452 



RAP 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



RAD 



change brown ; it must then be cut, and spread in the sun 

 to dry, then threshed, and afterward laid by for use. The 

 Turnip Radish must not be sown till the beginning of March, 

 and the plants must be allowed a greater distance than the 

 common spindle-rooted sort. Its seeds are liable to degene- 

 rate, unless when sown near the latter. The White and Black 

 Spanish Radishes are commonly sown about the middle of 

 July, or a little earlier, and are fit for the table by the end of 

 August, or the beginning of September; they will continue 

 good till frost spoils them. They require thinning to a. 

 greater distance than the common sort, for their roots grow 

 as large as Turnips, and should not remain nearer than six 

 inches. To have these roots in winter, draw them before 

 the hard frost comes on, and lay them in dry sand, as is 

 directed for Carrots, carefully guarding them from wet and 

 frost; and they will keep good till spring. The ground 

 where any sorts of Radishes are to be sown, ought to be well 

 trenched, the clods broken, and the ground levelled at sow- 

 ing down, that the roots may have full scope to descend. 

 Cos or other Lettuce may be sown with the spring crop of 

 Radishes, along with Carrots. Sow the seeds all together 

 broadcast pretty thick, in the early sowings ; raking them 

 in well with a large rake. The London gardeners cover the 

 arly crops with straw, suffering it to remain till the plants 

 are fairly come up, and then raking it off lightly every mild 

 day, but putting it on every night, at least where there is 

 any appearance of frost. Dry Fern will answer the same 

 purpose ; and it is better still to throw mats, supported on 

 wooden pegs, or on hoops, over the bed at night and on 

 severe days. If very dry weather should happen in March 

 or April, the crop must be watered morning and evening. 

 Radishes are sown very thick, like Cresses and Mustard, to 

 cut in the seed-leaf for salads, both in the natural ground 

 and on hot-beds. From Christmas to Candlemas, Radishes 

 are raised on hot-beds for the root. Eighteen inches' depth 

 of dung is sufficient to bring them up ; and six or seven 

 inches' depth of light rich mould. Sow the seeds moderately 

 thick ; cover it half an inch thick ; put on the lights : the 

 plants will come up in a week, or less ; and when they appear, 

 the lights should be either lifted, or occasionally taken off, 

 according to the weather. In a fortnight afterwards, thin 

 them to the distance of an inch and half or two inches, and 

 in six weeks they will be fit to draw. If there be no frames 

 to spare, the beds may be covered with mats over hoops, 

 and the sides secured by boards or straw-bands. Or, in 

 want of dung, if the beds be covered with frames, and the 

 lights be put on at night and in rough weather, they may be 

 raised a fortnight sooner than in the open borders. 



2. Raphanus Caudatus ; Long-tailed Radish. Siliques 

 decumbent, longer than the whole plant. This has the ap- 

 pearance of the Common Radish, but the leaves are sharper, 

 and the stem shorter. Annual. The appearance of this 

 plant, weighed down to the ground by its immoderately long 

 serpentine pods, is altogether extraordinary. The pods are 

 pickled in Java, and known by the name of mougri. Native 

 of Java. 



3. Raphanus Raphanistrum ; Wild Radish, or Jointed- 

 podded Charlock. Pods jointed, even, one-celled. Thin 

 abounds in many places among spring corn, flowering from 

 June to August ; sometimes mixed with Charlock, from which 

 it is not vulgularly distinguished, but not frequently abound- 

 ing where the other does not occur, or is only in small quan- 

 tity. Linneus says, that in wet seasons this weed abounds 

 among Barley in Sweden, and that being ground with the 

 corn, the common people who eat barley bread, are afflicted 

 with violent convulsive complaints, or an epidemic spasmodic 



disease. This, however, has never yet been known to occur 

 in England ; and Krocker says, he has proved the plants to 

 be harmless by his own experiments, and even recommend? 

 it as a nutritious food for domestic quadrupeds, and as very 

 agreeable to bees. The variety called the Sea Wild Radish 

 has a thick white root like that of the Garden Radish, and 

 has been found on the sea-shore in various parts of Britain, 

 flowering in May. The root is large and succulent, lasting 

 two or three years ; and has been esteemed by some as an 

 esculent root, preferable to Horse-radish. Cattle are very 

 fond of the leaves. 



4. Raphanus Sibiricus; Siberian Radish. Pods cylindrical, 

 torulose-villose; leaves linear, pinnatifid. Native of Siberia. 



5. Raphanus Erucoides. Pods ovate, gibbous, with the 

 beak the length of the pod ; root biennial, simple, scarcely 

 thicker than the stem, which is a foot and half high. Native 

 of Italy. 



6. Raphanus Tenellus ; Small Radish. Pods awl-shaped, 

 jointed, two-celled, smooth, lanceolate, toothed, the lowest 

 pinnatifid. This plant flowers here in June and July ; is an 

 annual plant, and a native of Siberia. 



Raspberry. See Rubus. 



Rattan. See Calamus. 



Rattle, Red. See Pedicularis. 



Rattle, Yellow. See Rhinanthus. 



Rattlesnake Root. See Polygala Senega. 



Ramnl/ia ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth five-tooth- 

 ed, very small, permanent. Corolla: one-petalled, salver- 

 shaped ; tube cylindrical,^globular at the base ; border five- 

 parted, flat; segments roundish, emarginate. Stamina: fila- 

 menta five, shorter than the tube; antherae erect, simple, 

 acute. Pistil: germen roundish; style very short; stigma 

 capitate. Pericarp: drupe subglobular, one-celled, with a 

 groove on one side. Seed: nuts two, convex at the base, 

 attenuated at the top, compressed, two-celled. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Corolla : oblique, salver-shaped. Jierry : glo- 

 bose, succulent, two-seeded. The species are, 



1. Rauwolfia Nitida; Shining Rauwolfia. Leaves in fours, 

 lanceolate, acuminate, very smooth, shining ; flowers termi- 

 nating, cymose. This is a small tree or shrub, shining all 

 over very much, upright, full of a white glutinous milk, twelve 

 feet high. The fruits are at first yellowish, but at length 

 become very dark purple, are milky, and three times as large 

 as a pea. Native of South America, of St. Domingo, and 

 other islands of the West Indies. It flowers here from June 

 to September. This, and the following, may be propagated 

 by the seeds or berries sown in autumn, soon after they 

 are ripe, in pots filled with fresh earth, and plunged into a 

 hot-bed of tanner's bark. When the plants appear, they 

 require frequent refreshings with water in small quantities. 

 They should also have a large share of fresh air admitted in 

 warm weather; and, when two inches hi^h, ought lobe trans- 

 planted each into a separate small pot lilled with light earth, 

 and have the management of other exotic stove plants. They 

 may also be propagated by layers and cuttings, which should 

 be laid to dry awhile before they are planted, and may then 

 be plunged into a moderate hot-bed of tanner's bark, in the 

 spring or summer, observing to shade them until they have 

 taken root, after which time they may be treated as the seed- 

 ling plants. 



2. Rauwolfia Canescens ; Hoary Rauwolfia. Leaves in 

 fours, elliptic-obovate, acute, downy ; flowers axillary or 

 terminal ; segments of the corolla obtuse. This species 

 varies greatly in all its parts, according to the soil in which 

 it is planted, the stem being from one to eighty feet in 



