burst by an earth- quake and the Pluenician book thus discovered. This was then presented to Nero, who ordered it translated into Greek. The Latin version liears the name of one Septimius as its author. The work belongs to the body of fictitious literature which began to be written in the Hellenistic I)eriod. In the Middle Ages it was much read, and. with the spurious history of Dares the Phrygian (q.v.). became the sourie of romance. The l>c>t edition is by .Meislcr (Leipzig. 1873). DICYC'LIC PLANTS. See Biennials. DICYNODON, di-si'nA-don (Xeo-Lat.. from (;k. di-, (/'-. doul>le -f- Kiuv, Ai/oii. dog _)- jJoiV, odotis. tootliK . genus of fossil reptiles found in the Permian-Triassic rocks of South .frica and Central India. The animal was a land rep- tile of heavy build, with large, massively con- structed limbs that were adapted to walking. The skull, which attained a length of IS inches, is massive and peculiarly shaped. The orbiLs or eye-cavities are large, and there is a pineal foramen which marks the presence in the live animal of a 'pineal eye,' perhaps beneath the skin in the midde of the fni-iliead. The only teeth present in the skull of this animal are a pair of upper incisors which have been developed to extraordinary size to form tusks resemblinif those of the walrus. The premaxillary bonej of the skull and the anterior ends of the mandi- bles or lower jaws are furnished with heavy cut- ting edges to make a formidable homy beak like tlial of the turtles. Xo complete skeleton of DicjTiodon has yet been found, but the fragment-'* collretid show it to be nn animal of great inter- est, and it is considered by some paleontologists tp belong to what is called a synthetic group of reptiles from which the inaminals are supposed
