611 



HYNCHOPS. 



612 



filaments subulate, glabrous ; anthers ovate, obtuse. Receptacle 

 broader than the ovary, marked round with eight nectariferous 

 pores, bearing tlie petals and stamens at the base. Carpels 4, 

 partly combined by means of the central axis (gynobasc) into one 

 4-lobed ovary, ovules 6-12 in each cell. Styles 4, distinct at the 

 base, united upwards into a single pistil which is attenuated towards 

 the apex. Stigmas 4. Capsules 4, partly united, dehiscing inter- 

 nally at the apex. Seeds dotted. The species of this genus are suffru- 

 tescent, h-rbaceous, or perennial plants, with altercate exstipulate 

 pinnated or decompound leaves covered with pellucid dots. The 

 flowers are yellow, rarely white, and disposed in terminal corymbs or 

 racemes. De Cundolle enumerates 24 species of Ruta, of which com- 

 paratively few are generally known or cultivated. 



ft. gi-areolens, Common Rue, is a glaucous hail-less erect herb or 

 half-ehrubby plant, with a strong heavy unpleasant smell, growing to 

 the height of about two feet. Tie leaves are supradecompound, 

 alternate, their lateral lobes linear or nearly so ; the terminal ones 

 obovate ; they and all other parts of the plant are covered with 

 transparent dote. Carpels terminal, leafless, tricbotomou.', cymosc ; 

 petals four, wavy concave, a little irregularly toothed. Fruit roundish, 

 warted, four-lobed, each lobe opening into two valves. 



Rue U sometimes called Herb-Grace, or the Herb of Grace, and in 

 some parts of England Ave-Grace. This name is said to have been 

 given to it on account of its use in exorcisms. In company with rose- 

 mary it has been used from time immemorial as an emblem of remem- 

 brance and grace on account of its evergreen foliage. The stamens are 

 remarkable for their presenting an instance of vegetable irritability. 

 When the time is come for the pollen to be introduced into the stigma, 

 find thus presented to the ovules, the stamens, which are hard and 

 rigid, and almost at right angles with the style, approach the stigma. 

 one by one, and after remaining in contact with it long enough to 

 discharge their pollen, they return back to the : r original position 

 parallel with the petals. [RrjE, in Aim AND Sc. Div.] 



RUTA'CE/E, a natural order of Polypetalous Exogenous Plants, 

 characterised by the possession of hypogynous stamens, two or three 

 times as many as the petals, cohering carpels with from 3 to 5 valves, 

 an entire ovarium with several cell?, imbricate calyx with four or five 

 divisions, symmetrical hermaphrodite flowers with petals either 

 wanting or as many as the lobes of the calyx, mostly twisted in resti- 

 vation. Fruit capsular, tho sarcocarp mostly separating from the 

 nndocarp. Leaves without stipules, opposite, or alternate, simple, 

 deeply lobed or pinnate, and covered com:nonly with pellucid 

 resinous dots. They are trees, small shrubs, or herbaceous plants. 



Ruta ffraveoleng. 



a, lubed fruit surrounding the central axis ; 6, section of fl seed, showing tho 

 nbrjro Ij-ing in the centre of the albumen ; c, flower, showing a double row of 

 >Umcns, concrete carpcli, and rim of the disc. 



This order embraces the Jluleie and Dlosmete of A. de Jussieu, 

 which are now made the principal sections of Itutace(e. Jiuteie are 

 known by their seeds containing albumen, and by the saroocarp of 

 the fruit not being separable from the endocarp. In Jtiomiece the 

 seeds have no albumen, and the sarcocarp and enilocarp are separable 

 into distinct bodies when the fruit is ripe. A. St. Hilaire says that 

 the observation of the adhesion of the sarocarp and endocarp in 

 RtUea has been made on unripe specimens of the plants, and that 

 when ripe they are as separable as in Dionneie. Whatever may bo the 

 real state of the case, the two sections are too obviously related in 

 structure and general properties to permit of so slight differences 

 elevating them into the importance of distinct natural orders. Jlu'.a.- 



AT. HUT. DIV. VOL. IV. 



