and root is correlated with the increase in leaf-area each season,
due to the continued production of new leaf-bearing branches. A
characteristic of the class is afforded by the complicated network
formed by the leaf-veins,--well seen in a skeleton leaf, from which the
soft parts have been removed by maceration. The parts of the flower are
most frequently arranged in fives, or multiples of fives; for instance,
a common arrangement is as follows,--five sepals, succeeded by five
petals, ten stamens in two sets of five, and five or fewer carpels; an
arrangement in fours is less frequent, while the arrangement in threes,
so common in monocotyledons, is rare in dicotyledons. In some orders the
parts are numerous, chiefly in the case of the stamens and the carpels,
as in the buttercup and other members of the order Ranunculaceae. There
is a very wide range in the general structure and arrangement of the
parts of the flower, associated with the means for ensuring the
transference of pollen; in the simplest cases the flower consists only
of a few stamens or carpels, with no enveloping sepals or petals, as in
the willow, while in the more elaborate type each series is represented,
the whole forming a complicated structure closely correlated with the
size, form and habits of the pollinating agent (see FLOWER). The
characters of the fruit and seed and the means for ensuring the
dispersal of the seeds are also very varied (see FRUIT).

DICTATOR (from the Lat. _dictare_, frequentative of _dicere_, to speak).
In modern usage this term is loosely used for a personal ruler enjoying
extraordinary and extra-constitutional power. The etymological sense of
one who "dictates"--i.e. one whose word (_dictum_) is law (from which
that of one who "dictates," i.e. speaks for some writer to record, is to
be distinguished)--has been assisted by the historical use of the term,
in ancient times, for an extraordinary magistrate in the Roman
commonwealth. It is unknown precisely how the Roman word came into use,
though an explanation of the earlier official title, magister populi,
throws some light on the subject. That designation may mean "head of the
(infantry) host" as opposed to his subordinate, the magister equitum,
who was "head of the cavalry." If this explanation be accepted, emphasis
was thus laid in early times on the military aspect of the dictatorship,
and in fact the office seems to have been instituted for the purpose of
meeting a mi