ORC 



OKD 



and the curtain ; in which the instrument- 

 al performers sit. 



ORCHIDEJE, in botany, the seventh 

 order in Linnzeus's Fragments of a Natur- 

 al Method, consisting of Orchis, and the 

 plants that resemble it in habit, powers, 

 and sensible qualities. The flowers are 

 hermaphrodite, and placed at the summit 

 of the stalk, either in a spike, or in a 

 panicle. Each flower is accompanied 

 with a leaf that is smaller than the other 

 leaves, and forms a sort of sheath round 

 the stalk. The petals are five in number, 

 and very irregular. The flowers of the 

 different species are remarkably various 

 and singular in their shape, resembling 

 different kinds of animals or insects. 



ORCHIS, in botany, a genus of the Gy- 

 nandria Diandria class and order. Natur- 

 al order of Orchidex. Essential charac- 

 ter : nectary a horn or spur behind the 

 flower. Tiiere are fifty species. Among 

 which we shall notice the O. bifolia, but- 

 terfly orchis. This plant has ovate bulbs, 

 tapering to a point at the base ; thick 

 fleshy fibres proceed above them from 

 the base of the stem ; one of these bulbs 

 is always wrinkled and withered, whilst 

 the other is plump and delicate ; the first 

 is the parent of the actual stem; the se- 

 cond is an offset, from the centre of which 

 the stem of the succeeding year is destin- 

 ed to arise. Such are the means that 

 nature uses, not onlv to disseminate 

 plants, but to enable them to change 

 their place, and thus to draw in fresh nu- 

 triment. The second root is always about 

 half an inch from the centre of the first, 

 so that in twenty years the plant will have 

 marched ten inches from the place of its 

 birth. This mode of increase is particu- 

 larly necessary in u family of plants that 

 rises with great difficulty, and very seldom 

 by seed. O. conopsea, long-spurred Or- 

 cliis, is distinguished by the remoteness of 

 the cells or casts in which the stamens 

 are lodged, and again by the colour of 

 the corolla, the great length of the spur, 

 the delicious fragrance of its flowers, vy- 

 ing wiih that of the honeysuckle, and 

 particularly by the unusual structure of its 

 flowers. Below the sligma, which is re- 

 markably well defined in this species, 

 there is a circular opening between the 

 cavities containing the stamens ; just 

 above the stigrna is a very conspicuous 

 ridge ; the stamens s )on change to a 

 brownish hue ; the anthers are club shaped, 

 and are divided as in most others, the 

 gland at the base of the filament is of a 

 circular form, with a cavity on its inner 

 side : the roots of this species are well 

 calculated for making salep. 



ORDEAL, was anciently a form of trial, 

 and was of two sorts ; either fire ordeal, 

 or water ordeal ; the former being con- 

 fined to persons of higher rank, the lat- 

 ter to the common people. Both these 

 might be performed by deputy, but the 

 principal was to answer for the success 

 of the trial ; the deputy only venturing 

 some corporeal pain for hire, or perhaps 

 for friendship. Fire ordeal was perform- 

 ed either by taking up in the hand a piece 

 of red hot iron, of one, two, or three 

 pounds weight ; or else by walking bare- 

 foot and blindfold over nine red hot 

 ploughshares, laid at unequal distances ; 

 and if the party escaped unhurt, he was 

 adjudged innocent ; if not, he was con- 

 demned as guilty. Water ordeal was per- 

 formed, either by plunging the bare arm 

 up to the elbow in boiling water, and es- 

 caping unhurt thereby, or by casting the 

 person suspected into a river or pond of 

 water : and if he floated, without any ac- 

 tion of swimming, it was deemed an evi- 

 dence of his guilt ; but if he sunk he was 

 acquitted. This trial by ordeal was abol- 

 ished by parliament anno 3 Henry III. 



ORDER, in architecture, is a system of 

 the several members, Qrnaments and pro- 

 portions , of columns and pilasters; or a 

 regular arrangement of the projecting 1 

 parts of a building, especially the column, 

 so as to form one beautiful whole. There 

 are five orders of columns, of which three 

 are Greek, viz. the Doric, Ionic, and Co- 

 rinthian, and two Roman, the Tuscan and 

 Composite. The three Greek orders re- 

 present the three different manners of 

 building, viz. the solid, the delicate, and 

 that which is between the two. See AR- 

 CHITECTURE. 



ORDER, in astronomy. A planet is said 

 to go according to the order of the signs 

 when it is direct, proceeding from Aries 

 to Taurus, thence to Gemini, .c. It goes 

 contrary to the order of the signs when it 

 is retrograde, or goes backward from Pis- 

 ces to Aquarius. 



ORDER, in geometry, is denominated 

 from the rank or order of the equation by 

 which the geometrical line is expressed : 

 thus the simple equation, or first power, 

 denotes the first order of fines, which is a 

 right line : the quadratic equation, or se- 

 cond power, defines the second order of 

 lines, which are the conic sections and 

 circle : the cubic equation, or third pow- 

 er, defines the third order of lines; and 

 so on. Or the orders of lines are denomi- 

 nated from the number of points in which 

 they may be cut by a right line. Thus 

 the right line is of the first order, because 

 it can be cut only in one point by a right 



