OPH 
Herodotus pin ee unwilling - cite it, if it had 
confirmed teftimony of t had performed the 
fi a 
the hiftorisn, the voyage undertaken in the reign of Necho, 
o centuries after Solomon, was evidently no common 
event, we are juftified in doubting, at leaft, whether the 
fleet of the Jewith monarch circumnavigated Africa, and 
eae ibaa Ophir was fituated on the weit coaft 
of that co 
0 co lee : we are correct i in the opinions we have ad- 
voyage to snare or both, actually took up three years ; and 
that the Tarfhi So lomon was a different place from the 
Tarfhith in Cili 
pare into the Fears of thefe ‘irae and i into the courfe 
the voyages performed by Solomon’s fleet, proceed on 
clapper 4 data ; and, confequently, ces fome of them 
difplay great ingenuity and learning, ees can only lead us 
aftra 7 from the real ui of our refea 
HIR, in — See 4 9 @ mountain of ins fituated 
€ equinoGial line, and fuppofed to be 
e highett wb from the fea; its fummit being elevated 
I a feet above i level. The following i is the refult of 
obfervations made obert Nairne concerning the 
height of mount Ophir : height of the peak above the level 
of the fea, in feet, 13842, Enghth miles 2,6216, nautical 
miles 2,26325 ; inland, nearly, 26 nautical miles ; diftance 
from Maflang point 32 nautical miles; diftance at fea before 
the peak is funk nye er the horizon, 125 nautical miles ; lati- 
tude of the peak 0° 6! N. ; a volcano mountain, S. of Ophi 
is. fhort 2 a in iheighe by 1379 feet ; inland, nearly, 29 
eae S. 
a ep in modern days. Another 
near Malacca is allo fo na 
v. Cae ck Dia. v 
—Clafs aad order, Odandria Monogynia. 
ara, 
a Tlluftr. t. 293. 
Nat. Ord. Ona- 
en. Ch. Cal. Involucrum of two lateral, oe 
emarginate, conduplicate, permanent valves, contain 
three flowers. or. fupertor, of four, oblong, co a ng 
Stam. sare eight, the length of the corolla 
anthers ovate. ermen inferior, abr pe hifpid, 
{tyle thread- Tepe fhorter than the ftame a“ fligma emar- 
SB 
ginate. Peric. Berry of onecell. Seeds t 
ff. Calyx a two-valved pelucia. containing three 
er Petals four, yee ig cell. 
green above, filvery 
Flowers ie feffile, la- 
teral, oppofite, capitate. Berry a lit ttle, oblon ne — re- 
finous fort of cone, fomewhat like a minute ftraw 
OPHITES, Os, in Natural Hiflory, a ion mi varie. 
VoL. XXV. . 
OPH 
n gated marble of a dutky green ground, 
of a ligh ter green ; sea called Serpentine. 
It is thus called from eter ots, pede becaufe its 
{pots ‘cable thofe of, hat anim 
¢ ancients knew three fpecien of this kind, ieee they 
call the black, the white, and the gre 
f si onaaa with {pots 
f an cphites, we have, befide 
two others known at this time. 
e other two _- which feem not to have been 
known to the ancients, a 
n {pots. 
Onur in Ecclefia Meat 5 ifloryy i is alfo the name ie : 
feé of ancient heretics o {prung out of the Gno 
the latter eal of the {ec 
imeras ; 
See Gno 
They “faid this ferpent was the Chrift; that he was very 
different from Jefus born of the Virgin, into whom, faid they, 
the Chrift defcended ; and that it was this Jefu us, not the 
Chrift, that fuffered. Accordingly, Ave a all thofe of 
their fe renounce Jefus to follow Chrift. 
In confequence of this opinion, they nourithed a certain 
number of ferpents, which they looked upon as acred, 
and ou which they offered a {ubordinate Baa of honour and 
wor 
The Set ethians, or Sethites, mentioned by Theodoret, were 
<< the fame with the Ophites, or very little different from 
ned their primitive 
; and from hence arofe the divifion of the Ophites 
into Chriftian and Antichriftian 
O S, in Affronomy, a conttellation of the northern 
sah gs tapi called oe o Serpentarius. See ConsTELLATION 
and S$ TARIU: 
URUS, | in n Botany, fo denominated from ofic, 2 
a Sig » and xp, a tail, becaufe of the flender-jointed roe: 
ture of the fpike, isa genus of graffes, founded by Gertner, 
and publifhed by his fon, in the third volume of his work om 
fruit and feeds, p.3. t. 181. he two fpecies there 
ont ae are Rottbillia incurvaia - peed of Linnzus. 
rown, Prodr. Nov. =) v. 206, retains the latter 
say as conftituting the an 1on ; referring the 
former, with fome hefitation, - his own Lepturus, which is 
otibollia ig of Forfter’s Prodro romus, 0.151. Ophiurus 
feems to differ from Lepturus ged in having the glume of 
the calyx fimple, or of one leaf, inflead of two parallel ones, 
a diftintion which appears to us, in in this cafe, rather artificial. 
USA, or Opuinza, fometimes called Orphifa, in 
Ancient Geography, an Mand w ome have raat 
with the ifle of Fro 
Piryuse Jflands. 
OPHIUSA, 
