a name given by the Chinese to a kind of nests made by certain insects upon the leaves and branches of the tree called yen-fou-tse. These nests are much used in dyeing, and the physicians employ them for curing many distempers. Some of these nests were brought to Europe, and put into the hands of the celebrated Mr Geoffroy. After having examined them with the utmost attention, this learned academician thought he perceived some conformity in them to those excrements which grow on the leaves of the elm, and which the vulgar call elm-bladders: he found these nests so sharp and astringent to the taste, that he considered them as far superior to every other species of galls used by the dyers. According to him, they are the strongest astringents existing in the vegetable kingdom.

It is certain that there is a great affinity between the ou-poey-tse and the elm bladders. The form of both is unequal and irregular; they are covered on the outside with a short down, which renders them soft to the touch; within they are full of a whitish gray dust, in which may be observed the dried remains of small insects, without discovering any aperture through which they might have puffed. These nests or bladders harden as they grow old; and their substance, which appears resinous, becomes brittle and transparent; however, the Chinese do not consider the ou-poey-tfe, notwithstanding their resemblance to clm-bladders, as excrerences of the tree ven-fou-tfe, upon which they are found. They are per- fumed, that insects produce a kind of wax, and construct for themselves on the branches and leaves of this tree (the sap of which is proper for their nourishment) little retreats, where they may wait for the time of their metamorphosis, or at least deposit in fastly their eggs, which compose that fine dust with which the ou-poey-tfe are filled. Some of the ou-poey-tfe are as large as one's fist ; but these are rare, and are generally produced by a worm of extraordinary strength, or which has affixed with another, as two silk worms are sometimes seen flutt up in the same ball. The smallest ou-poey-tfe are of the size of a chefnut ; the greater part of them are round and oblong ; but they seldom resemble one another entirely in their exterior configuration. At first, they are of a dark green colour, which afterwards changes to yellow ; and the husk, though pretty firm, becomes then very brittle.

The Chinese peasants collect these ou-poey-tfe before the first hoar-frosts. They take care to kill the worm inclosed in the husks, and to expose them for some time to the steam of boiling water. Without this precaution, the worm might soon break through its weak prison, which would immediately burst and be useless. The ou-poey-tfe are used at Pekin for giving paper a durable and deep-black colour ; in the provinces of Kiang-nan and Tche-kiang, where a great deal of beautiful satin is made, they are employed for dyeing the silk before it is put on the loom. The Chinese literati also blacken their beards with them when they become white.

The medicinal properties of the ou-poey-tfe are very numerous. The Chinese physicians introduce them into the composition of many of their remedies. They recommend them for stopping bleedings of every kind ; they consider them as an excellent specific for curing inflammations and ulcers, and for counteracting the effects of poison ; and they employ them with success in the dropy, phthisis, epilepsy, catarrhs, sickness, fluxions of the eyes and ears, and in many other disorders.

GREATER OUSE, a river which rises near Fitwell in Oxfordshire, and proceeds to Buckingham, Stony-Stratford, and Newport-Pagnell, in Buckinghamshire ; from thence it proceeds to Bedford, and turning north-east it passes on to Huntingdon and Ely, till at length it arrives at Lynn-Regis in Norfolk, and falls into the sea. It is navigable to some distance above Downham, where there is a good harbour for barges ; and a considerable trade is carried on by it to Lynn and other towns.

Smaller Ouse, rises in Suffolk, and, separating that county from Norfolk on the south-west, discharges itself into the great Ouse near Downham. There is still another of the same name, which rises in the west-north-west side of Yorkshire ; and chiefly running to the south-east, at length falls into the Humber.