O T I 
m 
cluftered, and quite entire, as in that; the (tern without 
any hairy fears of the leaves; the ray eight-petalled, not 
five-petalled. 
27. Othonnaarborefcens, or tree African ragwort: leaves 
oblong, quite entire; Item arborefeent, flefliy, with woolly 
fears. Height (at five years of age) one foot, with a Hem 
the thicknefs of a human finger, refembling Sedum arbo- 
refeens, and, like that, flefliy and woody, though never 
fo tall or thick; pliant, covered with a brownilh afti-co- 
loured bark, not rough, but rather fmooth, and having 
white woolly tubercles fcattered over it, which is peculiar 
to this fpecies; the branches alfo have them, and are 
obliquely curved inwards; the ends of the branches and 
bafes of the leaves have a fine wool on them, not conglo¬ 
bated, but fcattered. The branches are otherwife naked, 
fomewhat woody, covered with a bark like that of the 
ftem, brownifli-green towards the end, more tender and 
herbaceous; thefe leaves come out alternately at fliort 
diftances 5 they are oblong, wider towards the top, and 
blunt, contrafted towards the bafe, green on both fides, 
fomewhat glittering, and as it were mealy, like thofe of 
auricula. Among thefe leaves fpring the peduncles, fo- 
litary or in pairs, round, tender, of a pale glaucous colour, 
having a woolly fcale or jag near the middle, terminated 
each by a Angle flower; corolla yellow, fucceeded by 
thickifh, fliort, oblong-round, feeds, at firft whitifti, but, 
when ripe, brownifh, crowned by a copious fliort brownilh 
down; the feeds in the dilk are longer, (lender, round, 
and barren, with a more flender whitifli down. This 
plant makes very flow progrefs here. In Auguft it puts 
out young leaves, which it keeps all the winter; the heads 
of flowers appear about the end of November, and do 
not open till the middle or end of January : in fpring the 
leaves gradually drop off, and the plant appears as if dead, 
till the fucceeding autumn. Cultivated in Sherard's gar¬ 
den, at Eltliam, in 1723. 
All the fpecies, except the fourteenth, are natives of 
the Cape of Good Hope. 
Propagation and Culture . Thefe plants are preferved 
in the dry Hove, or even in the green-houfe, without any 
artificial warmth : it is fufficient to protect them well from 
froft ; and in mild w’eather they mult have a large portion 
of air. In fummer, place them in a fheltered fituation. 
They may be increafed during the fummer-months by 
cuttings, planted upon an old hot-bed, and covered with 
glafles, (hading them from the fun in the heat of the day. 
When they have taken root, plant each into a feparate 
pot filled with foft loamy earth, and place them in the 
(hade till they have taken new root; then remove them 
to a (lieltered fituation, where they may remain till au¬ 
tumn ; treating them in the fame way as the old plants. 
The fourteenth will live in the open air, in a warm fitua¬ 
tion and a dry foil. See Cineraria. 
OTHRY'ADES, one of the three hundred Spartans 
who fought againft three hundred Argives, when thofe 
two nations difputed their refpe&ive right to Thyreata. 
Two Argives, Alcinor and Cronius, and only one Spar¬ 
tan, Othryades, furvived the battle. The Argives went 
home to carry the news of their victory ; but Othryades, 
who had been reckoned among the number of the (lain, 
recovered liimfelf, and carried fomeof the fpoilsof which 
he had (tripped the Argives into the camp of his coun¬ 
trymen ; and, after he had raifed a trophy, and had writ¬ 
ten with his own blood the word vici on his ihield, he 
killed himfelf, unwilling to furvive the death of his coun¬ 
trymen. 
O'THRYS, in ancient liiftory, a mountain, or rather a 
chain of mountains, in Theffaly, the refidence of the 
Centaurs. Strabo. 
OTHU'MA, a town of Arabia, in the province of 
Yemen: eighty miles north-north-eall of Mocha. Lat. 
34. 32. N. Ion. 43. 57. E. 
OT'LBAR, a town of Spain, in the province of Gre¬ 
nada : twelve miles weft-nortli-weft of Motril. 
