ROOT ROSARY. 



19 



name high in his profession ; especially the gallantry 

 which he displayed in the destruction of the French 

 and Spanish fleets in Vigo bay, 1702, and the cap- 

 ture of Gibraltar, in 1704. Sir George occupied a 

 seat, during several parliaments, for Portsmouth, 

 and another at the council-board of the lord high 

 admiral, prince George of Denmark. His votes on 

 several occasions, particularly one in favour of Har- 

 ley as speaker of the house of commons, in 1701, 

 obscured his merits in the eyes of the court party; 

 the value of his services was depreciated, and his 

 good fortune ascribed to accident. He at length 

 retired in disgust from the service to his family seat 

 in Kent, where he died in 1709. See Campbell's 

 Lives of the Admirals. 



ROOT, in arithmetic and algebra, denotes any 

 number or quantity, which, by successive multipli- 

 cations into itself, produces powers. (See Power.) 

 Thus 2 is a root of 4, 8, 16, because 2 X 2 = 4; 

 2 X 2 X 2 = 8; 2 X 2 X 2 X 216. The 

 power is named from the number of the factors, 

 and the root is named from the power. Thus if a 

 quantity be multiplied once by itself, the product 

 is called the second power, or square, and the quan- 

 tity itself the square root, or the second root of 

 the product; if multiplied twice, we have the 

 third power, or cube, and the quantity is the cube 

 root, or third root ; and so on : the fourth root is 

 the biquadrate. Beyond this the roots are com- 

 monly called the fifth, sixth, &c. roots. The alge- 

 braic sign of root is y/, and the fourth root of six- 

 teen, equal to two, is written thus: ^/ 16 2, 

 The same is the case with algebraic magnitudes : 

 as, 2 / (a 2 + 2 ab + Z< 2 ) = a + b. To extract the 

 given root of mathematical expressions, is one of 

 the most important of mathematical operations. 



ROOT HUSBANDRY. See the article Agri- 

 culture. 



ROOT, of plants. See Plant. 



ROPE, in mechanics. See Mechanics. 



ROPINESS; a frequent disease of wines, which 

 have undergone an incomplete fermentation ; or of 

 sweet wines that have been bottled too soon. It 

 shows itself by a milky or flaky sediment, and an 

 oily appearance of the liquor when poured out. It 

 arises from a partial combination of the mucilagin- 

 ous, extractive, and saccharine principles of the 

 wine. 



ROSA, MOUNT (Mons Sylvius); the highest 

 summit of the Swiss Alps, separating the Valais 

 from Italy (lat. 45" 55' N.). (See Alps.} Ac- 

 cording to the latest measurements, it is about 

 15,535 feet high, being from 200 to 250 feet lower 

 than Mont Blanc, (q. v.) From the ever-bloom- 

 ing gardens of the Borromean isles, the traveller 

 arrives in nine hours at Macugnaga, at the foot of 

 the glaciers (q. v.) of mount Rosa. The valleys 

 on the east and south are inhabited by people of 

 German origin. Those on the west are uninha- 

 bited. Mount Rosa derives its name from its con- 

 sisting of a number of lofty peaks, rising from a 

 centre somewhat like the leaves of a rose. Jos. 

 Zumstcin made five journeys (1819 1822) to the 

 summit. In 1820, he passed the night in a cleft in 

 the ice twelve fathoms deep, to be able to reach 

 the summit the next day. The group seems to 

 consist, particularly in its upper half, of mica slate, 

 which alternates occasionally with gneiss. It con- 

 tains gold, silver, copper, andiron mines. Granite, 

 in large masses, is found only at the foot of the 

 mountain. Winter and summer rye ripen here at 

 the height of from 5500 to 6000 feet; the grape, 



as high as 3090 feet (on the northern side 2200 

 feet) ; a covering of green turf is found as high as 

 96'9 feet; the pyrethrum Alpinum and Phyteuma 

 pauciflorum grow 1 1340 feet tibove the sea, on rocks 

 free from ice. Between the north and south side 

 there is a difference in the limit of vegetation of 

 almost 1000 feet. The limit of perpetual snow is, 

 on the south side, 9500 feet; the limit of trees, 

 7000 feet. See Der Monte Rosa, eine topogra- 

 phische und naturhistorische Shizze nebst eincm An- 

 hange der von Herrn Zumstein gemachten JRcisen zur 

 Ersteiyung seiner Gipfel (Vienna, 1824). 



ROSA, SALVATOK, ; a celebrated painter, distin- 

 guished likewise as a musician and a poet. He was 

 the son of an architect and surveyor, and was born 

 at the village of Renella, in the kingdom of Naples, 

 in 1615. He was intended for the church; but 

 leaving, of his own accord, the seminary in which 

 he had been placed for education, at the age of six- 

 teen, he devoted himself to the study of music, and 

 with such success that he became a skilful composer. 

 His eldest sister having married Francesco Francan- 

 zani, a painter of considerable talent, Salvator, from 

 frequenting his work-room, acquired a predilection 

 for the art, in which he afterwards excelled. He at 

 first amused himself with copying whatever pleased 

 his fancy in the paintings of his brother-in-law ; and 

 his latent genius being thus awakened, his sketches 

 were so much admired, that he was easily persuaded 

 to adopt painting as a profession. But his taste 

 was formed more from the study of nature among 

 the wilds of the Appennines than from the lessons 

 of other artists; and he delighted in delineating 

 scenes of gloomy grandeur and terrible magnifi- 

 cence, to which the boldness of his conception, and 

 the fidelity of his representations, communicate a 

 peculiar degree of interest. He worked for some 

 time at Naples in obscurity, till, one of his pictures 

 being observed by the famous painter Lanfranco, he 

 generously recommended Salvator to notice, and 

 procured him effectual patronage and support. He 

 removed to Rome, where he established his reputa- 

 tion, and raised himself to celebrity and independ- 

 ence. He afterwards went to Florence, where he 

 was patronised and employed by the grand-duke and 

 other members of the family of Medici. At length 

 returning to Rome, he painted many pictures for the 

 churches in that city, where he died in 1673. His 

 satires and other poetical productions have been 

 often printed, under the title of Rune di Sahatore 

 Rosa, Pittore e Poeta Napolitano. On account of 

 his caustic wit, he was excluded from the Roman 

 academy. Some time after, the academy having 

 refused admission to another artist, who practised 

 surgery as well as painting, Salvator Rosa observed, 

 that it was very injudicious in them, as the academy 

 greatly needed a surgeon to replace the legs and 

 arms that the members daily dislocated. 



ROSARY, among the Catholics, consists of a 

 string with a number of small beads of different 

 sizes, which they use in saying over their prayers. 

 It was introduced, according to some, by Dominicus 

 de Guzman, the founder of the Dominican friars, in 

 the first half of the thirteenth century. There are 

 always in the rosary five or fifteen divisions, each 

 containing ten small beads and one large one j for 

 each of the smaller beads an Avc Maria, and for each 

 of the larger a Paternoster (q. v.) is repeated. The 

 Benedictine monks, however, as early as the sixth 

 century, are said to have repeated their pra\crs, 

 while at their work, according to a series of small 

 beads, which were fastened upon a string. In honour 

 u2 



