produced on the islands, and on the margin of the bay; and butter and cheese, cider, many kinds of fruit, corn, rye, barley, and oats, are produced in abundance. The rivers and bays afford a great variety of excellent fish. Iron in abundance, small quantities of copper, limestone, and a mine of anthracite, are the minerals and fossils that have hitherto been found. The rivers are the Pawtucket, Providence, and Pawtuxet. Narraganset bay extends from south to north through nearly the whole length of the state, and embosoms Rhode Island, Connecticut, Prudence, Patience, Hope, Dyer's, and Hog islands. Block island, in the Atlantic, south of the state, is the most southerly land belonging to it. The exports of Rhode Island consist principally of flax-seed, lumber, horses, cattle, beef, pork, fish, poultry, and cotton and linen goods. Its manufactures have greatly increased within the last ten years, and add greatly to its wealth. The value of its exports of domestic produce, during the year ending September 30, 1829, was $337,468. Its tonnage in 1828 was 43,406. Since these periods, the commerce of the state has rapidly increased. The commercial and manufacturing interests of Rhode Island are principally centred in Providence. This has become one of the most important cities of New England, and contains now about one fifth of the population of the state. Newport is somewhat less than half the size of Providence, and the other towns are not large. The general assembly of Rhode Island meets four times in a year: at Newport on the first Wednesday of May, which is the commencement of the political year, and again at the same place in June; in October, it meets alternately at Providence and South Kingston; and in January at East Greenwich, Bristol, or Providence. Brown university is situated at Providence. At the same place there is a seminary styled the Friends' boarding-school, and there are eight or ten academies in the state. (See Providence.) The state now pays $10,000 annually for the support of free schools; and this sum is divided among the several towns, according to their population. This, however, affords but imperfect means for the education of the poorer classes of society. In 1831, the Baptists in Rhode Island had sixteen churches, twelve ministers, 2600 communicants; the Methodists ten preachers, 1,100 members; the Congregationalists ten churches, ten ministers, 1000 communicants; the Unitarians two societies, two ministers; the Sabbatarians about 1000 communicants; the Six

Principle Baptists about eight church es and 800 communicants. There are many Friends, and some of other denominations. The settlement of Rhode Island was commenced, at Providence, in 1636, by the celebrated Roger Williams, a minister, who was banished from Massachusetts on account of his religious opinions. (For further information respecting the history, see Providence, and New England.)

RHODE ISLAND; an island situated in Narraganset bay; lat. 41° 25' N.; lon. 71° 20 W. The state of Rhode Island takes its name from this island. It is about fifteen miles from north to south, and three and a half wide, and is divided into three townships, Newport, Portsmouth and Middletown. It is a noted resort for invalids from southern climates. The island is very fertile, pleasant, and healthful; and many travellers call it the Eden of America. It suffered greatly by the war of the revolution, but has been, in a considerable degree, restored to its former beauty and value. About 40,000 sheep are fed on the island, besides neat cattle and horses. There is a coal-mine on the north part of the island, but the coal is not, at present, much esteemed.

RHODES ('Podos, from jodov, a rose, or from podos, noise of waters); an island in the Grecian archipelago, lying between Crete (Candia) and Cyprus, ten miles from the southern coast of Asia Minor; thirty-six miles in length, and fourteen in breadth; 450 square miles. Rhodes was, in ancient times, sacred to the sun, and was celebrated for its serene sky, its soft climate, fertile soil, and fine fruits. The republic of Rhodes was an important naval power, and planted colonies in Sicily, Italy and Spain. The beauty and size of its works of art were admired in all Greece, and it was much visited by the Romans on account of them. The commercial laws of the Rhodians were adopted, as the basis of marine law, on all the coasts of the Mediterranean, and some fragments of them still retain their authority. (See Commercial Law.) This rich and powerful republic took an important part in several of the Roman wars, and was first made a Roman province in the reign of Vespasian. In 1309, after the loss of Palestine, the knights of St. John occupied the island, and were thence called the knights of Rhodes. In 1480, they repelled an attack of the Turks, but, in 1522, were obliged to surrender the island to Solimau II. (See John, Knights of St.) The population is differently estimated, by Savary at 36,500, of which about one third ars

