ORYX 53 OSBORN ORYX, in zoology, a genus of Bovidx; according to Sir Victor Brooke, typical of the sub-family Oryginx. Four spe- cies are known: 0. leucoryx, the Leu- coryx, from Northeastern and Western Africa; O. gazella, the gemsbok, from Southern Africa; O. heisa, the beisa an- telope, from Eastern Africa, and the coasts of the Red Sea; and O. beatrix, from Arabia. OSAGE ORANGE (Madura auranti- aca) , a tree of the natural order Mora- cess, a native of North America. It at- tains a height varying, according to soil and situation, from 20 to 60 feet. It is of the same genus with fustic, and its wood, which is bright yellow, probably might be used for dyeing. The wood is fine grained and very elastic, and takes a high polish; it is much used for fence- posts, sleepers, paving-blocks, etc. The tree is largely employed in the United States, especially in the West, as a hedge plant; it has also been introduced into Great Britain for tl^at purpose. Its fruit, about the size of a large orange, is seldom eaten. OSAGES, a tribe of North American Indians, about 1,500 in number, living on a reservation in the N. part of the State of Oklahoma. It is said to be the rich- est community in the world. They own nearly 1,500,000 acres, most of it leased to oil companies. OSAKA, or OZAKA, an important city of Central Japan, at the head of the gulf of the same name. The city covers an area of about 8 square miles and is in- tersected with canals. Its fine castle, the stones of whose walls are of aston- ishing size, was constructed by Hidey- oshi's orders in 1583, and the palace, built afterward in its precincts and de- stroyed in 1868, was perhaps the most magnificent structure in Japan. Osaka is the great commercial center of the empire, and the headquarters of the rice and tea trade. Its port does not admit of the entrance of large vessels. There is a foreign settlement, mostly occupied by missionaries. Osaka was ravaged by destructive fires in 1910 and 1912. Pop. about 1,500,000. OSBORN, CHASE SALMON, an American public official, born in Hunt- ington CO., Ind., in 1860. After studying at Purdue University he entered news- paper work at Lafayette, Ind. In sev- eral years following he did newspaper work in Chicago and Milwaukee. He became a. newspaper publisher in Flor- ence, Wis., and afterwards purchased and published other newspapers in Michi- gan. He served in various public ca- pacities and was commissioner of rail- roads from 1899 to 1903. He was elect- ed governor of Michigan in 1911. He wrote "The Andean Land" in 1909. OSBORN, HENRY FAIRFIELD, an American scientist and author. He was born in 1857 at Fairfield, Conn., and af- ter graduating at Princeton in 1877, de- voted himself to the study of paleontolo- gy. In 1881 he became instructor at Princeton in natural science and two years later professor of anatomy, leav- ing in 1890 to teach zoology at Columbia University. He was twenty years at Columbia, filling the post of dean of natural science part of the time, and that of curator of vertebrate palaeontology in the American Museum of Natural His- tory. While engaged in teaching, his research and exploration work widened the field of natural history and his re- construction of prehistoric mammals drew the attention of scientists all the world over. In 1908 he became presi- dent of the board of trustees of the Nat- ural History Museum, and has acted as palagontologist to the geological surveys of the United States and Canada. He was official or president of several so- cieties working in his field, among them the Bison Society, and the Morphologi- cal Society. His first published work, which appeared in 1890, was "Evolution and Heredity." Since then he wrote "From the Greeks to Darwin"; "Heredi- tary Mechanism"; "Evolution of Mam- malian Molar Teeth"; "The Age of Mammals"; "Hu-xley and Education"; Men of the Stone Age." OSBORN, HENRY STAFFORD, an American educator; born in Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 17, 1823; graduated Univer- sity of Pennsylvania in 1841, Union Theological Seminary 1846. He held several pastorates and was Professor of Mining and Metallurgy' in Lafayette Col- lege in 1866-1870; and Miami University till 1873, when he devoted himself to elaborating his surveys of noted places in Biblical history, and preparing a set of maps of the Holy Land that have become standards. Among his publications are: "Palestine, Past and Present" (1855); "Scientific Metallurgy of Iron and Steel in the United States" (1870); "Ancient Egypt in the Light of Recent Discover- ies" (1885) ; "Biblical History and Geog- raphy" (1888) ; etc. He died in New York City, Feb. 2, 1894. OSBORN. HERBERT, an American biologist, born at Lafayette, Wis., in 1856. He graduated from Iowa State College in 1879. He served as professor of zoology at that institution from 1885