OTIO'SI, f. pi. [Lat. idle or lazy.] The learned are 
1 
O T I 
exceedingly divided about the decern otiofi, “ ten idle per- 
fons,” fpoken of in the Jewifti fynagogues. 
Some fay they were the three preiidents and the fevers, 
readers ; others, that they were ten perlons hired to at¬ 
tend conftantly at the fynagogue, becaufe, without the 
number ten, it could be no regular fynagogue, or legal 
afiembly ; fo that the decern otiofi were ten idle folks kept 
in pay, to form by their prefence a legal fynagogue, os- 
quorum. 
Vitringa, in his Archi-Synagoga, refutes this opinion ; 
and will have the otiofi to have been ten directors or offi¬ 
cers in the fynagogue. He (hows, that each fynagogue- 
had its directors; that the number was greater or lefs, ac¬ 
cording to the dignity of the fynagogue ; that therfmall- 
eft had at lead two ; that, from the earlieft times, each 
fynagogue had its chief, called arclii-fijnagogus, who had 
two colleagues, to be prefent at the ceremonies, and 
other afts of religion, and to take care every thing were, 
done with decency ; but that the archi-fynagogus re- 
ferved to himfelf the power of teaching : that, befides 
thefe three, the archi-fynagogus named feveral readers, 
who read in the fynagogue every fabbath, and that thefe 
made the decern otiofi of the fynagogue ; fo called, be¬ 
caufe, being difengaged from all other employment, their 
whole attendance was on divine fervice. 
O'TIS, f. the Bustard; [in Gr. dltg ; in Lat. avis 
tarda, or flow bird : and from this the Italian name fiardet 
is evidently formed. And may not the old French term 
biftarde, and the Englifli bufiard, be only a corruption of 
avis tarda ? The German appellation trappe, is of the 
fame origin with the Englifli verb to trape, and alludes to 
its heavy (luggifli pace.] A genus of birds of the order 
gallinas. The generic charafters of the buftard are—Bill 
fomewhat convex ; noftrils oval, pervious ; tongue bifid, 
tharp ; feet three-toed, formed for running; legs tall, 
naked above the knees. Of this genus there are eleven 
fpecies, viz. 
1. Otis tarda, the great buftard: wave-fpotted with 
black and rufous, beneath whitifli; head of the male, and 
throat on each fide, tufted. This bird is found in the 
plains of Europe, Afia, and Africa; but has never been 
obferved in America. In England it is met with or.Salif- 
bury-plain, and in the wolds of Yorkfliire; it was for¬ 
merly feen in flocks of forty or fifty. It is the largeft of 
Britilh land-birds, the male weighing from twenty-five 
to thirty pounds, and frequently more; the length near 
four feet, the alar extent nine. The head and neck are 
afli-coloured ; the back tranfverfely barred with black 
and bright ruft-colour; quills black; belly white ; tail 
barred with red and black, and confiding of twenty fea¬ 
thers ; the legs dulky. The female is about half the fize 
of the male ; the crown of a deep-orange, eroded with 
tranfverfe black lines; the reft of the head brown ; the 
lower part of the neck before afli-coloured ; in other re- 
fpefts like the male ; but the colour of the back and wings 
is more dull. The male differs alfo from the female in 
having a tuft of feathers, about five inches long, on each 
fide of the lower mandible; befides which, it is furnifhed 
with a pouch capable of containing near feven quarts of 
water, fituated on the fore-part of the neck, the entrance 
being immediately under the tongue. This is of ufe when 
the female is fitting, which is generally at a diftance from 
water ; or for the young, till they can move from the 
neft. A further ufe of it has alfo been obferved at Mo¬ 
rocco, where they fly the hawk at the buftard; for, on 
the attack of the hawk, it has been known that the buf¬ 
tard has made ufe of this refervoir of water to fpirt out 
againft the aflailant, who, not uncommonly, is by this 
means baffled in the purfuit. 
The buftard is a granivorous bird : it lives on herbs, 
grain, and every kind of feed ; on leaves of coleworts, 
of dandelion, of turnips, of moufe-ear, of vetches, of 
fmallage, of carrots, and even on hay, and on thofe large 
worms which, during the fummer, (warm before fun-rife 
on downs. In the depth of winter, and when the ground 
