R E T 



HEU 



obferved, " there is our archbifhop's breviary." He bonded 

 that he had a principal (hare in urging the Parilians to take 

 up arms on the day of barricades. At length, however, he 

 found that the intercits of his ambition would be better 

 ferved by making a fecret accommodation with the court, 

 and he was brought over by a cardinalate, to which he was 

 nominated by the king in 1651. Like other delerters, he 

 loll his popularity, and was able only to aft a fecondary 

 part on the political ft age. Continuing his cabals, Mazarin, 

 who hated and dreaded him, procured his arreft at the 

 Louvre, and caufed him to be thrown into prifon. From the 

 dungeon he efcaped. and went to Rome, where he was re- 

 . ived with diitinction as the enemy of Mazarin. He was 

 prefent at the election of Alexander VII., but finding 

 that pontiff cool to his interefts, he left Italy, and palled 

 fome years in wandering through Holland, Flanders, and 

 England. Wearied with a life of exile, lie returned to 

 France in 166 1, after Mazarin's death, and made peace 

 with his court by the renunciation of hi- archbiftiopric, to 

 which he had fucceeded at the death of his uncle, obtaining 

 the abbacy " ! St. Denis by way of rccompence. He had 

 hitherto lived in great ftyle, and had plunged himfelf deeply 

 in debt, but he now rcfolved to live on a very limited in- 

 come, till he had fatislicd his creditors. This he com- 

 pletely effected, and lived to be in circumftances that allowed 

 him the gratification of being liberal to his necellitous friends. 

 In 1675 he fent back his cardinal's hat, intending to quit 

 the world, but the pope refufed to accept his refignation. 

 His conduct in the latter part of his life obtained lor him the 

 eiteem of men of worth : he died at Paris in 1679, at the 

 age of 66. Tie. character of cardinal de Ret/, has been 

 drawn by almoft all the French hiftorians who have written 

 fince his time. By one he is defcribed " as a perfon who, with 

 the habit of a priell, difplayed a difpofition better fuited to 

 camps or courts ; and licentious in manners and profligate 

 in his morals, he acquired an afeendancy over the minds of 

 the people, without condefcending to throw a veil over his 

 vices, or employing the popular pretext of religion." An- 

 other writer favs, he was " daring, turbulent, falfe, in- 

 triguing, with defigna rather romantic than great, and con- 

 ducted rather with dexterity than ability : he feems to have 

 been exactly fitted for the part which he fuftained, of a po- 

 litical meteor in troublefome times, among a frivolous and 

 licentious people." Voltaire, fpeaking of the memoirs of 

 the cardinal, drawn up by himfelf, fays, "they are written 

 with an air of greatnefs, an impetuoflty of genius, and an 

 inequality, which are the image of his conduct. He com- 

 pofed them in his retreat, with the impartiality of a philo- 

 fopher, but of one who had not always been a philofopher. 

 He neither fpares himfelf nor others." Other writings of 

 cardinal de Retz have been publifhed relative to the time 

 and party. 



R ETZ, in Geography, atown of Bavaria ; 26 miles N.N.E. 

 of Ratifbon. 



RETZBACH, a town of the duchy of Wurzburg ; 

 4 miles S.S.E. of Carltladt. 



RETZIA, in Botany, an elegant Cape fhrub, fo named 

 by profeffor Thunberg, in the Tranfactions of the Academy 

 of Lund, in honour of his friend Andrew John Ret 

 member of the Stockholm Academy, and ot various other 

 learned focieties, Profeffor of Natural Hiftory at Lund. 

 This dillinguifhed botanitt and worthy man is bed known, 

 out of his own country, by his folio volume of Obfervaliones 

 Botanic* ; and his Flora' Scandinavia Prodromus, a lyftematic 

 octavo work, in the Linnrean manner. He has, befides, 

 publifhed many cllays and diflertations, relating to van 

 branches of natural knowledge, both in Latin and Swcdiftl, 



Vol. XXX. 



and is ftill living.— Thiinb. Act. Lund. v. 1. 55. N ov 

 Gen. 4. Linn. Suppl. 18. Schreb. 115. Willd. Sp. PI 

 v. 1.843. Mart. Mill. Diet, v. 4. .lull. 13,. Lamarck 

 llluftr. t. 103.— Clafa and order, Pentandria Monorynia. 

