RAP 



KAP 



RANK, in war, is a row of soldiers, 

 placed side by side. To double the ranks, 

 is to put two ranks into one. To close 

 the ranks, is to bring the men nearer; 

 and to open them, is to set them further 

 part 



RANSOM, was the sum formerly given 

 by captains or passengers for the redemp- 

 tion of a vessel captured by pirates. This 

 is now prohibited by statute. 



RANUNCULUS, in botany, crowfoot, 

 a genus of the Polyandria Polygynia class 

 and order- Natural order of I\i uitisiliqux, 

 Linnxus. Ranunculacese, Jussieu. Essen- 

 tial character: calyx five-leaved; petals 

 five to eight, with a honied pore at the 

 claw ; seeds naked. There are fifty-nine 

 species. R. aconitifolius, aconite leaved 

 crowfoot, is a very handsome species, 

 about three or four feet in height, branch- 

 ed ; stems hollow within ; leaves large, 

 digitate, three-lobed, divided to the base ; 

 segments lanceolate, hirsute, especially 

 at the base ; flowers white, terminating 

 each branch ; petals roundly serrate. 

 Native of the Alps of Europe. The dou- 

 ble flowering variety has been obtained by 

 seeds, and is preserved in many gardens 

 for the beauty of its flowers. By some 

 gardeners it is called fair-maid of France. 

 The Persian crow-foot, or garden ranun- 

 culus, has been greatly improved by cul- 

 ture, and many new flowers obtained 

 from seeds, amongst which are several 

 with semidouble flowers, which produce 

 seeds ; and from these there are such 

 prodigious varieties of new flowers annu- 

 ally obtained, which are large, and of 

 such variety of beautiful colours, as to 

 exceed all other flowers of that season ; 

 many of them are finely scented ; the 

 roots, when strong, generally produce 

 twenty or thirty flowers upon each ; it is 

 a native of the Levant. 



RAPE of women, is where a man has 

 carnal knowledge of a woman by force, 

 and against her will, which is by our law a 

 capital felony, and subjects the offender 

 to the punishment of death, which is ne- 

 ver remitted. By 18 Elizabeth, c. 7, if 

 any person shall, unlawfully and carnally, 

 know and abuse any woman child under 

 the age of ten years, whether with her 

 consent or against it, he shall be punish- 

 ed as for a rape. And it is not a sufficient 

 excuse in the ravisher to prove that she 

 is a common strumpet; for she is still 

 under the protection of the law, and may 

 not be forced. Nor is the offence of a rape 

 mitigated, by showing that the woman at 

 last yielded to the violence, if such her 

 consent were forced by fear of death or 



VOL. V. 



duress ; nor is it any excuse that she cort- 

 sented after the fact. 



RAPE is also a name given to a division 

 of a county, and sometimes means the 

 same as a hundred, and at other times 

 signifies a division consisting of several 

 hundreds; thus Sussex is divided into six 

 rapes, every one of which, besides its 

 hundreds, has a castle, a river, and a 

 forest belonging to it. The like parts in 

 other counties are called tithings, lathes, 

 or wapentakcs. 



RA P1IANUS, in botany, radish, a genus 

 of the Tetr adynamia Siliquosa class and 

 order. Natural order of Siliquosze, Cru- 

 ciformes, or Crucit'crx. Essential charac- 

 ter : calyx closed ; silique torose, subar- 

 ticulate, cylindrical ; glands tour, two be- 

 tween each shorter stamen and the pistil, 

 and two between the longer stamens and 

 the calyx. There are six species, R. sati- 

 vtis, common garden radish, has a large 

 fleshy, fusiform, annual root ; stem up- 

 right, thick, much branched and diffused, 

 rodgh with pellucid bristles ; leaves 

 rough ; calyx green, rough haired ; pe- 

 tals pale violet," with large veins running 

 over them. It is a native of China. There 

 are four varieties of the common radish, 

 viz. the long-rooted radish ; the small 

 white turnip-rooted or Naples radish ; 

 the black Spanish radish ; and the large 

 turnip-rooted, or white Spanish radish. 

 The first variety is that which is common- 

 ly cultivated in our kitchen gardens for 

 its roots ; of this there are several sub- 

 ordinate variations. 



RAPHIDIA, in natural history, agenus 

 of insects of the order Neuroptera. Gene- 

 ric character : mouth with a curved tooth- 

 ed horny mandible ; thorax long, cylin- 

 drical ; three stemmata; wings deflected ; 

 antennx filiform, as long as the thorax, 

 the anterior part elongated and cylindri- 

 cal ; four feelers very short, filiform ; tail 

 of the female terminated by a large re- 

 curved bristle. There are two species, 

 riz, the R. ophiosis, a smallish fly, with 

 rather large transparent wuigs, and a nar- 

 row thorax, stretching forwards in a re- 

 markable manner ; it is found pn trees in 

 summer, though but seldom ; the pupa 

 resembles the complete insect, except be- 

 ing destitute of wings, R. rotata, men- 

 tioned by Gmelin, has, by other natural- 

 ists, been supposed to be a mere variety 

 of the ophiosis. Dr. Shaw mentions two 

 other species, viz. R. cornuta, which in 

 size is equal to one of the larger dragon 

 flies, and is distinguished by its very long 

 horn-like jaws, which extend far beyond 

 the thorax, and are terminated by a bifid 



