The most approved sorts of cider pears, according to this writer, are the following: Barland, Pom. Her. t. 27, Forsyth, p. 143, fruit very austere, hardly upright tree. Holmore, Pom. Her. t. 20, Forsyth, p. 144, upright tree. Huffcap, Pom. Her. t. 24., Forsyth, p. 154, fruit austere, large, hardy trees. Oldfield, Pom. Her. t. 11, Forsyth, p. 144, large tree. Rough cap, Forsyth, p. 144, very austere, hardy free-growing tree. Squash teinton, Pom. Her. t. 13, Forsyth, p. 144, fruit very austere, upright tree and great bearer. The baking and dessert pears fit for orchards, according to Nicol, are the following:- Jargonelle, Crawford or lammas,* carnock or drummond, gray achan, swan egg, moorfowl egg yair, golden knap (good), Longueville, summer bergamot, * autumn ditto,* Scot's ditto, musk robin (good), saffron, hanging leaf (very good), the pound pear, cadilac, warden (for baking. * The best sorts of baking plums are, damson, bullace, muscle, winesour, and magnum bonum. Of these the damson is by far the best, and next the winesour, which thrives only on a calcareous soil, and grows wild in abundance in the West Riding of Yorkshire. * The following are excellent dessert plums for an orchard :-* Green-gage, Orleans, damask (black, good), white perdigron, * blue ditto, blue gage, white magnum bonum, red ditto or imperial, *drap d'or (yellow, good). Of these the green-gage, Orleans, and damask are much the best. ORCHESTRA, n. s. Gr. opxispa. The place occupied by musicians at a public enter tainment. ORCHESTRA, in the Grecian theatres, was that part of the proscenium or stage where the chorus used to dance. In that of Athens a kind of altar was erected in the opxýspa, called the Supin (thymele among the Romans), which sometimes served to offer sacrifices on to Bacchus (whence the edifice was named the Theatre of Bacchus), and sometimes as a tribune from which orations were made by the magistrates and orators to the assembled people, it being customary for the Greeks often to hold public meetings in their theatres. It is probable that this altar, as well as the orchestra itself (of which it formed the centre) was sunk somewhat below the level of the proscenium (as in modern days), in order that the view of the performance on the stage might not be interrupted. The orchestia was semi-circular and surrounded with seats. In the Roman theatres it made no part of the scena, but answered pretty nearly to the pit in our play-houses, being taken up with seats for senators, magistrates, vestals, and other persons of distinction. The actors never went down into it. ORCHIA LEX, instituted by Orchius the tribune of Rome, A. U. C. 566. Its intention was to limit the number of guests that were to be admitted at an entertainment; and it also enforced that during supper, which was the chief meal among the Romans, the doors of every house should be left open. ORCHILLA, a small cluster of islands in the West Indies, near South America. The largest is in the form of a crescent, and low, excepting on the east and west capes. Here the trees and verdure abound, whilst on the other sides the soil is barren. The only animals are goats and lizards; and it contains but little fresh water. On the south-west side the water is very deep, and the shore perpendicular, like a wall. The different islands are separated by narrow channels of difficult navigation. Long. 65° 20′ W., lat. 12° N. ORCHIS, in botany, a genus of the diandria order, and gynandria class of plants; natural order seventh, orchida. Its characters are these: it has a single stalk, with a vague sheath, and no empalement; the flower has five petals, three without and two within; the nectarium is of one leaf, fixed to the side of the receptacle. between the division of the petals; the upper lip is short and erect, the under large, broad, and spreading; the tube pendulous, corniform, or like a horn, and prominent behind; it has two short slender stamina, sitting upon the pointal, with oval erect summits, fixed to the upper lip of the nectarium; there is an oblong contorted germen, under the flower, with a short style, fastened to the upper lip of the nectarium; the germen afterwards turns to an oblong capsule, with one cell, having three keel-shaped valves, opening on the three sides, but jointed at top and bottom, filled with small seeds like dust. Miller enumerates ten, and Linnæus thirty-three species. All those sorts of orchis described by Miller grow wild in several parts of England, but, on account of the extreme beauty of their flowers, deserve a place in every good garden; and the reason of their not being cultivated in gardens proceeds from the difficulty of transplanting them: though this may be easily overcome, where a person has an opportunity of marking their roots, in their time of flowering, and letting them remain until their leaves are decayed, when they may be transplanted with safety. But, if their soil and situation be adapted to their various sorts, they will thrive and continue several years, and during their season of flowering will afford as great varieties as any flowers which are at present cultivated. The most remarkable species are O. mascula, with a root composed of two bulbs, crowned with oblong, broad, spotted leaves; upright stalks, a foot high; garnished with one or two narrow amplexicaule leaves; and terminated by a long spike of reddish purple flowers, having the petals reflexed backward; a quadrilobed crenated lip to the nectarium, and an obtuse horn. The flowers of this species possess a very agreeable odor. This species is the most valuable. O. militaris has a double bulbous root, crowned