Greeks, with an archbishop. The island is governed by a pacha, who is under the capudan pacha or high-admiral and governor of the islands of the Archipelago. The revenue of the sultan from the island is estimated at 90,000 piasters. The productions are corn, wine, oil, cotton, fruits, wax, honey, &c. The capital, Rhodes (lon. 28° 12′ E.; lat. 36° 26' N.), has a population of 6000 Turks. The suburb Neachorio is inhabited by 3000 Greeks, who are not permitted to reside within the city. The town is surrounded by three walls and a double ditch, and is considered by the Turks as impregnable. It has two fine harbors, separated only by a mole. The celebrated colossus probably stood here. (See Colossus.)

RHODIUM; a new metal, discovered among the grains of crude platina by doctor Wollaston. Its specific gravity is 11. It readily alloys with every other metal, except mercury. One sixth of it does not perceptibly alter the appearance of gold, but only renders it more fusible. When pure, it is brittle, and requires a much higher temperature for its fusion than any other metal, unless it be iridium. It is insoluble in all acids. Doctor Wollaston maue silve: pens, tipped with rhodium, which, from its great hardness, were not hable to be injured by use.

RHODODENDRON MAXIMUM, or DWARF ROSE BAY; one of the most ornamental shrubs of North America. It is generally about ten feet high, but sometimes reaches to twenty or twenty-five, with a trunk four or five inches in diameter. The leaves are large, oval, oblong, coriaceous, smooth and shining; the flowers large, rose-colored, with yellow dots on the inside, and are disposed in an elegant terminal cluster. It is most abundant about the Alleghany mountains, where it sometimes forms impenetrable thickets, presenting a magnificent appearance when in flower. The wood is hard, compact, and fine-grained, but inferior, in these respects, to that of the mountain-laurel, and has not hitherto been applied to any useful purposes. Two other species of rhododendron inhabit the more southern parts of the Alleghanies. The species of rhododendron are shrubs, with alternate, entire, evergreen leaves, and ornamental flowers, usually disposed in terminal corymbs. About eighteen species are known, which inhabit the cold and temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, and especially mountainous districts. One, the R. Lapponicum, grows as far north as civilized man has penetrated, and. in common with other arctic plants,

is found, within the U. States, only on the summits of the White mountains of New Hampshire. An Oriental species, sometimes seen in our green-houses, resembling the R. maximum, but with brilliant scarlet flowers, hardly yields in magnificence to any production of the vegetable creation. All the species are cultivated in gardens on account of the beauty of their flow

ers.

RHONE (Rhodanus); a great river in the south of Europe, which rises in the central and highest part of Switzerland, at the foot of mount Furca, only five miles from the source of the Rhine. It flows in a western direction through a long and wide valley of the Swiss canton of the Valais, and, being swelled by a number of mountain streams, it passes through the lake of Geneva. Flowing southward, and being joined by the Saône and other streams, such as the Isère, the Drôme, the Ardeche, and the Durance, it discharges itself, after a course of nearly 500 miles, by three mouths, into the part of the Mediterranean called the gulf of Lyons, where its branches form the island of Camargue. The principal cities on the Rhone are Geneva, Lyons, Vienne, Avignon, Beaucaire and Arles. It is the most rapid river of Europe. The navigation down the stream is easy, but the upward can be performed only by draught or steam. (See Canals.) It carries down large quantities of earth, which it deposits at its mouth. Below Lacluse, the river plunges, with great noise, into a cavity of the rocks, and disappears for the distance of sixty paces. Several miles below this place, at a point called Malpertuis, it again almost entirely disappears under the rocks.

RHÖNGEBIRGE; a range of mountains in Germany, extending from Kaltennordheim to beyond Bischofsheim, about 30 miles in length; it traverses the northwest of Bavaria, and part of Hesse Cassel, approaching the Thuringian forest on the north, and the Spessart towards the south. The highest summit is the Kreutzberg, 2800 feet high.

