109 



OPHRYOESSA, 



ORANG-UTAN. 



no 



' Euryale coatoaa. 

 Centre (front), natural size. 



unarmed riba in pairs, truncate at the apex ; rays dichotomoua, very 

 ramose, and transversely rugose. It is found in the seas of America. 



Though the species do not appear to be numerous, the form seema 

 to be numerous in all seas. [EcaiONODERMATA.] 



OPHRYOESSA. [IOUANID.K] 



OPHRYS, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Orchidaceae. 

 It has a patent perianth, a variously-lobed lip without a spur. The 

 glands of the stalks cf the pollen masses each in a distinct pouch. 



0. apifera, Bee-Orchis, has a tumid 5-lobed lip, the two lower lobes 

 prominent and with a hairy base, the two intermediate reflexed, trun- 

 cate, terminal, acute, elongated and reflexed; the anthers with a 

 hooked point, the petals oblong, bluntish, downy. It is about a foot 

 high, and has large, few, and rather distant flowers. The sepals are 

 whitish tinged with purple. The lip is velvety, brown, variegated 

 with yellow. It is one of the handsomest species of orchidaceous plants, 

 native of Great Britain, and grows on chalky calcareous soils. 



0. arachnitet, late Spider -Orchis, is distinguished by a terminal 

 indexed flat rather heart-shaped appendage, and deltoid downy 

 petals. The sepals are pink, the lip dark purple variegated with 

 yellow and velvety, the appendage green, never reflexed. It is found 

 on chalk downs near Folkstone and Sittingbourne in Kent. 



0. aranifera, Spider-Orchis, has 3 obscure lobes, the middle lobe 

 large, emarginate, without an appendage, the petals linear and glabrous. 

 This species is smaller than the preceding, and with fewer flowers. 

 The petals and sepals are green and quite glabrous. The lip is of a 

 dark brown colour, hairy, and covered with pale or yellowish linea. It 

 is found in chalky places in Kent and Sussex. 



0, mutcifera, Fly-Orchis, has an oblong trifid lip with a large pale 

 spot in the centre, the middle lobe is elongated, bifid, the anthers short 

 and obtuse, and the petals filiform. It is a slender plant and grows 

 about a foot high. The petals are very narrow, and of a purple colour, 

 the sepals green, and the lip of a purplish-brown colour, the spot in 

 the centre of a bluish tinge. It is found in damp calcareous thickets 

 and pastures in Great Britain. 



(Babington, Manual of Britieh Botany.) 



OPISTHOCOMUS. fCRACiD.E.] 



OPIUM. [PAPAVER.] 



OPLURUS. [IG0ANID.E.] 



OPOPANAX, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 I'mbelliferie ; it has an obsolete calyx, roundish entire petals rolled 

 inwards, with a rather acute lobe; compressed fruit with a dilated 

 convex border, bipinnate leaves with unequally cordate segments, 

 crcnated and obtuse. The umbels are compound ; the involucre both 

 universal and partial, and the flowers yellow. 



0. Chinnum is a native of the south of Europe and Asia Minor, on 

 dry hills, margins of fields, and thickets. It is a plant 6 or 7 feet 

 high, of a dull-yellowish colour, and resembling a parsnip. The stem 

 it strongly furrowed; the leaves from 1 to 2 feet long, or more, flat, 

 bipinnate, with ovate cordate leaflets, which are usually oblique at the 

 base, often confluent, and surrounded by a cartilaginous crenated 

 border. The calyx is inconspicuous, the styles rather short and stout. 

 Although this plant is a native of the south of Europe, the resinous 

 gum which exudes from the stalk or root when wounded is brought 

 from the Levant and East Indies in roundish drops of a reddish-yellow 

 colour, with specks of white. It is supposed to be an emmenagogue, 

 but it is seldom used ; it is similar in its effects to assafcotido. This 

 in a plant of easy culture, and may be propagated either by seeds or 

 dividing at the root. 



(Don, Dichlamydeout Planti ; Lindley, Flora Afedica.) 



OPOHINIA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Com- 

 potilif. It has a eubimbricated involucre, the exterior scales much 

 nnaller in several rows, a punctured receptacle, attenuated uniform 

 fruit ; the pnppus of all the fruit in one row, feathery, dilated at the 



''. 'itumnal!f has radical leaves, linear, lanceolate, toothed, or 



iful, nearly glabrous; stalk branched, scaly, and thickened 



upward*, the involucre glabrous or hairy. This is the Apargia 



autumnalit of Smith, and the Leontodon autumnalit of Koch. It 



is a native of Great Britain in meadows and pastures arid on lofty 

 mountains. 



(Babington, Manual of British Botany.) 



OPOSSUM. [DIDELPHINA ; MARSUPIATA.] 



OPU'NTIA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Cactacea. In the gardens the species are called Indian Figs, and are 

 remarkable for their stems consisting of flat joints, broader at the 

 upper than the lower end, but which eventually lose that appearance, 

 becoming both cylindrical and continuous. On one of them, 0. 

 cochmillifera, the cochineal insect is fed, and others yield a pleasant 

 sub-acid fruit, which is eaten in hot countries. The lavas of ..Etna 

 are in some places covered with the spiny bushes of 0. vulgarii, whose 

 large purple juicy fruits are carried for sale to the neighbouring 

 markets. It is however only a naturalised plant, its native country 

 being South America within the tropics. 



0. Tuna has been figured in Dillenius's ' Hortus Elthamensis," tab. 

 380, and is the original of what Linuajus called Cactus Tuna ; it has 

 been since called Cactus Bonplandii by Mr. Kunth. It differs from 

 the two following in the long whitish spines that arm it, in its very 

 broad oval joints, its fully-expanded flower, which resembles that of 

 0. ffei-nandezii, except that it is larger. This is the sort which in the 

 Jardin-des-Plantes at Paris nourishes the wild cochineal : it was 

 brought from Peru by Dombey, and according to Humboldt is in 

 much esteem in that country as the food of a valuable sort of cochineal. 



ORANG-UTAN, or ORANG-OUTANG, names by which the PttJteciu 

 Satyrus of Geoffroy (Simia Satyrus of Linnseus), the Red Orang, is now 

 generally designated. [Ara; CHIMPANZEE.] The following are its 

 generic characters : 



Muzzle large, elongated, somewhat rounded anteriorly ; forehead 

 sloping backwards ; slight supraciliary ridges, but strong sagittal and 

 lambdoidal crests. Facial angle 30. Auricles small. Twelve pairs 

 of ribs ; bones of the sternum in a double alternate row. Arms 

 reaching to the ankle-joint. No ligamentum terea in the hip joint. 

 Feet long and narrow ; hallux not extending to the end of the meta- 

 carpal bone of the adjoining toe ; often wanting the ungueal phalanx 

 and nail. Canines very large, their apices extending beyond the inter- 

 vals of the opposite teeth. Intermaxillary bones auchylosed to the 

 maxillaries during the second or permanent dentition. Height under 

 five feet. It is an inhabitant of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. 

 (Owen.) - 



Side view of the kelcton8 of Pitheaa Satyrus, young and ndult. (From Owen.) 



Professor Owen remarks that the young individual exhibits the 

 anthropoid character in the relative smallness of the face to the 

 cranium, resulting from the state of dentition, but that it corresponds 

 with the adult skeleton in the number of ribs and in the relative pro- 

 portions of the upper and lower extremities. With regard to the 

 number of vertebra), he observes that the figure of the adult skeleton, 

 which was taken by permission of tho board of curators from the 

 specimen in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, exhibits 



