Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/150

 OLE

globofe fkinny capfule, compofed of two cells, each contain- ing a number of fmall feeds. Liimai Gen. Plant, p. 49.

OLEA, -Us. See the article Oil.

Olea, the oBve tree, in the Linmean fyftem of botany, makes a feparate genus of plants, the character of which is, that they have a perianthium compofed of one fingle leaf, fmall, and tubular ; indented at the extremity into four divifions, placed erect, and falling with the flower. Tbe flower is compofed of one fingle petal, which is a cylindraceous tube, of the fame length with the perianthium; its margin equal, but di- vided into four fegments, each of them fomething indented in the middle. The ftamina are two filaments, fhort, pointed, placed oppofite to one another, and terminated by erect an- thers. The piftil is compofed of a roundifh germen, with a fingle ftylus, which is very fhort, and terminated by a thick iligma, which is bifid, and has fringed ed<»es. T. he fruit is fmooth, and fomewhat oval, having but one cell, and containing for its feed, one longifh, oval, fcabrous, and ftriated nut. formal Gen. Plant, p. 2. The characters of this genus, according to Mr. Tournefort, are thefe : the flower is of one leaf, and of the funnel-fafhioned kind, and ufually divided into four fegments at the edges. The piftil arifes from the cup, and is fixed, in the manner of a nail, into the hinder part of the flower. This finally becomes a foft and juicy fruit, of an oval figure, containing an oblong ftone, in which there is a kernel of the fame fhape.

The fpecies of olive enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe ; r. The largc-fruitcd olive. 2. The olive with fmaller ob- long fruit. 3. The o'he with oblong, black im- green fruit. 4. The white fruited olive. 5. The olive with final], round- ifh fruit 6. '1 he o'ive with larger, oblong, fruit. 7. The large-fruited olive, with a very thick pulp. 8. The great clive, with oblong, and angular, almond-ihaped fruit. 9. The dive with oblong fruit, of the fhape of the cornel-berry. 10. The great, round-iruited olive. 11. The green, rnid- dle-fized, round-fruited, olive. 12. The early, middle-fized, round fruited olive. 1 % The cluttered, fmall-fruited, round olive. 14. The fmall- fruited, blackifh-red, round olive. 15. The fmall, round olive, with fruit variegated with black and red. 16. The fmall, Lucca olive, with fweet-fcented fruit.

17. The wild olive tree, wit!) hard leaves, hairy underneath.

18. The Spanifh wild olive, with hard leaves, hairy under- neath, and with obtufe, pointed fruit. To urn. Inft. p. 599.

Olea is alfo the name of a ftone defcribed by Ludovicus Dulcis, and fome other fuch authors, who attribute great vir- tues to it, and fay it was variegated with feveral colours, as yellow, black, white, green, &c. It feems to have been fome one of the common agates, to which their ignorance had prompted them to give a new name

Olea Bohemtca, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the %i%ypha or zlzyphus, the wiid jujube tree. /. Eau- hin, Vol. 1. p. ?j.

OLEANDER, in botany. SeeNtiucN.

OLEARIA, in natural hiftory, the name of a genus of round- mouthed fea fnail, or cochlea (maris. It is of a very lar^e fize, capable of holding two quarts, and had its name olearia from its being antiently uled in families, as the veftcl in which they kept oil.

OLEASTER, in the materia medica, the name of the fallow thorn, or fea bw. ktborn, the rhumno'uks jaiicis folio of botanical authors, Dale, Pharm. p. 282.

OLEUM, oil. See the article Oil.

Oleum med'uam, in the writings of the anticnts, a name given to a famous oil which had a quality of burning under wa- ter, in fpite of all that could be done to quench it. It was called MedUuni, becaufe of its being produced among the Medes, and fome have called it oleum Medea, becaufe it was fuppofed to be that fub;lance with which Meda?a anointed the crown of her rival. Ammianus Marcellinus tells us, that if an arrow was anointed with this oil, and fhot out of a bow againft any inflammable fubftance, the whole immediately took fire, and, if anv one attempted to quench the flames by water, they only burnt the more fiercely for it. The venenum Pharicum of Nicander is fup- pofed to be the fame thing with this oil, and to have been fo called from Pharai, a town, not the name of a man, whom fome imagine the inventor ot it. Pharai is a town in Crete mentioned by Stephanus, and we find by the an- tients, that this poifon was fbmetimes had from Crete. Ni- cander and Procopius are of the number of thofe who mention the violent and terrible effects of the oleum Medea •and all that they hy is equally applicable to the deum Me- dicum of others; fo that they leem the fame liquor. Some tell us of a plant that produces this oil, but Pliny fays that it was a liquid mineral bitumen, of the nature of naphtha, which is very probable ; for fome of thefe mineral oils are the molt inflammable of any Jubilances that we are ac- quainted with. Babylon is celebrated by many authors as the country which produced this terrible liquor, and all a- gree that Babylon is a place where naphtha is more com- mon than in any other part of the world. Strabo tells us, that there is a white kind common there, as well as the foul or black fort. This white one may probably be the

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fame with the oleum Midicum, and oleum Medex; but then it is to be obferved, that the virtues attributed to it are too far exaggerated, as is very common with the antients in their accounts of ftrange things.