RHUBARB (rheum); a genus of plants, mostly inhabiting the interior of Asia. It belongs to the family polygonea, together with the docks, which it somewhat resembles. It is one of the few genera which have nine stamens, the enneandria of Linnæus. The roots and leaves are remarkably large, and the flowers inconspicuous, but disposed in very ample panicles. The seeds are provided, at the angles, with a membranous wing. The roots of all are mildly purgative, com

bined with tonic and strengthening properties; that of the officinal rhubarb (R. palmatum) is considered the most efficacious, but there is no great difference in this respect. The officinal or true rhubarb grows wild along the frontiers of China, near the great wall, upon a chain of mountains which stretches from the Chinese town Sini to lake Kokonor, near Thibet. It is easily distinguished by having the leaves divided into acute lobes; the roots are very large, yellow and branching; the stein is of moderate height, cylindrical, smooth and striated, provided at base with a great number of large petiolate leaves; these are divided into five or seven lanceolate, acute segments, each of which is again subdivided, and are green and rough above, a little whitish and pubescent beneath, and traversed with large yellowish nerves; their leaf-stalks are very long, and grooved; the flowers are small, yellowish-white, and are disposed in numerous upright panicles; the seeds are blackish-brown and triangular. It is usual with the Chinese, when the roots have been taken from the ground, cleaned and pared, to cut them in slices and lay them upon long tables, taking care to turn them three or four times a day, experience having taught that if exposed to a free current of air, they become light, and lose a portion of their strength. After the fourth day, they are perforated and strung upon cords, in such a way as not to touch each other, and are suspended to dry in the shade, either upon trees or in tents. about two months, the roots have lost seven eighths of their weight, and are fit for market. Winter is the proper season for taking up the roots. Formerly rhubarb was brought from China, through Tartary, to Ormuz and Aleppo, thence to Alexandria, and even to Vienna. This was called Turkey rhubarb. Now it is brought by sea from Canton and Ormuz. All the rhubarb of commerce is obtained from the chain of mountains above mentioned. It is only within a few years that the officinal rhubarb has been successfully cultivated on a large scale in Europe. It is most readily multiplied by planting pieces of the root containing eyes, thirty or more of which are afforded by a root four or five years old half an inch of the root is sufficient to ensure the shooting of these eyes. They are planted a little before the opening of the spring, after leaving them exposed to the air for a day, in order that cicatrices may be formed: they should be placed in quincunx order, about six feet apart, as the leaves occupy a very great

In

space; but as, for the two first years, they do not fill this space, some other crop may be raised between them. It is an injudicious practice to cut away the leaves, and hinders the growth of the roots; but to cut or break the stenis, about a foot from the ground, is very often advantageous. The plant may remain in the ground all winter, but during severe frosts should be covered with straw or dry leaves. A deep soil, and one where sand does not predominate, seems best adapted to its culture; but it succeeds in every soil that is not arid or watery; neither 'does it fear shade or a northern exposure; in dry weather, watering is advantageous, but long rains are very injurious. The roots are taken from the ground only after the fourth or fifth year, but sooner in a dry and warm soil than in a moist and cool one; when taken up too soon, their substance is soft, and will lose eleven twelfths of its weight in drying; on the other hand, if left too long in the earth, the roots become hollow, or even rot in the centre. The time for removing them is in the autumn, after the leaves are perfectly dry. The stocks live ten or twelve years in a good soil, and only half as long in one which is less adapted to them. The rhubarb of commerce is brownishyellow externally, saffron-yellow within, and variegated with white and reddish streaks. The odor is disagreeable, and the taste bitter, astringent, slightly acrid, and nauseous. Its properties are, at the same time, tonic and purgative. It is administered in powder, in mixtures, or formed into pills, or the root may be chewed in substance. The value of the annual import of this article into Great Britain is said to exceed $1,000,000. The bark of rhubarb has been used for tinctures, and is found, in every respect, as efficacious as the best part of the roots, and the seeds possess nearly the same qualities. The leaves impart an agree able acidity, somewhat similar to that of sorrel; and a marmalade is made from the fresh stalks, by stripping off the bark, and boiling the pulp with an equal quantity of sugar. The common garden rhubarb (R. rhaponticum) has obtuse, smooth leaves, with hairy veins beneath. It was first brought into Europe about the year 1610, and is chiefly in request for the stalks of the leaves, which, when young. are used for pies and tarts. The root has occasionally been sold for the rhubarb of commerce, and for a long time was supposed to be identical with it. The rheum ribes is remarkable for having the seeds

enveloped in a succulent and reddish gulp. It grows on the mountains of Syria and Persia, and is, besides, cultivated on an extensive scule in those countries, on account of the agreeably acid flavor of the leaves, leaf-stalks and young stems. These are sold constantly in the markets, and are eaten either in a crude state, with salt or vinegar, or are preserved in wine, or with sugar.