with oblong amplexicaule leaves; erect flower-stalks, eight or ten inches high; terminated by a loose spike of ash-colored and reddish flowers, having confluent petals; a quinquefid, rough, spotted lip to the nectarium, and an obtuse horn. The structure of the flowers exhibits the figure of a naked man; and are often of different colors in the same flower, as ash-color, red, brown, and dark-striped. O. morio, has a double bulbous root, crowned with oblong, ribbed, spreading leaves; erect flower-stalks, eight or ten inches high; garnished with a few amplexicaule leaves; and terminated by a short loose spike of flowers, having connivent petals, a quadrifid crenated lip to the nectarium, and an obtuse horn. All the species are very hardy perennials, with bulbous fleshy roots. The flowers appear in May, June, and July, but principally in June: their mode of flowering is universally in spikes, many flowers in each spike; and each flower is composed of five petals in two series, and a nectarium. This plant flourishes in various parts of Europe and Asia, and grows in our country spontaneously, in great abundance. It is assiduously cultivated in the east; and the root of it forms a considerable part of the diet of the inhabitants of Turkey, Persia, and Syria. From it is made the alimentary powder called salep; which, prepared from foreign roots, is sold at 5s. or 6s. per lb., though it might be furnished by ourselves at the sixth part of that price, if we would cultivate this plant. The orchis mascula is the most valued for this purpose. A dry, and not very fertile, soil is best adapted to its growth. The most fit time for gathering the roots is when the seed is formed, and the stalk is ready to fall; because the new bulb, of which the salep is made, is then arrived at its full maturity, and may be distinguished from the old one by a white bud rising from the top of it, which is the germ of the orchis of the succeeding year. ORCUS, or Pluto, god of the infernal regions, so called from ooxos, a tomb or sepulchre, or from oprog an oath by the river Styx. The ancients gave this name also to all the divinities of the infernal regions, even to Cerberus. This deity has also been confounded with Charon : he had a temple at Rome. ORCUS, a river of Thessaly, which took its rise from the marshes of the Styx, and the waters of which were so thick that they floated like oil upon the surface of the river Peneus, into which they discharged themselves. ORDAIN', v. a. I Fr. ordonner; Span. and ORDAIN'ER, n. s. Port.odinar; Ital. ordinare; Lat. ordino. To fix; decree; appoint; settle; institute; invest with office or power. All signified unto you by a man who is ordained over the affairs, shall be utterly destroyed. Esther. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Acts. He commanded us to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. Acts x. 42. Know the cause why musick was ordained; St. James was bishop of Jerusalem, and St. Peter, Jeremy Taylor. Waller. That musick should in sounds convey ment. The fatal tent, Some laws ordain, and some attend the choice of holy senates, and elect by voice. ld. My reason bends to what thy eyes ordain; Prior. Sure 'tis the happy hour ordained above, Ye sylphs of death, on demon pinions Chaucer. Where so you list, by ordal or by othe, By sorte or in what wise, so that you leste For love of God, let preve it for the beste, And if that I be gilty dome die. when clear proofs wanted. Hakewill on Providence. Their ordeal laws they used in doubtful cases, et aquam, or the trial by ordeal, continued; but it In the time of king John, the purgation per ignem ended with this king. Hale. ORDEAL was an ancient form of trial. See TRIAL. It was an appeal to the immediate interposition of divine power, and was peculiariy Dei; and sometimes vulgaris purgatio, to disdistinguished by the appellation of judicium tinguish it from the canonical purgation, which tion of ordeal, of some one kind or other, is was by the oath of the party. That the purgavery ancient, admits not of a doubt; and that it was very universal in the times of superstitious barbarity is equally certain. It seems And Grotius gives us many instances of water even to have been known to the ancient Greeks. ordeal, in Bithynia, Sardinia, and other places. There were two sorts of it more common than former was confined to persons of higher rank, the rest, in Europe, by fire, and by water. The the latter 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 corporal pain, for hire, or perhaps for friendship. The fire ordeal was performed either by taking up in the hand, unhurt, a piece of red-hot iron, one, ing barefoot,and blindfold over nine red-hot two, or three pounds weight; or else by walkplough-shares, laid lengthwise at unequal distances: and, if the party escaped being hurt, he was adjudged innocent; but if it happened otherwise, as without collusion it usually did, he was then condemned as guilty. Water ordeal was performed, either by plunging the bare arm up to the elbow in boiling water, and escaping unhurt thereby, or by casting the person suspected into a river or pond of cold water; and, if he floated therein without any action of swimming, it was deemed an evidence of his guilt; but if he sunk he was acquitted. It is easy to trace out the traditional relics of this water ordeal, in the ignorant barbarity still prac tised in many countries to discover witches, by casting them into a pool of water, and drowning them to prove their innocence. In the Eastern empire the fire ordeal was used for the same purpose, by the emperor Theodore Lascaris, who, attributing