in botany: A genus of the digynia order belonging to the polyandria class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 12th order, Holaceae. The calyx is pentapetalous, without petals or styles; the fruit hispid and monoecious. There is but one species, which is found on Mount Ararat.

CALLIGRAPHUS anciently denoted a copyist, or scribe, who transcribed fair, and at length, what the notaries had taken down in notes or minutes. The word is compounded of καλός, beauty, and γράφω, I write. The minutes of acts, &c. were always taken in a kind of cipher, or short-hand; such as the notes of Tyro in Gruter: by which means the notaries, as the Latins called them, or the σημειογράφοι and τακτογράφοι, as the Greeks called them, were enabled to keep pace with a speaker or person who dictated. These notes, being understood by few, were copied over fair, and at length, by persons who had a good hand, for sale, &c. These persons were called calligraphi; a name frequently met with in the ancient writers.