a species of cactus. See CACTUS, Botany Index.

the French word for gold, by which this metal is expressed in heraldry. In engraving it is denoted by small points all over the field or bearing. It may be supposed to signify itself, generosity, splendour, or fidelity; according to G. Leigh, if it is compounded with

Gul. Courage. Azu. Truth. Ver. Joy. Pur. Charity. Sab. Constancy.

in antiquity, was a term equivalent to an ounce: but it has been much debated among our antiquaries, whether the ora, the mention of which so often occurs, was a coin or only money of account. Dr Hickes observes, that the mode of reckoning money by marks and oras was never known in England till after the Danish settlements; and by examining the old nummulary estimates among the principal Gothic states upon the Baltic, it appears, that the ora and solidus were synonymous terms, and that the ora was the eighth part of the mark. From several of the Danish laws, it likewise appears, that the Danish ora, derived by corruption from aureus, was the same as the Frank solidus of twelve pence. As a weight, the ora was regarded as the uncia or unit, by which the Danish mark was divided; and in Doomsday book the ora is used for the ounce, or the twelfth part of the nummulary Saxon pound, and the fifteenth of the commercial: as a coin it was an aureus, or the Frank solidus of twelve pence. And from the accidental coincidence of the Frank aureus with the eighth part of their mark, the Danes probably took occasion to give it the new name of ora. There was another ora mentioned in the rolls of the 27th of Henry III. the value of which was sixteen pence; and this was probably derived from the half mancus of the Saxons. Such, in all appearance, was the original of these two oras; as there were no aurei of that period, to which these two denominations of money of sixteen and twelve pence can possibly be ascribed. It is observed farther, that the name ora distinguishes the gold coins in several parts of Europe to this day. The Portuguese moïdore is nothing else but moeda d'oro, from the Latin moneta de auro; the French Louis d'ors come from the same use of the word, and owe their appellation to the ora. See Clarke on Coins.