RHUMB, in navigation; a vertical circle of any given place, or the intersection of such a circle with the horizon; in which last sense rhumb is the same as a point of the compass.

Rhumb-line; a line prolonged from any point of the compass, on a nautical chart, except from the four cardinal points.

RHUNKEN. (See Ruhnkenius.)
RHUS. (See Sumac.)

RHYME, in poetry; the correspondence of sounds in the terminating words or syllables of verses. The vowel and the final articulations or consonants should be the same, or nearly the same, in sound. The initial consonants may be different. Languages which have not, like the English, a great variety of shades between the Italian sounds of a, e, i, o, u, admit only pure rhymes; that is to say, the corresponding syllables must have exactly the same vowel sound. English verse is much less restrained; and we find in the best English poets rhymes which strike a foreign ear as very impure. In some instances, such as sky and liberty, hand and command, gone and alone, the correspondence in the letters makes what might be called a rhyme to the eye, which supplies, in some measure, the want of correspondence in sound. In other instances, however, this is not the case, as in revenge and change, remote and thought; and the liberty of making rhymes of syllables corresponding in sound, though different in spelling, is greater in English than in most other languages; as water and mortar, warm and storm. If the rhyme is only in the last syllables, as in forgave and behave, it is called a male rhyme; if in the two last syllables, as bitter and glitter, it is called a female rhyme. Sometimes the three last syllables rhyme, as callosity and reciprocity, or the Italian diacine and duracine, or tavola and favola (the verso sdrucciolo). This ast sort of rhymes is principally used in pieces of a comic or conversational character. Rhymes which extend to more than three syllables are almost confined to the Arabians and Persians, in their short odes (gazelles), in which the same rhyme, carried through the whole

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poem, extends sometimes to four and more syllables. Some languages incline more to the male rhyme, as the English, on account of its superabundance of monosyllables; others, as the Spanish and Italian, more to the female: the German. and French possess an almost equal store of both; hence in these two languages we find them generally interchanged regularly; yet there are numerous poems in these languages, written exclusively in male or female rhymes. Of the four continental idioms just mentioned, the German, from its abundance of consonants, has the greatest variety of final syllables, and therefore the smallest collection of rhymes for any given termination. has, however, to compensate for this deficiency, a regular prosody, arising from the possession of long and short syllables. The modern use of rhyme was not known to the ancients. We meet, indeed, with some rhymed verses in Ovid, in which the rhyme was evidently intentional; but the object was not to distinguish the verses, but to give impressiveness to the sense, as Shakspeare often introduces a rhymed couplet, for the same purpose, in blank verse. In the Latin poems of the fathers of the church of the fourth century, rhymes are more frequently used. The rhyme is harmony, music, and therefore is addressed directly to the feelings, and thus partakes essentially of the character of modern art, whilst the metrical forms of antiquity are in the spirit of that plastic age. (See Classic, Plastic, and Romantic.) The Goths introduced rhyme from the East into the northern languages. The most ancient relics of Scandinavian poetry are not in rhyme, but are distinguished by alliteration (q. v.). These circumstances gave rise to the opinion that rhyme originated with the Arabians, who came into contact with the Europeans of the south as early as the eighth century. Schlegel, in his Observations sur la Litérature Provençale, however, denies this. Joseph von Hammer, on the other hand, is a decided believer in the influence of the Arabians on the provençal poetry in respect to the structure of rhymed couplets and the forms of rhyme in the southern poetry; which seems undeniable, though it is not necessary to derive rhyme itself from the Arabians. The oldest forms of rhymed verse are the couplet and the continuation of one and the same rhyme through a whole piece. The Troubadours (q. v.) first attempted a variety of artificial combinations of rhyme in the sonnet, canzone, &c., and the Span

iards and Italians, with their musical languages and delicacy of ear, perfected the forms of involved rhyme. The Italians, however, at a later period, carried the artificial intricacies of rhyme to great excess. Rhyme, well managed, is one of the most pleasing of all inventions for entertaining the mind, constantly raising expectation, and as often satisfying it. The ear anticipates the sound, without knowing what the sound will express; and how various are the forms of grace and majesty of which it is susceptible! Yet it has misled many persons to think they were composing poetry, whilst they were only rhyming; and were it not for rhyme, we might have been saved from a flood of insipid verse, which has so long overspread the field of literature. (See Sonnet.)

