RANATRA RAPHANUS. 



ears of the birds in early spring, and is sometimes 

 used in order to capture them. 



The corncrake is between nine and ten inches long, 

 and sixteen in the stretch of the wings, and when in 

 the best condition it weighs nearly half a pound. The 

 upper colour is grey, mottled with , blackish ; the 

 under part reddish white, and nearly pure white on 

 the chin ; and the wings are rust-coloured. All the 

 colours are, however, clouded and brok^j. The bill 

 and feet are brownish ash-colour. 



THE SPOTTED CRAKE (R. persona) is a summer 

 visitant in Britain as well as the former, but it is rare 

 and local, being found only in the south and west of 

 England. It is more aquatic in its habits than the 

 corncrake, and frequents the tall herbage by the 

 banks of streams in lonely places ; it is a bird better 

 adapted for getting through very close covers, as it 

 is much more slender and not above two-thirds the 

 weight of the corncrake, though nearly of the same 

 lineal dimensions. It gets very fat before its depar- 

 ture, and i.s then in estimation tor the table. 



BAILLON'S CRAKE (It. Bailonii) is not uncommon 

 in some parts of France, but very rare in Britain ; and 

 as it is a bird with short wings it is not well adapted 

 for flight. Its colours are not so mottled as those of 

 the others, and blackish-brown is the upper tint, with 

 the head olive and the nape yellow, and ash-colour 

 the under tint, darker on the belly. 



THE LITTLE CRAKE (R. pusella) is also very rare 

 in Britain, and a very hiding bird in its manners. 

 The upper part of it is brown, of different shades in 

 different parts, and the under part is white, passing 

 into cream-colour on the belly. 



There arc various species of crakes in different 

 parts of the world, the known history of which has 

 but little popular interest. They are not so nume- 

 rous as the rails, however, and we might be prepared 

 for this by the difference of their haunts. The rails 

 are on the very margin of the water, and wherever 

 there is water there may be a rail's pasture ; but the 

 crake is at some distance from the water, and there 

 its pasture may be burnt up and fail, while that of 

 the rail remains. 



RANATRA (Fabricius). A curious genus of 

 hemipterous insects belonging to the section Heterop- 

 tera Hydrocorisa, and family Nepidee, which see for 

 its characters. The type is the English linear water 

 scorpion, Nepa linearis, Linnaeus, which is about an 

 inch and a half lung. There are five or six other 

 exotic species. They are all aquatic, but their mo- 

 tions are very slow, their legs being unprovided with 

 the five rows of hairs which are so serviceable to the 

 motions of other allied aquatic insects ; the female 

 deposits her eggs in the water, inserting them in the 

 steins of aquatic plants ; these eggs are of curious 

 form, and are represented in our second volume, 

 page 834, fig. 15. The larvre and pupa: resemble 

 the parent insect in their motions and habits, making 

 use of their raptorial fore legs to secure their prey 

 and convey it to the mouth. The perfect insect flies 

 well, but chiefly in the evening and during the night, 

 and is thereby enabled to quit a spot when the water 

 is on the point of being dried up. 



RANDIA (Linnaeus). A genus of evergreen 

 shrubs, natives chiefly of South America. The 

 flowers tire pentandrous, and have some resemblance 

 to those of Gardenia. The genus belongs to Ru- 

 biacete, are inmates of our stoves, and require to be 

 grown and propagated in moor-earth and loam. 



RANINA (Lamarck). A curious genus of crns- 

 taccous animal?, belonging to the order Decnpodn, 

 and section Brachyitra, having the body of an oblong 

 oval form, the tail extended, and the legs (with, the 

 exception of the claws) terminated by paddles, and 

 arranged in two series, the four posterior ones being 

 dorsal. The species are very few in number, and 

 frequent the Indian seas. 



RANUNCULACE^E. The first natural order 

 of the sub-class Thalamlflorce, having the petals and 

 stamens inserted into the receptacle. This is one of 

 the most numerous orders of the Jussieuan system, it 

 comprising twenty-nine genera, and above six hun- 

 dred and thirty-two species. 



The frog wort, or crowfoot, and its allies, are her- 

 baceous, very seldom shrubby plants, with aqueous 

 juices, round or irregularly angled stems, alternate 

 petiolate leaves, destitute of stipules, but with dilated 

 leaf-stalks more or less amplexicaul. The disc of the 

 leaf is either entire or variously lobed, seldom com- 

 pound, sometimes abortive when thee xparided petiole 

 becomes a phyllodium ; the pubescence, when pre- 

 sent, is simple. The inflorescence is variable, either 

 solitary, scattered, racemose, or paniculate ; the 

 flowers regular or irregular, and united, or by abor- 

 tion separate. The sepals are free, definite, from 

 three to six, deciduous, often petaloid, and rarely 

 absent. The petals are equal in number to the 

 sepals, and alternate with them, or two or three times 

 as many, often deformed, being transitional towards 

 either sepals or stamens, or nectaries. The stamens 

 are indefinite, free, and deciduous. The anthers are 

 adnate and two-celled, opening behind by longi- 

 tudinal chinks. The pistils are numerous, exserted 

 from a ring- or torus in one or more series. The 

 styles are free and terminal, short, and often per- 

 sistent, and the stigma simple. The fruit in general 

 consists of small nuts, or akenia, occasionally be- 

 coming baccate, with one or more seeds, or capsular 

 with one or two valves. 



The Ranunculacees are in general poisonous plants, 

 as remarkable for the acridity of their juices and 

 venomous properties as for the beauty of their 

 flowers. Their deleterious qualities are so volatile, 

 that in most cases simple drying or infusion in water, 

 or decoction, is sufficient to remove them, and to ren- 

 der the plants innocuous. It is said to be neither acid 

 nor alkaline, but its activity is increased by the addi- 

 tion of acids, or the admixture of sugar, honey, wine, 

 spirits, &c., and that it is only efi'ectually destroyed 

 by the agency of water. 



In this order there are many beautiful flowers : 

 beside the ranunculus, there are the peony, anemone, 

 delphinium, hepatica, aconituni, together with the 

 graceful clematis, and atragene climbing shrubs. 



The Ranunculus Asiaticus is one of our most ad- 

 mired bed-flowers, and its varieties are innumerable : 

 and every year many new ones are obtained from 

 seeds saved from the best breeder flowers. The 

 butter-cup of our meadows is one of the most con- 

 spicuous of British plants. 



RAPE is the Srassica rapa of Linnaeus, a com- 

 mon agricultural plant found wild in many parts 

 of Britain. The rape is a biennial, and is chiefly 

 cultivated for its seeds, whence a valuable oil is ex- 

 pressed. It is also sown for winter I'ood for sheep, 

 and it is sown like cress and mustard, for early 

 sallad. 



RAPHANUS (Linnaeus). The B. sativus is the 



