O R O 
7S1 
O R N 
leaves In fours; flowers folitary. This rifes to about a 
foot high, being ereCt, branched, and having twigs fet 
with leaves alternately on petioles three quarters of an 
inch long: leaflets fmall, obcordate, yellowi/h-green, 
fmooth, with a prominent midrib on the lower furface. 
Flowers yellow, folitary from the upper axils. Linnaeus 
remarks, that, having an opportunity of examining the 
plant only in a dry ftate, he could not afcertain whether 
it belonged to this genus or another, or whether it ought 
to form a new one. It is a native of Jamaica. 
Propagation and Culture. Thefe plants (except the laft) 
are propagated by flowing their feeds in the fpring, upon 
a bed of light frefh earth, where they are to remain. 
When the plants come up, clear them from weeds, and 
thin them to about ten inches diflance. In June they wiil 
flower, and the feeds wiil ripen in Auguft. There is no 
great beauty in them (but, for the variety of their jointed 
pods, they are preferved in fome pleafure-gardens. They 
are annual plants, and peril!) foon after the feeds are ripe. 
ORNITHORIN'CHUS, f. See Platypus. 
ORNITHOS'COPI, f. [Greek.] In antiquity, diviners, 
or loothfayers, who made predictions, and drew omens, 
from birds. They were likewife called ornitlwmantes, or- 
neefropi, &c. Chambers. 
ORNITHOT'RCfPHY, f. [from the Gr. op«r, a bird, 
and to nourifli.] A place in which birds are fed. 
Not in nfe. 
ORNII 'ROPHE, f. [fo called by Commerfon, from 
a bird, and rmtpr,, food; becaufe the fruit is a fa¬ 
vourite food of blackbirds in the Ille of Bourbon, whence 
the French inhabitants have named the firft lpecies of this 
genus hois de merle.] In botany, a genus of the clafs 
oCtandria, order monogynia, natural order fapindi, Juj) 
Generic characters—Calyx : perianthium inferior, of one 
leaf, in four deep, ovate, rather-unequal, fegments. Co¬ 
rolla : petals four, roundilh, with a beard or crelt in the 
centre of their difle. Stamina : filaments eight, inferted 
into a glandular receptacle, thread-fhaped, the length of 
the corolla; antherte roundifli- Piftillum : germen Halked, 
two-lobed, comprefied ; llyle one, divided ; fligmas Am¬ 
ple. Pericarpium : drupes two, ovate, fmall, flightly 
pulpy, each of one cell ; one of them fometimes abortive. 
Seed : nut folitary, obovate.— Effer.tial Char aider. Ca¬ 
lyx in four deep fegments; petals four; ftyle cloven; 
germen two-lobed ; drupes two. There are five fpecies. 
1. Ornitrophe integrifolia, entire-leaved ornitrophe, 
or blackbird’s wood : leaves ternate, ovato-lahceolate, 
wavy, nearly entire. Gathered by Commerfon in the 
Ifland of Bourbon. A flirub, with round fmooth knotty 
■branches. Leaves alternate, on longilh ftalks ; leaflets 
flalked, two or three inches long, nearly equal, elliptic- 
oblong, bluntly pointed, unequally and flightly wavy', 
fmooth, veiny. Clutters axillary, flalked, folitary, very 
minutely downy, their branches very (hort, and each 
bearing a tuft of fmall greenifli flowers, on fmooth par¬ 
tial ftalks. One lobe of the germen being ufually abor¬ 
tive, the fruit becomes a folitary pear-lhaped drupe, the 
fize of a pea. 
2. Ornitrophe ferrata, or faw-leaved ornitrophe: leaves 
ternate, rough, ovate, pointed, ferrated. One of the 
moft common plants on the coaft of Coromandel. Dr. 
Roxburgh obferves that, among the mountains, it grows 
to a fmall tree ; but, in the low lands near the fea, it is a 
low branching flirub, flowering during the wet feafon. 
The natives call it tavatiky, and eat the fruit, which is 
Itnall and red, growing in pairs, both lobes of the germen 
coming to perfection. The habit is much like the laft.; 
but the leaflets are ftrongly ferrated, and the petals turned 
all to one fide, which does not appear to be the cafe in 
that, as far as we can learn from figures or dried Ipecimens. 
Some flowers want the piftil. This is reprefented on the 
annexed Plate. 
3. Ornitrophe cominia, or yellow-berried ornitrophe : 
leaves ternate, elliptic-oblong, unequally ferrated, downy 
Vol. XVII. No. 1216. 
beneath; common flower-ftalks branched, downy. Na¬ 
tive of Jamaica ; cultivated by Miller in 1759. A tree 
thirty feet high. Leaves dark-green above ; white and 
downy, with innumerable reticulated veins beneath. 
