a county of England, bounded on the south by the English channel, on the north by Somersetshire and Wiltshire, on the east by Hampshire, and on the west by Devonshire and some part of Somersetshire. It is between 40 and 50 miles long from east to west, and 34 broad from south to north, and contains 248 parishes, and about 775,000 acres. This country enjoys a mild, pleasant, and wholesome air, and a deep, rich, and fertile soil, finely diversified. Towards the north it is level, under the high lands that divide it from Somersetshire, where there are fine arable grounds that yield large crops of different kinds of grain. But on the south, from the borders of Hampshire by the sea coast, for an extent of almost 20 miles in length, and in some places four or five in breadth, is a heathy common, which renders this county less populous than it otherwise would be. From east to west runs a ridge of hills called the Downs, abounding with sweet and short herbage, which nourishes a vast number of sheep equally esteemed for their flesh and fleece. The country is also very plentifully watered; and in all respects so well suited both for pleasure and profit, that it was distinguished by the Romans above all others. They had more stations and summer camps in Dorsetshire than in any other county. That the Saxons had the same regard for it, is evident from the number of palaces they had in it, the stately minsters they built, and the express directions they gave that their bodies should be interred in those monuments of their piety. This country yields many and very valuable commodities. The quarries in Purbeck and Portland supply stones of different qualities, suited to various uses, and in prodigious quantities, together with some very rich and beautiful marble. The best tobacco-pipe clay in England is also found in this county. The number of inhabitants in 1811 was 124,603. See Dorsetshire, Supplement.

DORSIFEROUS plants, among botanists, such as are of the capillary kind, without stalks, and which bear their seeds on the back side of their leaves.