DESFONTAINES DESMAN "if any person in the navy shall desert to an enemy or rebel, he shall suffer death," and (art. 13) "if any person in the navy shall desert in time of war, he shall suffer death, or such other punishment as a court martial shall adjudge." The rules and articles for the government of the land forces of the United States authorize the infliction of corporal punishment not ex- ceeding 50 lashes for desertion in time of peace, by sentence of a general court martial ; and the laws do not permit punishment by stripes and lashes for any other crime in the land service. In time of war a court martial may sentence a deserter to suffer death, or otherwise punish at its discretion. DESFONTAIflES, Rene Louiehe, a French bot- anist, born at Tremblay, Brittany, about 1752, died in Paris, Nov. 16, 1833. After studying at the college of Rennes, he went to Paris to prepare for the medical profession, but devoted himself chiefly to botany. In 1782 he received his degree as doctor, and in the next year wrote a paper on the organs of fructification in plants, which procured his admission into the academy of sciences. He then, at the expense of the academy, set out for the Barbary states, and during two years explored the natural history, especially the flora, of the north of Africa. He published the result in the Flora, Atlantic^ (2 vols., Paris, 1798), which described 1,600 spe- cies of plants, 300 of which were new. After his return to Paris in 1785 he was appointed by Buffon to succeed Lemonnier as professor in ihejardin des plantes, and from this time was employed in the duties of that office. His lec- tures treated of the physiology and anatomical structure of plants, rather than of their no- menclature. He was the first to indicate the difference in growth and structure between the monocotyledonous and the dicotyledonous plants. He made a botanical catalogue of th&jardin des plantes (1804; 3d ed. in Latin, 1829), continued the Collection des velins du museum d'Mstoire naturelle, which had been gun for Gaston of Orleans, published works arboriculture and the artificial fecundation plants, and wrote numerous memoirs. DESFUL, or Dizful, a city of Persia, in the vince of Khuzistan, on the E. bank of a river the same name, 25 m. W. N. W. of Shus-
- pop. estimated at 15,000. It is the prin-
al mart of the province, and has a fine bridge 22 arches, said to have been built by com- nd of the celebrated Sapor. Indigo, or- anges, and lemons are raised in the neighbor- hood. About 10 m. S. W. of the city are mounds of ruins, the foundations of which are of stone, and the upper portions of brick, which cover the site of the ancient city of Susa, and beds of large canals, supposed to be of Sassa- nian origin. DESHA, a S. E. county of Arkansas, separated from Mississippi by the Mississippi river, and in- tersected by Arkansas and White rivers ; area, about 600 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 6,125, of whom 3,934 were colored. The area has recently been diminished by the taking of a portion for Lin- coln county. The surface is low, level, and subject to inundation. The chief productions in 1870 were 94,797 bushels of Indian corn, 11,387 of sweet potatoes, 7,041 of Irish po- tatoes, and 8,166 bales of cotton. There were 804 horses, 1,018 mules and asses, 1,397 milch cows, 2,811 other cattle, and 7,042 swine. Capital, Napoleon. DESHOULIERES, Antoinette (DU LIGIEE DE LA GARDE), a French authoress, born in Paris about 1634, died there, Feb. 17, 1694. She was the daughter of a maUre d'Jiotel of Maria de' Medici and Anne of Austria, and was early no- ted for beauty and wit. She began to write verses when very young. In 1651 she was married to Guillaume de la Fon de Boisguerin, seigneur des Houlieres, who in the troubles of the Fronde embraced the party of the prince of Conde, and was exiled. She subsequently joined her husband at the court of Brussels, where she became an object of suspicion, and was imprisoned in 1657 in the castle of Vil- voorden, where she read the Scriptures and fathers of the church. She was rescued by her husband after eight months, and on her return to France after the amnesty became a favorite at the court of Anne of Austria. She wrote poems in almost all styles, from mad- rigal to tragedy ; but her idyls, especially those entitled Les moutons and Lesfleurs, were most admired, and gained her the appellation of the tenth muse and the French Calliope. The subsequent ill success of her tragedies caused this advice to be given her, Retournez d vos moutons. She became a member of the acad- emy of the Ricovrati of Padua in 1684, and of the academy of Aries in 1689. Like Mme. de S6 vigne, she belonged to the literary clique hostile to Racine. Voltaire said that of all French ladies who had cultivated poetry, Mme. Deshoulieres had succeeded best, since more of her verses than those of any other were known by heart. The principal editions of her works are those of 1747 and 1799, each in 2 vols. DESMAN, an insectivorous mammal of the shrew family, my gale (galemys} Muscomtica, (Desm.). It is 7 in. long, with a tail of 8 in. ; it is brown above and white below, the fur being very soft and long ; the feet are webbed, and the flattened tail is covered with scales, and is a powerful rudder ; the nose is length- ened into a flexible proboscis. It is found in the Volga and adjacent streams and lakes in S. E. Russia, making burrows in the banks > beginning under water, and ascending above the level of the highest floods. The food con- sists of small fishes, frogs, leeches, and larvao of aquatic insects. It is itself devoured by pikes and other voracious fishes, to whose flesh it communicates a strong musky odor, from the penetrating secretions of glands near the tail. It is rarely seen on dry land ; it is an excellent diver and swimmer, and, from its aquatic habits and the rodent look of the in-
