Desman
an insectivorous mammal of the shrew family. It is 7 inches in length, tail, 8 inches; the feet are webbed, and the flattened tail is covered with scales; the nose is lengthened into a flexible proboscis. It is found in southeastern- Russia, making borrows in river banks, beginning under water, and ascending above the level of the highest floods. The food consists of small fishes, small fishes , frogs, leeches, and larvæ of aquatic insects. The Mygale Pyrenaica is not M Pyrenaica is not much more than half the size of the Russian species; it is found in France .
DESMIDIACEÆ, a family of confervoid algæ, consisting entirely of microscopic flexible organisms inhabiting in fresh water, scarcely a specimen of which can be found that does not con- tain some of them. Sometimes they does not con- Sometimes they tain some of them. adhere in large quantities to aquatic plants, forming green films investing these; at others they rest as a thick coating at the bottom of water, or lie intermingled with confervæ, etc. The most distinctive feature in their appearance is the bilateral symmetry, indicative of the tendency to divide into two valves or segments. Many of the gen- 22-Vol. III-Cyc DESMODIUM DE SOTO era have the power of fixing themselves In the last year it was made the State to external objects, and possess a feeble power of locomotion. Reproduction is effected by (1) cell-division, where each pustule divides into two; (2) by zoöspores; (3) by by conjugation. There are five tribes, containing 22 genera.