Oleum Medea, a name given by the antients to the mineral fluid, more generally known by that ai naphtha. See Oleum Mattcmn, fupr. and Naphtha.

Oleum vitri antimonii, in medicine, a name given bv Bafil Valentine, and others, to a famous preparation of antimony which they keep as a fecret, or, at leaif, declare in fuch terms as are unintelligible, and boaft of, as the univerfa! medicine. The learned Kerkring has given the procefs for making this red oil of the glafs of antimony, but that in fo enigmatical a manner, that lie feems himfelf not to especi- ally body to underftand him ; and only fays, in his own julli- fication, that he has given it in plainer terms than any bodv had done before him. The author relates many wonderful things of this diaphoretic oi', on his own experience ; parti- cularly, the curing a confirmed dropfy, bv throwing off the water by fwcat; fo that the patient, in a manner, (warn in it, and the drops run through the bed, in all parts, to the floor. It were well if we could underftand the procefs. Kerk- ring on Bafil. Valcnt.

OLIGACTIS, in natural hiftory, a name given bv Linkius, and others, to a genus of flar fifh, confiding of thofe which have fewer than five rays.

OLIGAEDRA, in natural hiftory, the name of a g-nus of cryftals. See Crystal.

The word is derived from the Greek >>*/*., a few, and » e *, a plane, or fide; and expreffes a cryftal which is cqmpofedof only a few planes.

The bodies of this clafs are cryftals of the impcrfca kind being compofed of columns affixed irregularly to fome folid body at one end, and, at the other, terminated by a pyramid ; but the column and pyramid being both pentangular, the whole confifts only often planes, not, as the common kind, of twelve. See Tab. of Eoff.ls, Clafs 3.

Of this genus there arc only three known fpecies. 1. A whitifh one, with a fhort pyramid, found principally in Ger- many, and fomctimes brought over to us, among parcels of common cryflal. 2. A bright and colourlefs one, with a lon- ger pyramid.^ This is found in Germany, and in fome parts of England, as in the tin mines of Cornwal, and on Mendip hills. And, 3. A brown one, with a fcabrous cruft. This is pro- duced only in the Eaft Indies, and is well known by our lapi- daries by its rough coat, and is efteemed the fineft of all brown crvftals. Hill's Hift. of Fofli p. 184.

OLIGOTROPHEROS, among the Greeks, a name given to the finer fort of bread made of the fineft flower. They called it by this name becaufe of the little fhare of nourifhment it conveyed ; and, by way of diftinction from it, called the brown bread pclytrophercs, or much nourifhing.

OLIVARIA corpora, a name given by fome anatomical writers to two oblong pro efies of the medulla oblongata, thus called from their rcfcmbling an olive in fhape.

OLIVE, elect, in botany. See Olea.

Ol.iw.-oil. See Oil of o'.ivts.

Or, 1 vx-gum. See the article Gum.

OLOC, in natural hiftory, a name given by the people of the Philippine iflands, to their quail. It is like ours in all refpccK but much fmaller.

OLOCENTROS, in natural hiftory, a name given by the old Greeks to a fmall animal of the fpider kind, whofe bite was accounted mortal. It is the fame with the foli- puga, fo called from its flinging, or biting moft violently, in places, or feafons, where the fun had the moft power, as Africa, &c. The name flifuga was a corrupt way of writing that word, and this feems alfo a falfe way of writ- ing the word hetioeentns, which fignifies the fame as fili- puga. SeeHELIOCENTROS.

OVAL1DIA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to chameemile. Ger. Emac. Ind, 2.

OLY, a word tiled by fome chemical writers to exprels the oily part of metals, fcen, in fome circumftances, fwiminc upon the furface of their folutions

OLYRA, a name given by many botanical writers to the fpicit ro n, the zea, and tritieum amyl&um, or Jlarch c.m of other authors. This is a fort of grain cultivated in many- parts of Germany. It comes to a ripenefs toward the lat- ter end of autumn, and is ufed for the common food of the poorer fort of people. It is like the fpelt wheat, but is fomewhat Icfs nutritive. Vid. Da r, Pharmac.

OMAGRA, a name given by fome medical writers to the gcut, when feated in the articulation of the humerus with the fcapula.

OMBRIA. Seethe articles Brontia, and Ceraunia.

OMBROMETER, a machine to meafure the quantity of rain that falls. We have the defenption and figure of one in Phil.Tranf. N° 473. p. .2. It confifts of a tin funnel, whofe furface is an inch fquare, a flat board, and a glafs tube fet into the middle of it in a groove. The rile of the water in the tube, whofe capacity, at different times, muft be meafurcd, and marked, fticws the quantity of rain that has fallen.

4 OMELYSIS,