Ill 



ORDRB& 



ORGANIC REMAINS. 



116 



.middle lob* dilated, bifid, and often with an 

 tooth. 



O. militant. 0. Simla. 0. Mtutola. 

 ft Bract* with three or more nerve* ; root-knob* undivided. 



t-H Bract* with three or more nerve* ; root-knobs palmate. 

 a mutmUta, Spotted Palmate-Orchis. 0. latifolia, Marsh Orchis. 

 Glands of UM pollen maaaea united ; root-knob* undivided. 



t Lip erect in mtivation. 

 lu, Pyrmmldal-OrchU. 



ft Lap spiral in .-estivation. 

 0. airri-., Luard-Orchi*. 

 (Babingtoo, Mammal / Brititk ftXony.) 



'Itl'KRS, a group of object, in natural history classifications, 

 ubordinate to a CUaa, or Sundae*. It i* howeTer like many other 

 general term* used very loosely, especially by axxdogiste. In botany it 

 Umore definitely applied, and U uaed *ynonymousYy with Family and 

 Tribe. In loology Family and Tribe are frequently employed to denote 

 groan* rabordinato to order*. [FAMILIES or PLASTTS ; SPECIES.] 

 OREOCEPHALUS. flooAXiD*.] 



ORKOCTXCLA, Mr. Gould's name for a genus of Birdi inhabiting 

 the Himalaya Mountain! and New Zealand. The ipecie* from the 

 latter locality (0. MOTrftfMM U nearly allied to, but differs from, 

 IWiu roriw of author*. (' Zoological Proceeding*,' 1887.) 

 OREODAPHNE, Mountain Laurel (from 6fnot, mountainous, and 

 laurel), a genus of Plant* belonging to the natural order 

 It i hermaphrodite, dioDcioua, or polygamous, with - 



more than double that number of animala. In a fossil state we may 

 say, in round number*, that 1000 plants and 10,000 animal* have been 

 accurately discriminated and classified. The numerical proportions 

 vary according to the group* of plant* and animal* selected for com- 



I > .1 :- ?!. 



In 1830 Profeasor Philliprtlrew up some comparative tables of fo**il 

 and recent animal*, which were inserted in the ' Encyclopedia Metro- 

 politana.' One of these i* subjoined : 



Remaint of Animal*, 

 la the In mperflclml Llricn 



Strata. Accumulations, numated. 



109 

 few 



6,027 



109 

 Or 1 to 20. 



1,100 



5,000 

 2,100 

 5,500 



1"", 



500 



1,000 



100 



50 



3,100 

 1,700 



1,000 

 1,000 



122,100 



Departed nearly equal ealyx, the limb eventually disappearing. It has 

 9 stamen*, oblong anthers, with narrow filaments, 4-oelled, the 3 inner 

 looking outward*. The fruit is succulent, more or lees immersed in a 

 deepthick cup formed out of the altered tube of the calyx. The 

 lower* are panicled or racemose, axillary, and occasionally umbellulate. 

 ". o,,i/rra U native of the woods of Pan and the Rio Negro. It 

 has oblong CTMpidate leave*, tapering into the petiole, silky on the 

 under side. The panicles are compact, divaricating, and silky. The 

 fruit U oval in shape, and yield* upon distillation a volatile oil, of a 

 yellow colour and peculiar amelL It U used in Brazil a* a remedy in 

 pain* and contraction, of the limbs. 



0. npnlara i* a very large tree with a trong-*cented wood ; it has 

 ovate elliptical leaves, acute at both ends, sometimes blunt at the apex, 

 rading in a fh.T.~lUd stalk, obeoletely netted, smooth ; the axils of 

 UM costal vein* without pores. The flower* are in clustered few- 

 flowered rough hoary raceme* below the axillary and terminal bud. 

 The calyx of the fruit i* nearly globose. This specie* is the cinnamon 

 of tbe Mauritius, where it grows, and aUo in Bourbon and Madagascar. 



. iley. Flora Medico.) 

 ORROTRAOUa [AimLorajs.! 



ORGANIC REMAINS. By this term geologist* understand the 

 numerous remains of plants and animal* which occur among the 

 stratified rock*. The same object* receive also the name* of Petrifac- 

 tion* and FoaaUa. Some of these object* are obviously part* of animala 

 and plant*, and retain their original structure, more or lea* altered by 

 Tfr-*"V- ' agencies since their sepulture in the earth ; others are earthy, 

 atony, or metallic bodies, moulded within or upon part* of animala or 

 |ila*Jls and thus resembling thoee part* in external aspect, but having 

 none of their internal organic texture. Nor can we exclude from the 

 notion of UM remains of organic being* the few cases where mark* of 

 vital action and movement occur on the surface and in the interior of 

 rock*, such as UM foot-print* of reptile* on the sandstone* of Cheshire 

 and Dumfriesshire, and of birds on the Oolite rock* of America, the 

 bole* mad* by LHaophagou* UmcMi/era in the limestone of Mendip, 

 and the perforation* of UM valve* of Shell-Fish by Zoopbagous 



In 1828, M. Adolphe Brongniart, after examining the richest collec- 

 known of foaail plants, gave the following interesting 

 and recent 



The relative proportions of recent and fossil auimala and plants, 

 taken according to their terrestrial, fresh-water, or marine rMMMM, 

 were thus estimated by Professor Phillips in 1836 in his ' Quido to 



Geology.' 