his sickness to magic, caused all those whom he suspected to handle the hot iron; thus joining (as has been well remarked) to the most dubious crime in the world the most dubious proof of innocence. Besides these methods of trials, there were some others common in Europe; as the judicial combat, the ordeal of the cross, and the ordeal of the corsned. The judicial combat was well suited to the genius and spirit of fierce and warlike nations, and was one of the most ancient and universal modes of trial. It was exceedingly com-. mon in Germany in very remote ages. It was also used in some countries on the continent at pretty early periods: it is not, however, mentioned in any of the Anglo-Saxon laws; and it does not appear to have been much used in England till after the Conquest. There are, however, two remarkable instances of it recorded in Dr. Henry's History of Great Britain, to which we shall refer the inquisitive reader. We need scarcely add, that this detestable form of trial was the foundation of the no less detestable crime of duelling, which disgraces our age and nation. See DUEL. It was so much the custom, in the middle ages of Christianity, to respect the cross even to superstition, that it would have been indeed wonderful if the same ignorant bigotry had not converted it into an ordeal: accordingly we find it used for this purpose, and in so many different ways as almost to preclude description. Dr. Henry gives the following account of it: In criminal trials, the judgment of the cross was commonly thus conducted. When the prisoner had declared his innocence upon oath, and appealed to the judgment of the cross, two sticks were prepared exactly like one another; the figure of the cross was cut on one of these sticks, and nothing on the other: each of them was then wrapped up in a quantity of fine white wool, and laid on the altar, or on the relics of the saints; after which a solemn prayer was put up to God, that he would be pleased to discover, by evident signs, whether the prisoner was innocent or guilty. These solemnities being finished, a priest approached the altar, and took up one of these sticks, which was uncovered with much anxiety. If it was the stick marked with the cross, the prisoner was pronounced innocent; if it was the other, he was declared guilty. When the judgment of the cross was appealed to, in civil causes, the trial was conducted in this manner :-The judges, parties, and all concerned, being assembled in a church, each of the parties chose a priest, the youngest and stoutest that he could find, to be his representative in the trial. These representatives were then placed one on each side of some famous crucifix; and, at a signal given, they both at once stretched their arms at full length, so as to form a cross with their body. In this painful posture they continued to stand while divine service was performing; and the party whose representative dropped his arms first lost his cause. These, and the like relics of superstition and barbarism, were abolished in England (as had been done in Denmark above a century before), by act of parliament 3 Hen. III. according to Sir Edward Coke, or rather by an order of the king in council. We have, in Mr. Turner's well known History of the Anglo-Saxons, a full account of the ordeals in use among that people from the laws of Ina. The iron,' says Mr. Turner, was to be three pounds in weight for the threefold trial, and therefore probably one pound only for the more simple charge; and the accused was to have the option, whether he would prefer the water ordeal or the iron ordeal. No man was to go within the church after the fire was lighted by which the ordeal was to be heated, except the priest and the accused. The distance of nine feet was to be then measured out, from the stake, of the length of the foot of the accused. If the trial was to be by hot water, the water was heated till it boiled furiously; and the vessel that contained it was to be iron or copper, lead or clay. If the charge was of the kind they called anfeald, or simple, the accused was to immerge his hand as far as the wrist in the water, to take out the stone; if the charge was of a threefold magnitude, he was to plunge his arm up to the elbow. When the ordeal was ready, two men were to enter of each side, and to agree that the water was boiling furiously. Then an equal number of men were to enter from each side, and to stand along the church on both sides of the ordeal, all fasting. After this the priest was to sprinkle them with holy water, of which each was to taste; they were to kiss the gospels, and to be signed with the cross. All this time the fire was not to be mended any more; but the iron, if the ordeal was to be by hot iron, was to lie on the coals till the last collect was finished; and it was then to be placed on the staples which were to sustain it. While the accused was snatching the stone out of the water, or carrying the hot iron for the space of nine feet, nothing was to be said but a prayer to the Deity to discover the truth. The hand was to be then bound up and sealed, and to be kept so for three days; after that time the seal and the bandage were removed, and the hand was to be examined, to see whether it was foul or clear. From this plain account, the ordeal was not so terrible as it may at first sight appear; because, independently of the opportunity which the accused had, by going alone into the church, of making terms with the priest, and of the ease with which his dexterity could have substituted cold iron or stone for the heated substances, at the moment of the trial, and the impossibility