Draa, or Wady Draa, a river, or rather water-course, of Morocco, rising in the Atlas Mountains and flowing generally south-east, until, after penetrating the Anti-Atlas range and passing several oases, it suddenly turns westwards, and forms the shallow lagoon El Debaia. From this point until it enters the ocean it is a wady, and forms the southern boundary of Morocco.
Dracæ´na, a genus of endogenous evergreen plants, nat. ord. Liliaceæ. It includes the
dragon tree of Teneriffe (D. Draco), celebrated for producing the resin called dragon's blood. Several species of Dracæna are cultivated in greenhouses for the beauty of their foliage, but many of the fine plants known by this name belong strictly to other genera.
Drachenfels (drä´hen-fels; 'dragon rock'), "the castled crag of Drachenfels", as Byron calls it, a hill in Rhenish Prussia, about 8 miles south-east of Bonn, rising 900 feet above the Rhine, and crowned by the old castle of Drachenfels.
Drachma (drak´ma), the unit of weight and of money among the ancient Greeks. It was the principal Greek coin, was made of silver, and was worth (the Attic drachma) about 9¾d. As a weight amongst the Greeks it was about 2 dwt. 7 grains troy. The monetary unit of modern Greece is also called a drachma. Since 1867 its value has been equivalent to that of the franc of the Latin Monetary Union. It is divided into 100 lepta.
Draco, a legislator of Athens, about 620 B.C., whose name has become proverbial as an inexorable and bloodthirsty lawgiver, and whose laws were said to have been written in blood, not ink. Suidas says that he met his death at Ægina, being unintentionally suffocated by the caps and cloaks thrown at him by some of his enthusiastic supporters.
Draco, the Dragon, a constellation of the northern hemisphere, consisting of a long and straggling line of stars, coiled about Ursa Minor, the Lesser Bear. The Pole of the Ecliptic, or earth's orbital plane, is in this constellation, and round that point the Pole of the Equator, at present close to α Ursæ Minoris (the 'Pole Star'), travels in a circle in about 26,000 years. Some 4000 years ago α Draconis was pole-star.
Drag, (1) a long coach or carriage, generally uncovered and seated round the sides; (2) an apparatus for retarding or stopping the rotation of one wheel or of several wheels, in carriages especially; (3) an apparatus, consisting of a frame of iron with a bag-net attached, used to recover articles lost in the water.
Drag-net, a net drawn along the bottom of a river or pond to catch fish. The use of drag-nets is usually prohibited in rivers where fish breed, as it takes all indiscriminately.
Drago Doctrine, a doctrine formulated by L. M. Drago, an Argentinian jurist and Minister for Foreign Affairs, and asserting the principle that no power had a right to impose itself by force of arms upon any of the Spanish American nationalities. Drago first advanced his doctrine in 1902, when the British, German, and Italian fleets were blockading the Venezuelan coast to compel President Castro to pay certain claims made upon his government.