Terrestrial Plant* . 

 Terrestrial Animala . 

 Fresh Water Plants . 

 Fresh Water Animals 

 Marine Plants . 

 Marine Animala . . 



PMsfl. 



500 

 330 



40 

 260 



40 

 6,065 



Proportion!. 



118 to 1 



350 to 1 



2tol 



14 to 1 



25tol 



2tol 



coeopanUv. table of fossil 



riMof Plant*. 



I 



F. 



i*p*cie* : 



Fe-ll. 

 87 

 3 



. - 

 67 

 49 

 100 



601 



I 

 7,000 



:.. 



1,700 



160 



... ,, 



-. 



60,350 

 Or 1 to 100. 



Organic remains may b* considered in three point* of view. 1, 

 What are UM tribe* of animala and plant* which occur imbedded in 

 qMov* JepusM* of gnat antiquity, or (a* rather improperly termed) 

 in . fosail *tete r t. In what condition are they preserved ' 8, In 

 bat manner are they distributed hi the rarthf 



Judging from published catalogue* and tbe course of discovery, tho 

 living orMtioa may b* estimated to contain 100,000 plant*, and far 



Recent. 

 59,000 

 115,500 

 100 

 3,560 

 1,000 

 11,750 



The progress of discovery shows that all the tables referred to here 

 contain estimate* much below the truth ; both plant* and animaU 

 have been found to nearly twice the tabular numbers (fishes, for 

 example, in 1838, were stated by Agassiz to be 800 fossil and 8000 

 recent) ; but aa the proportions are not very materially affected, it is 

 not necessary to construct new table* suited to the present amount of 

 knowledge. 



The extreme paucity of terrestrial plant* and animals in a fossil 

 state U a circumstance very easily accounted for by the analogy of 

 modern nature ; for if few of the 60,000 plants and hundreds of 

 thousands of animals find their way by inundation* or other causes to 

 modern lakes and ocean*, we have no reason to expect the remains of 

 the ancient terrestrial fauna or flora to abound in the ancient marine 

 or lacustrine sediments. We must therefore always acknowledge the 

 imperfection of the picture which organic remains present to us of 

 the vegetables and animals which anciently covered the early dry land 

 of our planet On the other hand, the large proportion which fossil 

 shells and Zoophyte bear to the corresponding recent classes (nearly as 

 1 to 1, if the hard parts of tbe recent objects are alone considered) is 

 exactly what might K priori be expected in examining sediments fn>m 

 water ; and we may confidently affirm that from data so ample (cor- 

 roborated by fossil fishe* already bearing a proportion of 1 fossil to 

 10 recent), the condition and character of tho ancient oceans and lakes 

 may be in a considerable degree known. 



The imperfection of innumerable specimens of fossil plants, 

 shells, fishes, *c., is not entirely nor principally owing to tho chemical 

 and mechanical agencies which have been exerted to modify their 

 aspect and substance ; on tbe contrary, the broken condition of many 

 fossil tree*, and tbe scattered situations in which their stems, leave*, 

 and fruits occur, and in some cases the loss of part of their structure, 

 are to be ascribed to the turbulent action which accompanied their 

 inhumation, and to the exposure and decomposition which they had 

 previously sustained. Among fossil bivalve shells it is very common 

 to find the piece* separated by the decay of the hinge ligaments ; not 

 unfrequently tho shells are broken ; sometimes they are rolled and 

 worn. These accidents preceded their inclusion in the rocks, and they 

 are indication* not to be mistaken of the condition of the waters in 

 which the Molltuca lived, and the rate and circumstances of the 

 deposition of sediment. 



In whatever condition buried, the remains of plant* and animal i 

 have been subsequently affected both by mechanical and chemical 

 force* : the effect of the former is evident in the compressed Ammo- 

 nites of Watchct, Tytherton, and Speeton, in the Goniatitcs and 

 Pectcns of Bradford in Yorkshire, and in the Fishes and IchtJiyutauri 

 of Choi-mouth. Some of the most interesting cases of this mechanical 

 compression are commonly witnessed among the shales and gritstones 



