OSNABBUCK 57 royal, or flowering fern, is the noblest of domestic ferns; the fronds are bipin- nate, fertile at the top. It is frequent in boggy places and the wet morasses of woods in the W. of Scotland and the S. of Ireland. Found also in England, Continental Europe, Asia, and Canada. The powdered stem has been used suc- cessfully in rickets, the dose being three drachms. Sometimes this fern has been called bog onion. OSNABBirCK, a town of Prussia; province of Hanover, in the valley of the Hase, 75 miles S. S. W. of Bremen. Its great Catholic cathedral, in the Transi- tion style of the first half of the 13th century, is rich in relics and monuments ; and the town hall (1486-1512) contains portraits of all the plenipotentiaries who here, Oct. 24, 1648, signed the peace of Westphalia. Osnabruck has important iron and steel works, and manufactures of railway plants, agricultural machin- ery, gas-meters, paper, tobacco, etc. It suffered much in the Thirty Years' War, (1618-1648), but recovered, thanks to its linen industry, during the eighteenth century. The name Osnaburgs given to coarse linens is derived hence. Pop. about 75,000. OSPREY, or OSPBAY, in ornithology, Pandion haliaetus, the fish hawk, bald buzzard, or fishing eagle. A bird of prey, of almost world-wide distribution, subsisting on fish. The osprey is about two feet long, with a wing expanse nearly three times as great. The plumage is dark brown, white on the under surface, OSSOLI AMERICAN OSPREY with a few streaks of brown on the throat; crown light brown edged with white, and a streak of dark brown from the eye to the shoulders. Ospreys nest usually near the seashore, and, unlike rapacious birds generally, are in some measure gregarious. In North America large communities of ospreys are found. They lay three or four eggs of a rich red to huffy white, with large reddish and brown markings. OSSA, the ancient name of a mountain on the E. side of Thessaly, near Pelion, and separated from Olympus by the vale of Tempe. The ancients placed the seat of the Centaurs and Giants in the neigh- borhood of Pelion and Ossa. OSSIAN, a mythical Gaelic hero and bard, is said to have lived in the 3d cen- tury, and to have been the son of Fingal, a Caledonian hero, whom he accompanied in various military expeditions. His name has derived its celebrity from the publications of Macpherson, who, about 1760, gave to the world, as the "Poems of Ossian," a remarkable series of bal- lads. OSSIFICATION, the formation of bone. In the growth of the skeleton of man and the higher animals, this process goes on naturally, and it occurs in the reproduction of new bones after the de- struction or loss of old ones. Ossifica- tion also occurs as an unnatural or mor- bid process. It occurs most frequently in the cartilage of the ribs, after the 50th year; but in some cases it commences be- tween the ages of 30 and 40. The carti- lages of the windpipe are next to those of the ribs in their liability to become osseous. The disease called "ossification of the heart" is not an affection of the proper substance of that organ, but of its valves, in which earthy matter is some- times deposited. OSSINING, a village in Westchester CO., N. Y., on the Hudson river, and on the New York Central and Hudson River railroad; 30 miles N. of New York. It is situated at the widest part of the river on ground rising to an altitude of 300 feet, and commands a fine view of many interesting points on the river. Here are military academies, street railroad and electric light plants, a portion of the Croton aqueduct, which is carried across Kill brook by a stone arch 88 feet wide and 70 feet high; National and savings banks, and several weekly newspapers. It has manufactories of lime, sleighs, car- riages, cotton gins, steam engines, gas and water pipe, etc. A State peniten- tiary, one of the most famous of Ameri- can prisons, is located here. On this ac- count, after many attempts to have its former name. Sing Sing, changed, the Legislature in 1901 granted this privi- lege, and the name Ossining was adopted. Pop. (1910) 11,480; (1920) 10,739. OSSOLI. MAKCHIONESS D', SARAH MARGARET FtTLLER, best known as Margaret Fuller, an American writer