RHYTHM. (See Appendix, end of this volume.)

RIAL, REAL; a Spanish coin. (For the real de plata (silver rial), see Coins.) The real de vellon (copper rial) is equal to 4cts.

RIALTO. (See Venice.)

RIB. The ribs are long curved bones, placed in an oblique direction at the sides of the chest. Their number is generally twelve on each side; but, in some subjects, it has been found to be thirteen, and in others, though more rarely, only eleven. They are distinguished into true and false ribs. The seven upper ribs, which are articulated to the sternum, are called true ribs, and the five lower ones, which are not immediately attached to that bone, are called false ribs. The use of the ribs is to give form to the thorax, and to cover and defend the lungs; also to assist in breathing; for they are joined to the vertebræ by regular hinges, which allow of short motions, and to the sternum by cartilages, which yield to the motion of the ribs, and return again when the muscles cease to act. (See Respiration.)

RIBERA, Giuseppe. (See Spagnoletto.) RICARDO, David, a celebrated writer on finance and statistics, was of a Jewish family, and was born in London in 1772. His father was a stock broker, and the son was intended for the same profession. His character for probity, industry and talent early procured him means of support; and, becoming a member of the stock exchange, he accumulated immense property. In 1810, he appeared as a writer in the Morning Chronicle, on the subject of the depreciation of the national currency; and he afterwards embodied his ideas in a distinct work, the reasonings of which were adopted in the Report of the Bullion

Committee of the house of commons. He next published an Essay on Rent, in which he advocated the principles of Malthus concerning population. His most important production is his treatise on Political Economy and Taxation, which affords a luminous exposition of the origin and fluctuations of national wealth and expenditure. In 1819, Mr. Ricardo obtained a seat in parliament for the Irish borough of Portarlington, and as a senator attracted the respect and esteem of all parties. He died in September, 1823. Mr. Ricardo is said to have been a Unitarian, though he usually attended the service of the established church after renouncing Judaism.

RICCI, Lorenzo, the last general of the Jesuits previously to their suppression by pope Clement XIII, was born at Florence in 1703, entered the order at the age of fifteen, and, after having been professor of rhetoric and philosophy at Sienna, he became spiritual director at the Roman college, and secretary of his order. In 1758, he succeeded to the office of general on the death of Centurioni. Resisting the suppression of the Jesuits, he was sent to the castle of St. Angelo, where he died in 1775. (See Jesuits.)-See his life, by Caraccioli.

RICCI, Scipio, bishop of Pistoia and Prato, nephew of the preceding, was born at Florence, in 1741. Being favored by the grand-duke of Tuscany, Leopold, he opened, at Pistoia, in 1786, a synod, with a view to the propagation of some new religious doctrines; by which he incurred the displeasure of the pope, and was obliged to resign his see. In 1799, he was imprisoned for declaring in favor of the decrees of the constituent assembly, which had been formed under the influence of the French. Being set at liberty, he signed, in 1805, a formula of adhesion to the bulls which he had objected to, and became reconciled to the holy see. He died in 1810. In 1824, appeared the Vie et Mémoires de Scipion Ricci, by M. de Potter (translated into English by T. Roscoe, 2 vols., 1829).

RICCOBONI, Lodovico, born at Modena in 1677, manifested an early passion for the theatre; and, having become the di rector of a theatrical company at the age of twenty-two years, he endeavored to reform the Italian theatre, by substituting regular pieces for the miserable farces which then had possession of the stage in Italy. (See Drama, and Italian Theatre.) Wearied with the opposition made to his efforts by the perverse taste of his coun