COB agree with Aurantiaccte in their dotted leaves, definite stamen- > 

 and fleshy disc. With Xantho.rylacetr, Simarubacea, and Humiriacece 

 they .have also many points of analogy. They are closely allied to 

 Zygopkyttttcttt through Peganv.ni, which Jussieu and other writers 

 place amongst llutaceie. They are found in the south of Europe, 

 and in our hemisphere extend as far as the limits of the Old World. 

 DiotMn and allied genera are found at the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Australia possesses Boronias, Phebaliums, Correas, &c. ; aud great 

 numbers are found in tlie equinoctial regions of America. 



Many of the plants of this order emit a powerful aud usually 

 offensive odour from the glands that cover their whole surface. These 

 glands are sometimes so full of a volatile oil, that in hot weather the 

 atmosphere surrounding the plant becomes charged with it, so that a 

 lighted taper brought near the plant will cause the air' to inflame. 

 This is especially the case with Dictamnus. The Diosmas, or Bueku 

 Plants, are used in medicine as antispasmodics. The celebrated 

 Angostura Bark is produced by a plant (Galijiea o^cinalis) [GALIPEA] 

 belonging to this order. [RUTA ; FKAXIMELLA ; DJOSSIA.] 



RUTILE. [TiTANii-M.] 



RYACOLITE, a Mineral resembling Albite. It contains 10 per 

 cent, of soda. It comes from Mouut Soruma and the Eifel. 



RYE. [SECALE.] 



RYE-GRASS. [LouuM.] 



RYNCH-EA. [Scor.oFAciD.u.] 



RYNCHOPS (Linnoms), a genus of Aquatic Palmipede Birds. The 

 word would be more correctly written Rhynchops ('Puyxos), nd 

 indeed is so spelled by most ornithologists; but the word stands in 

 the last edition of the ' Systenm Naturae,' published by Linnicus, as it 

 appears at the head of this article, and the genus ia arranged at the 

 end of the Anieres, coming immediately after Sterna, which last is 

 preceded by Larua. 



This genus has been variously placed by zoologists. It has the 

 following generic characters : Bill longer than the head, straight or 

 nearly so, compressed, and in form resembling the blade of a knife, 

 truncated, and with the appearance of liaving been broken at the 

 point; upper mandible much shorter than the lower, and with a 

 groove into which the lower mandible is received ; nostrils marginal, 

 median. Feet moderately long, slender. Wings very long ; the first 

 quills longest. 



The extraordinary structure of the bill in this bird immediately 

 fixes the attention. In appearance it looks, at first sight, like a worn 

 or imperfect organ : in reality it is an instrument of the nicest 

 adjustment as applicable to the purposes which it has to execute. 

 Buffon, as was too frequently his wont, condemns an organisation 

 which he did not understand, aud indeed could never have accurately 

 examined. On account of tho peculiarities of its bill the bird is 

 popularly called tlie Scissors Bill. 



The upper mandible at its base overlaps the lower with its edges ; 

 but the upper edge of the under mandible, which consists of a thin 

 flattened plate or blade, is received in a groove with elevated sharp 

 edges, on the lower surface of the upper mandible : this groove 

 diverges at the base, and thus comes to overlap the lower at the gape 

 as above noticed. Catesby speaks of it as " a wonderful work of 

 nature," and accurately describes it. " The under mandible," says he, 

 " is more compressed than the upper, and very thin, both edges being 

 as sharp as a knife, and is almost an inch longer than the upper 

 mandible, which has a narrow groove or channel into which the upper 

 edge of the lower mandible shuts." 



Bill of llyuchopi. 



Bill of Rynchopa : tho mandibles closod, and s*en from below. 



B. nigm is the B^c-eu-Ciseaux and Coupeur d'Eau of the French ; 

 Sheer-water, Cut-Water, Skimmer, and Black Skimmer, of the Anglo- 

 Americans ; aud Piscator of tlie Chilians. 



2 c 



