RORAIMA 



ROSACES 



803 



ICiiraiina. an isolated, table-topped sand- 

 stone niouiitain, near the west border of British 

 Guiana. First sloping gradually upwards 5000 

 feet above sea-level (2500 above the plain on which 

 it stands), it next shoots up 2000 feet more in a 

 perpendicular stupendous cliff, over which drop 

 numerous waterfalls. It was first scaled by E. F. 

 im Tliurn on 18th December 1884. 



Rorke's Drift, a station on the Tugela River, 

 Zululand, South Africa, memorable for the heroic 

 defence of Lieutenants Chard and Bromhead, with 

 eighty men of the 24th Regiment, who had been 

 left to guard the commissariat stores and the 

 hospital of Lord Ohelmsford's force, against 4000 

 Zulu warriors during the night of the 22-23d 

 January 1879, the night after Isandula. The only 

 defences of the British were an extemporised ram- 

 part of rice bags and biscuit boxes, yet they kept 

 the enemy at bay, and six times in succession drove 

 out parties who had got within the barricade. 



Rorqual (Balcenoptera), a kind of baleen 

 whale, to which the names of Fin-back, Firmer, 

 and Razor-back are also applied. The genus in- 

 cludes the largest and some of the commonest 

 whales, and is represented in all seas. The head 

 is flat and pointed, the body is slender, the skin of 

 the throat is deeply folded in longitudinal plaits, 

 the whalebone is short and coarse, and there is 

 not much blubber. The ' blue whale ' ( B, sibbaldii), 

 the largest living animal, may attain a length of 

 80 or 85 feet. It seems to pass the winter in the 

 open sea, and approaches the coast of Norway at 

 the end of April or beginning of May, and is some- 

 times stranded on British coasts for instance, in the 

 Firth of Forth. The Common Rorqual (B. mnscu- 

 lus) attains a length of 60 to 75 feet, and it often 

 comes ashore on British coasts. Rudolphi's Whale, 

 or Northern Rorqual (B. borealis), does not exceed 



Northern Rorqual ( Bal&noptera borealit). 



SO feet in length ; and yet smaller is the Lesser 

 Rorqual (B. rostrata), which measures about 30 

 feet. The former is not uncommon in the more 

 northern seas, while the range of the latter extends 

 from the Mediterranean to Davis Straits. The 

 rorquals seem to feed on small crustaceans, and 

 sometimes on small fishes. Though not nearly so 

 valuable as species of Balaena, they are often 

 captured by the whalers. See WHALE. 



Kosa. CARL, whose real surname was ROSE, 

 impresario, was Ixirn at Hamburg on 22d March 

 1H4:{, and studied music at Leipzig and Paris. 

 After conducting a concert and operatic tour in 

 the United States in 1871-72, he came to England, 

 his intention Iwing to produce standard operas 

 with an English text. But it was 1875 before 

 he was able to carry out his intention. London 

 gave him little encouragement ; the prejudice 

 against English opera was too strong. The pro- 

 vinces, however, welcomed the new undertaking 



and made it successful. Carl Rosa may be called 

 the father of English opera in two senses : he 

 not only produced the great operas of German, 

 French, and Italian composers with English texts, 

 but he encouraged native composers to write 

 opera, by giving them commissions for works. It 

 was in this way that such operas as Goring 

 Thomas' Esmeralda and Nadeshda, Dr A. C. 

 Mackenzie's Colombo, and Troubadour, Dr V. 

 Stanford's Canterbury Pilgrims, &c. came to be 

 written. He died 30th April 1889. Madame Parepft. 

 Rosa( 1836-74), a distinguished vocalist, was his wife. 

 Rosa, MONTE. See MONTE ROSA. 



Rosa, SALVATOR, was born at Arenella, in the 

 neighbourhood of Naples, on 20th June (or 21st 

 July) 1615. In his youth he got a little instruction 

 from Falcone, a painter of battle-scenes, but spent 

 most of his time wandering amongst the wild and 

 romantic scenery of Southern Italy, copying from 

 nature. Some of his landscapes attracted the notice 

 of the painter Lanfranco, who encouraged the young 

 artist to go to Rome (1635). The next three 

 years he passed alternately in Naples and in Rome, 

 and leaped into fame with a picture, ' Tityus tor- 

 tured by the Vulture.' He then settled clown in 

 Rome, but seems to have been in Naples at the 

 time of Masaniello's revolt (1647), though it is 

 uncertain whether be bore arms in support of the 

 Fisher Lad. ( It seems not to be true that he lived 

 with bandits in the mountains in his youth.) At 

 Rome his social talents he was a skilful musician, 

 improvisatore, actor, and poet his merry humour, 

 his wit, and his princely generosity made him a 

 great favourite. But he made powerful enemies 

 by his satires, clever productions in verse, and 

 withdrew to Florence, where he remained nearly 

 nine years. After that he returned to Rome, and 

 died there on March 15, 1673: Salvator has a great 

 reputation as a painter ; this he owes mainly to his 

 landscapes, which, though in many respects faulty, 

 are original in subject and treatment, being gener- 

 ally representations of wild and savage scenes, 

 executed with considerable freedom and energy. 

 His historical pictures are not so good, though they 

 are those he himself thought most of. He executed 

 numerous etchings, highly characteristic of his 

 peculiar style. His Satires were published in 1719. 

 See Life by Baldinucci (new ed. 1830) and by Cantu 

 (1844). Lady Morgan's book (1824) is a blending 

 of fact and romance. 



Rosacea. See ACNE. 



RosaceHS a natural order of exogenous plants, 

 containing many species of great usefulness, and 

 many that are in the highest esteem for their 

 beauty and fruit. It contains tree?, shrubs, and 

 herbaceous plants, natives chiefly of cold and 

 temperate regions, and far more abundant in the 

 northern than in the southern hemisphere. Within 

 the tropics they are chiefly but not exclusively 

 found in elevated situations. The leaves are 

 alternate, have stipules, and are either simple or 

 compound. The flowers are generally hermaphro- 

 dite, but sometimes unisexual ; the inflorescence 

 various. The calyx is 4 to 5 lobed, generally 5- 

 lobed ; the petals as many as the divisions of the 

 calyx, or occasionally wanting, perigynous. The 

 stamens are few or many, arising from the throat 

 of the calyx ; the ovary is sometimes solitary, 

 sometimes there are several ovaries, each one- 

 celled, with a lateral style, or a number of ovaries 

 are united into a many-celled pistil ; the ovules 

 generally two or more. The fruit is sometimes a 

 drupe; sometimes a pome; sometimes follicular; 

 sometimes a nut ; sometimes a collection of nuts 

 enclosed in the fleshy tube of the calyx ; some- 

 times a collection of small drupes forming a head, 

 as in the raspberry ; and sometimes, as in the straw- 