 Nat. Ord. Convolvuli, Juff. " 



Gen. Ch. Cat. Perianth inferior, of one leaf, tubular 

 in five rather deep, lanceolate, acute, unequal fegmenu. 

 Cor. of one petal, tubular, cylindrical, villous both with- 

 in and without, terminating in five ovate, obtule, con- 

 cave, erect fegments, very hairy at the fummit. Slam. Fila- 

 ments five, awl-fhaped, inferted into the corolla, fliorter than 

 its limb; anthers arrow-lhapcd, compreffed. Pyj. Germen 

 fuperior, oblong ; ftyle thn ad-lliap.-d, longer than the co- 

 rolla; ftigma in two fmall, linear, obtufe fegments. Peru. 

 Capfule oblong, acute, with two lateral furrow.', two celli 

 and two valves. Seeds feveral, minute. 



Ell. Ch. Corolla of one petal, cylindrical, externally 

 hairy. Stigma cloven. Capfule of two cells, with many 

 fma'l feeds. 



1. R. fpicata. "Thunb. Aft.Lund. v. 1. 55. t. i.f. 2." 

 Linn. Suppl. 138. Willd. n. 1. (R. capenlis; Thunb. 

 Nov. Gen. 5.) -Native of high, dry, hilly fit nations, at 

 the Cape of Good Hope. Gathered by Mr. Niven in 

 Hottentot's Holland. The jhm 1 (hrubby, erect, from 

 four to feven feet high, with round, knotty, hairy, leafy 

 branches. Leaves denfely imbricated, fomewh.it whorled, 

 fefiile, linear-lanceolate, rigid, acute, thick-edged, entire, 

 two inches or more in length ; hairy about the lower part. 

 Floivers axillary, fefiile, folitary, plentiful toward; the ends 

 of the branches, about as long as the leaves ; villous and 

 hoary externally ; dark purple within. 



The remark of Linnaeus the younger, in the Supplement, 

 refpecting this genus, is very extraordinary. He fays " it 

 is no natural genus, but agrees fo much with Convolvulus, in 

 habit and character, as to differ in nothing except the tubu- 

 lar corolla, which is externally very hairy." Now in fact, 

 its rigid Ihrubby habit is altogether that of a Protca, nor 

 can any thing be lefs like a Convolvulus, even of the (hrubby 

 kind. The character of the corolla is alfo moll diltinct, 

 being cylindrical, and wanting the live plaits, fo effential to 

 Convolvulus. It is true that the Rctzia requires to be ob- 

 ferved by fome botanilt converfant with natural orders, that 

 we might have clearer ideas of its characters and affinities. 

 The plant is a ftrangcr in our gardens. — We have not had an 

 opportunity of confulting the Lund Tranfactions, to de- 

 termine whether the fpecific name is there capenfis as Thun- 

 berg, or fp'uata as Linnaeus, cites it. Both are highly ex- 

 ceptionable. 



RETZSTADT, in Geography, a town of the duchy of 

 Wurzburg ; 5 miles S.S.E. of Carllladt. 



RETZTAT, Obf.h, or Upper, a river of Franconia, 

 which nfes near W'ciUcmburg, paflcs by Oettingcn, and 

 joins the Untcr Ret/tat, to form the Rriii.it/. 



Rktztat, Unler, a river of Franconia, which rifes near 

 Burg Bernheim, in the principality of Culmbach, and joins 

 the Upper Ret/tat, three miles N.E. of Spall, to form the 

 Rednitz. 



REVA, a town of Aliatic Turk . 10 miles 



E. of Conftantinople. 



REUCHLIN, John, in Biography, 1 celebrated Ger- 

 man philofopher, and affiduous contributor to the revival of 

 learning in the 15th ami 1 6th centuries, defcended from are - 



fpectable l.unil) 111 Swabia, was born in the year I 454. 1 i 

 made a mofl rapid prOj liool-learning, and ■ 



that ivj completed, he went to Paris with the young 



•lis of Baden, who had been his > l.ils-telhiu .11 lehooi. 

 Here he purfued his lludies under the moll celebrated p 



N ters 



