ORNITHORHYNCHUS 



ORONTES 



647 



this only persists in the males, which are further 

 distinguished in being somewhat larger than their 

 mates. The body temperature is peculiarly low. 

 The voice resembles the growl of a small puppy. 

 No fossil forms are known. 



This lowly mammal is essentially aquatic, living 

 in rivers and ' ponds,' swimming and diving admir- 

 ably. It is lively and active, diving when alarmed, 

 and able to remain several minutes under water. 

 It constructs on the 

 bank elaborate burrows 

 (sometimes 20 to 50 

 feet in length) with 

 two entrances one 

 | above, the other under 

 ' water. Like many 

 l ( ; other defenceless ani- 

 |j nials, it is most active 

 in the twilight. It 

 grubs in the mud for 

 worms, water-insects, 

 molluscs, &c. , which it 



Fig. 2. 

 Ornithorhynchus asleep. 



can temporarily stow away in cheek-pouches. 

 When frightened or asleep it often rolls itself up, 

 in hedgehog fashion, into a living ball. It appears 

 to live amicably with the water-rat, but is molested 

 by carnivorous marsupials, and is often wantonly, 

 though fortunately not easily, shot. The eggs 

 for the discredited oviparous habit has been con- 

 firmedare laid in a rough nest within the burrow. 

 The young appear to use their bills in breaking the 

 tough shell. The animals have a lishy, oily smell. 

 The flesh is eaten by the omnivorous "natives, who 

 are said especially to esteem the young forms. 



Many of the enigmas about the duckmolc's 

 structure and affinities are still unsolved, but 

 there is no doubt that along with its neighbours 

 it links mammals back to reptilian or even amphi- 

 bian types. It need hardly be stated that it has 

 no close connection with birds. Some of the most 

 important structural characters may be briefly 

 summarised : The bones of the skull fuse and are 

 polished as in birds ; the halves of the lower jaw 

 do not unite in front, and have no ascending pro- 

 rcss ; the liones of the ear are in a primitive state. 

 There are important technical peculiarities in the 

 vertebras, ribs, hip girdle, &c. Epipubic liones, 

 for instance, occur as in marsupials. The coracoids 

 are remarkable in reaching the sternum, and the 

 breastbone is like that of the lizard and some other 

 reptiles. The brain is smooth, and old fashioned 

 in having a small corpus callosum and large 

 anterior commissure. There is a common cloaca, 

 receiving the rectum and the urino-geuital canal. 

 The heart in its structure is like that of birds. 

 The ureters do not open into the neck of the 

 bladder, but farther down into the short urino- 

 genital canal. The left ovary is larger than 

 the right, and the testes are abdominal. The 

 oviduct* have no 'firnbriated ' upper ends, are 

 separate throughout their course, open into the 

 urmo-genital ]i;i.-s:igi;, and thence into the cloaca. 

 The vasa deferentia are open separately in the 

 same way, and have only a temporary connec- 

 tion with the penis, which lies attached to the 

 wall of the cloaca. The two milk-glands open 

 on a flat bare patch of skin. As the <lu<-k- 

 mole is oviparous, there is of course no placenta. 

 The eggs, like those of reptiles, undergo partial 

 segmentation. 



From the above it will l>e seen that the dnckmole 

 not only represents the lowest extant stage of mam- 

 malian evolution, but preserves, more markedly 

 than the higher forms, traces of the far-off pedigree 

 of the class. 



See ECHIDWA, MAMMAL, MARSUPIAL; also Gonld'g 

 MnmTnalt of Auttrnlia (3 volg. 1845-63); Huxlcy'a 

 Vertebrate*, and text-books of Comparative Anatomy; 



W. K. Parker's Mammalian Descent; Flower's Oste- 

 ology of the Mammalia ; Spencer, Nature, xx xi. ( 1884- 

 85). 



Orobanelioip. or OROBANCHACE*, a natural 

 order of parasitical herbs, generally with simple 

 stems clothed with brown, purplish, yellow, or 

 blue, but never green scales, instead of true leaves ; 

 terminating in a spike of flowers each in the axil 

 of a scale or bract similar in colour and character 

 to those of the stem. The species known consider- 

 ably exceed one hundred in number, and are spread 

 over the greater part of the globe, chiefly in tem- 

 perate climates, but more abundant in the Old 

 World than in the New. Eight species are natives 

 of Britain, seven of which belong to the genus 

 Orobanclie ( Broomrapes ), and one species to 

 Lathnea (Toothwort). In Britain they are all 

 rather rare or purely local plants. High medicinal 

 virtues formerly were ascribed to some of the 

 species, especially to Epiphegits virginiana (see 

 CANCER-ROOT ), which are now discredited. With 

 Phelipcea lutea the Egyptians dye the ropes made 

 of the palm Hyphcene thebaica black. 



Oroblis, a genus of plants of the natural order 

 Legumiuosse, sub-order Papilionacete, allied to 

 Vetches, and sometimes called Bitter Vetch. The 

 species are per- 

 ennial herba- 

 ceous plants, 

 chiefly natives 

 of Europe. 

 They afford 

 good food for 

 cattle. Two 

 are natives of 

 Britain, of 

 which the most 

 common is 0. 

 t u b er osiis, 

 whose racemes 

 of purple 

 flowers often 

 adorn heaths 

 and bushy 

 places, especi- 

 ally in hilly 

 districts. Its 

 roots are creep- 

 ing and swell 

 out into tubers 

 at irregular in- 

 tervals. The 

 tubers have a 

 sweet taste, 

 resembling 

 that of liquorice, and are sought after by children ; 

 they are also bruised and steeped in water in some 

 parts of the Highlands of Scotland to make a fer- 

 mented liquor, and a kind of liquor is made also by 

 steeping them in whisky ; they are welt flavoured 

 and nutritious when boiled or roasted, and are used 

 in this way in the Highlands of Scotland, in Hol- 

 land, Belgium, and other countries. 



Orontes, the ancient name of a river in Syria, 

 now called Nahr-el-Asi. It rises in the highest 

 part of Coele-Syria, near Baalbek, flows northward 

 between the mountains of Lihanns and Anti- 

 Libanus, as far as the city of Antioch, and then 

 westward to the Mediterranean Sea, through a 

 total course of 147 miles. Its lower course is 

 remarkably beautiful ; its rocky banks are 300 

 feet high, and the windings of the river show them 

 off to the greatest advantage. Myrtles, laurels, 

 figs, wild vines, arbutus, dwarf-oaks, and syca- 

 mores grow up the cliffs in picturesque irregularity. 

 The country through which the nver flows is in 

 many parts richly cultivated. 



Bitter Vetch ( Orobut tuberoivt) : 

 a, standard of the corolla. 