of the detection, amid the previous forms of the holy water, the diminution of the fire, prayers on the occasion, and the distance of the few spectators; independently of these circumstances, the actual endurances of the ordeal admitted many chances of acquittal. It was not exacted that the hand should not be burnt, but that after the space of three days it should not ex hibit that appearance which would be called foul or guilty. As the iron was to be carried only for the space of nine of the feet of the accused, it would be hardly two seconds in his hand. The hand was not to be immediately inspected, but it was carefully kept from air, which would irritate the wound, and was left to the chances of a good constitution to be so far healed in three days, as to discover those appearances when inspected, which were allowed to be satisfactory. Besides there was, no doubt, much preparatory training, suggested by the more experienced, which would indurate the epidermis so much as to make it less sensible to the action of the hot substances which it was to hold. Ordeals were forbidden on festivals and fastdays. Of the single ordeal it was ordered, that if the persons had been accused of theft, and were found guilty by it, and did not know who would be their borh, they should be put into prison, and be treated as the laws had enjoined. An accused mint-master was to undergo the ordeal of the hot iron. The ordeal might be compounded for. The law of Æthelstan added some directions as to the ordeal. Whoever appealed to it was to go three nights before to the priest who was to transact it, and should feed on bread and salt, water and herbs. He was to be present at the masses in the mean time, and make his offerings and receive the holy sacrament on the day of his going through the ordeal; and he should swear that with folc-right he was guiltless of the accusation before he went to the ordeal. If the trial was the hot water, he was to plunge his arm half way above the elbow on the rope. If the ordeal was the iron, three days were to pass before it was examined. They who attended were to have fasted, and not to exceed twelve in number of either side; or the ordeal was to be void unless they departed. A thief found guilty by the ordeal was to be killed, unless his relations redeemed him by paying his were, and the value of the goods, and giving borh for his good behaviour. The command of the ordeals must have thrown great power into the hands of the church; and, as in most cases they who appealed to them did so from choice, it is probable that whoever expressed this deference to the ecclesiastical order were rewarded for the compliment, as far as discretion and contrivance would permit. ORDER, n.s., v. a. & v. n.) OR'DERER, n. s. OR'DERLESS, adj. OR'DERLY, adj. & adv. OR'DERLINESS, n. s. OR'DERS. Fr. ordre; Lat. ordo. Method; arrangement; regulation; regular process or mode; rule; means; care; rank; architectural mode or fashion; class; fraternity: hence proper state or standing; regular government; society of persons remarkable for particular honors or insignia; and, in the plural, hierarchical or clerical state: to order is, to regulate; manage; adjust; dispose; conduct; command; give command or direction: an orderer, one who regulates, commands, or methodises: orderless is, disorderly; without rule or order: orderly, methodically; observant of method; not tumultuous or clamorous; according to established rule: orderliness follows these senses. priests of the second order, to bring forth out of the The king commanded the high priest, and the temple all the vessels. 2 Kings xxiii. 4. These were the orderings of them in their service, to come into the house of the Lord. 1 Chron. xxiv. 19. To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. Psalm 1. 23. The money promised unto the king he took no order for, albeit Sostratus required it. 2 Mac. iv. It is walled with brick and stone, intermixed orderly. Sandys. The kitchen clerk that hight digestion, Did order all the cates in seemly wise. Spenser. It were meet you should take some order for the soldiers, which are now first to be discharged and disposed of some way; which may otherwise grow to as great inconvenience as all this that you have quit us from. Spenser on Ireland. The church hath authority to establish that for an order at one time, which at another time it may abolish, and in both do well. Hooker. As for the orders established, sith the law of Nature, of God and man, do all favour that which is in being, till orderly judgment of decision be given against it, it is but justice to exact obedience of you. Id. The book requireth due examination, and giveth liberty to object any crime against such as are to be ordered. WhitgiA. Then to their dams Chapman. Provide me soldiers, Whilst I take order for mine own affairs. To know the true state of Solomon's house, I will keep this order; I will set forth the end of our foundation, the instruments for our works, the several employments assigned, and the ordinances we observe. Id. New Atlantis. This order with her sorrow she accords, Which orderless all form of order brake. Daniel. body is only excellent in order to the purity of the Virgins must remember that the virginity of the soul; for, in the same degree that virgins live more spiritually than other persons, in the same degree is their virginity a more excellent state. Taylor. under the word Episcopus, yet it is not because the But yet, supposing that Presbyters were included offices and orders are one, but because that the order of Presbyter is comprehended within the dignity of a bishop. Jeremy Taylor. |