Flowers very' fmall, thickly fet in denfe hairy clufters, 
feveral of which grow in one branched downy common 
ftalk. The fruit is deferibed by Sloane as r.o bigger than 
a fmall pin’s head, orange-coloured, with very little pulp. 
Molago Murom , Rheede Hort. Malab. v. 5. 4.9. t. 25, 
quoted for this fpecies byLinnteus, has whuifh fruit, and 
more diftant flowers: otherwife they feem nearly allied ; 
but we have reafon to think there are many fpecies-of 
this genus as yet undeferibed by fyftematic writers ; nor 
is our knowledge at prefent fufficient for us to fettle the 
fynonyms of thofe already publifhed. 
4. Ornitrophe occidentalis, or Weft-Indian ornitrophe : 
leaves ternate, flightly downy beneath ; clufters folitary. 
Native of buftiy hills in Hifpaniola. A flirub, nine or ten 
feet high, with many fmooth branches. Flowers white, 
fmall ; on fome ftirubs male only. 
5. Ornitrophe rigida, or rigid fimple-leaved ornitrophe : 
leaves Ample, with fpinous teeth; clufters folitary, Na r 
five of dry mountainous parts of Hifpaniola, but ex¬ 
tremely rare. A rigid flirub, with alternate, Ample, 
flalked, lanceolate leaves, rough above, downy beneath, 
with ftrong reticulated veins, and fmall fpinous marginal 
teeth. See the articles Rhus and Schmideua. 
OR'NON, an ifland in the Baltic, near the coaft of Swe¬ 
den. Lat. 68. N. Ion. 18. 6. E. 
OR'NOS, a fea-port on the fouth coaft of the ifland of 
Myconi. Lat. 37.24. N. lo.n. 25. 20. E. 
OR'NUS, f. in botany. See Fraxinus ornus, vol. viii. 
p. 22. 
O'RO, a mountain of Swiflerland, in the country of the 
Grifons : thirteen miles weft of Bormio. 
O'RO (Cape d’), the ealtern point of the ifland of Ne- 
gropont, anciently called Caphareus , in the ifland of Eu- 
bcea. Lat. 38.8. N. ion. 24. 40. E. 
OROBAN'CHE, f. [Gr. from o^of?oq, a vetch, and cty^ar, 
to ftrangle or luffocate ; becaufe this parafite is believed 
to ftarve, or render barren, the plants on which it grows. 
Having been originally obferved upon the broom in Eng¬ 
land, it is here named] Broom rape; in botany, a ge¬ 
nus of the clafs didynamia, order angipfpermia, natural 
order of perfonatse, (pediculares, Jvffl.) Generic charac¬ 
ters—Calyx : perianthium one leafed, two or five cleft, 
ere Cl, coloured, permanent. Corolla : one-petalled, ri ar¬ 
gent: tube inclined, wide, ventricofe ; border fpreading : 
upper lip concave, open, emarginate: lower lip reflex, 
trifid, with an unequal margin ; all the fegments nearly 
equal. Stamina: filaments four, awl-lhaped, concealed 
beneath the upper lip; two of them longer. Antheras 
ereft, converging, fhorter than the border. NeClary a 
gland at the bale of the germ. Piftillurn ; germ oblong ; 
ftyle Ample, length and fituation of tjie flamer.s; ftigma 
femibifid, blunt, thickifh, nodding. Pericarpiam: cap- 
fule ovate-oblong, acuminate, one-celled, vwo-valved. 
Seeds numerous, very fmall; receptacles roar, linear, 
lateral, adnate. Each fegment of the fii ana is emar¬ 
ginate.— EJJ'entiul Character. Calyx bifid ; corolla rin- 
gent; capfiule one-celled, two-Valved, many-feeded; 
gland under the bafe of the germ. 
Juflieu deferibes the plants of this genus as fldhy herbs 
of a ruflet colour, and fattening themfelves to the roots 
of other plants. Root tuberous, imbricate with feales. 
Stem with alternate feales on it, generally Ample. 
Flowers in terminating fpikes, fupported by braftes. Some 
of the fpecies have- a naked one-flowered fcape, with a 
fpathaceous flower, and are akin to the one-flowered La- 
thrasas. Thunberg deferibes a plant refembling an Oro- 
banche under the name of Phelypaea. See Lathr^a 
Phelypasa. 
The Rev. Charles Sutton, who has beftowed great at¬ 
tention on this genus, obferves, (Linn.Tranf. vol. iv.) 
9 N that 
