Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/882

818 O R C R D some orchids, like the common bee orchis for instance, are found in some seasons and their scarcity in others. Tropical orchids are mostly epiphytal, that is, they grow upon trees without deriving nourishment from them. They are fre quently provided with " pseudo-bulbs," large solid swellings of the stem, in the tissues of which water and nutritive materials are stored. Very generally, too, such plants have aerial roots, of thick or thin wire-like form, covered with a spongy white investment, the constituent cells of which are found under the microscope to contain spiral fibres tightly coiled up within them. By these " air-roots " the plants are able to absorb watery vapour and perhaps actual water. The number of species of orchids is greater than that of any other monocotyledonous order not even excepting grasses amounting to between 4000 and 5000 at least. This large number is partly accounted for by the diligent search in all countries that has been made for these plants for purposes of cultivation, they being held at present in the greatest esteem by plant-lovers, and prices being paid for new or rare varieties which recall the days of the tulipo- mania. It must be admitted, however, that orchid-lovers have better reasons to support their fancy than had the speculative growers and barterers of tulips. The economic uses of orchids are not remarkable. When we have mentioned vanilla, which consists of the pods of an orchid, we have mentioned about the only economic product that now comes into market. Salop, still used in the Levant, consists of the dried tubers of some terrestrial orchid, and contains a relatively large amount of nutritious matter. Cypripcdium demands notice, inasmuch as it, with one or two other genera, constitutes a tribe of the order in which two stamens are present, one on each side of the column instead of one only at the top. What may be considered the normal number of stamens is, as has been said, six, arranged in two rows. In most orchids the only stamen developed to maturity is the posterior one of the three opposite to the lip (anterior before the twisting of the ovary), the other two, as well as all three inner ones, being entirely absent, or present only in the form of rudiments. In Cypripcdium all three of the outer stamens are wanting, but the two lateral ones of the inner series are present, the third being undeveloped. This arrangement may be understood by reference to the following dia gram, representing the relative position of the stamens in orchids generally and in Cypripedium. The letter L indicates the position of the labellum ; the large figures indicate the developed stamens ; the italic figures show the position of the suppressed stamens. 1 1 45 45 6 23 23 L L Arrangement of stamens in Orchis. Arrangement of stamens in Cypripedium. (M. T. M.) ORCHIL. See ARCHIL. ORCHOMENUS, the name borne by two cities of ancient Greece. I. A Boeotian city, situated in the angle between the Cephissus and its tributary the Melas, on a long narrow hill which projects south from Mount Acontium. Its position is exceedingly strong, being .defended on every side by precipice or marsh or river, and it was admirably suited to be the stronghold of an early kingdom. The acropolis is at the north end of the hill, on a peak which is overhung by Acontium, but at a distance sufficient to be safe from an enemy with the weapons of early warfare posted on the mountain. At the foot of the acropolis are the springs of the Melas. Orchomenus was the capital of the Minyse, a race famous in the half-legendary history of early Boeotia ; the sway of the Minyte once extended over Bceotia, including even Thebes, but the yEolic Boeotians who made Thebes their stronghold broke the power of the Orchomenian kings. The most remark able relic of the early power of Orchomenus is the so-called "treasury," which is said to be the oldest in Greece. It was larger than the buildings of similar style at Mycenae (see MYCEN-ffi), and the admiration which Pausanias ex presses for it is justified by the beautiful ornamentation, especially of the roof, which has been brought to light by Schliemann s excavations. The monument, undoubtedly the tomb of some ancient ruler, or of a dynasty, lies outside the city walls. The worship of the Charites (see GRACES) was the great cultus of Orchomenus, and the site of the temple is now occupied by a chapel, the Kot/^o-is TT}? LTavayias. The Charites were worshipped under the form of rude stones, which had fallen from heaven during the reign of Eteocles ; and it was not till the time of Pausanias that statues of the goddesses were placed in the temple. Near this was another temple dedicated to Dionysus, in whose festival, the AyptoiWa, are apparent the traces of human sacrifice in early times. The city was destroyed by the Thebans in the 4th century ; the men were slain, and the women and children sold as slaves. About thirty years later, after the battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.), Philip of Macedon restored the city. The name is spelt on the dialectic inscriptions and coins E/a^oyaei/os. It is mentioned in the Homeric catalogue. II. An Arcadian city, situated in a district of the same name, north of Mantinea and west of Stymphalus. The district was mountainous, but embraced two valleys, the northern containing a lake which is drained, like all Arcadian lakes, by a kaiabothron; the southern lying under the city, separated from Mantinea by a mountain ridge called Anchisia. The old city occupied a strong and lofty situation ; in the time of Strabo it was a ruin, but Pausanias mentions that a new town was built below the old. A primitive wooden image of Artemis Cedreatis stood in a large cedar tree outside the city. Orchomenus is mentioned in the Homeric catalogue with the epithet TroAi pyAos. It sent soldiers to Thermopylae and to Platrea. The native form of the name was Ep^o/zevos. ORDEAL (Anglo-Saxon orddl, ordsel, judgment) corre sponds to modern German urtheil, but bears the special sense of the mediasval Latin Dei judicium, a miraculous decision as to the truth of an accusation or claim. The word is adopted in the late Latin ordalium, French ordalie. The ordeal had existed for many ages before it was thus named in Europe. In principle, and often in the very forms used, it belongs to ancient culture, thence flourishing up to the mediaeval European and modern Asiatic levels, but dying out before modern civilization. Some ordeals, which possibly represent early stages of the practice, are simply magical, being processes of divination turned to legal purpose. Thus in Burmah suits are still determined by plaintiff and defendant being each furnished with a candle, equal in size and both lighted at once, he whose candle outlasts the other being adjudged, amid the acclama tions of his friends, to have won his cause (Shway Yoe, The Burman, vol. ii. p. 254). Even quainter is a Dyak ordeal in Borneo, where the two parties are represented by two shell-fish on a plate, which are irritated by pouring on some lime-juice, and the one first moving settles the guilt or innocence (as has been before arranged) of its owner (St John, Forests of the Far East, vol. i. p. 89). The adminis tration of ordeals has been much in the hands of priests, and they are more often than not worked on a theological basis, the intervention of a deity being invoked and assumed to take place even when the process is in its nature one of symbolic magic. For instance, an ancient divining instrument consisted of a sieve held suspended by a thread or by a pair of shears with the points stuck into its rim, and considered to move at the mention of the name to be discovered, &c. Thus girls consulted the "sieve- witch" (KOO-KIVO/XVTIS) about lovers (Theocr., Idyll., iii. 31). This coscinomancy served in the same way to discover a thief, when, with prayer to the gods for direc tion, the names of the suspected persons were called over to it (Potter, Greek Antiquities, vol. i. p. 352). When a suspended hatchet was used in the same way to turn to the guilty, the process was called axinomancy. The sieve-