11 I c 



her.ding oblervations of the fun, of the moon, of eclipfes, 

 of the hxed.ftars, and planets, with precepts, and tables of 

 the primary and fecondary motions, and other agronomical 

 tables. But if thefe parts were completed, they do not ap- 

 pear to have been ever publillied. In the year 1 66 r he 

 prefented to the world his " Geographix et Hydrographix 

 Reformats;, Libri XII." in folio; and in 1665, his " Ai- 

 tronomix Reformatx, Tomi duo," folio, 2 vols, in one. 

 The lail work which he pubhihed made its appearance 111 

 1669, under the title of " Chronologia Reformata, et ad 

 Certas, Concluliones Redadta," folio, 2 vols, in one. Fa- 

 ther Riccioli died in 1671, when about 73 years of age. 



RICCOBONI, Louis, a comic actor and writer, born 

 at Modena in 1674, devoted himfelf to the theatre under 

 the name of Lelio. In 1716 he came to France with his 

 family, and diltinguifhed himfelf as the belt adtor at the 

 Theatre Italien. Religious motives induced him to quit 

 the llage in 1729; and he died in 1753, mut "h eiteemed for 

 the decency of his manners, and his amiable difpofition. He 

 was the author of a number of comedies, which had a tem- 

 porary fuccels, and which contain much comic humour. 

 One of them, entitled " Les Coquets," was revived a few 

 years fince. He alio wrote " Penlees fur la Duclamation ;" 

 " Difcours fur la Reformation du Theatre ;" " Obferva- 

 tions fur la Comedie et fur le Genie de Moliere ;" " Re- 

 flexions Hilloriques et Critiques fur les Theatres de l'Eu- 

 rope ;" and " Hiltoire du Theatre Italien." 



The " Hiitory of the Italian Theatre" of this author, in 

 2 vols. 8vo., publifhcd in 1730 and 1731, and the " Reflec- 

 tions Hiflorical and Critical upon all the Theatres of Eu- 

 rope," which appeared in 1738, contain many judicious ob- 

 fervations relative to the ftage in general, and, in the work 

 firfl mentioned, to the lyric theatre in particular. 



RlcceBOM, Marie Laboras de Mezieres, fecond 

 wife of the preceding, was born at Paris in 17 14. After 

 her marriage, die became an aftrefs on the Italian theatre, 

 which fhe quitted with her hufband. She is known by fe- 

 veral novels, written with much elegance of ftyle and refine- 

 ment of fentiment. The principal of thefe are " Lettres de 

 Miladi Catefby ;" " Lettres de la CountelTe de Sancerre ;" 

 " Lettres de Sophie de Valiere ;" " Ernefline ;" " Lettres 

 de Milford Riven." She alfo tranflated Fielding's Amelia ; 

 and fhe appears to have had a predile&ion for England, in 

 which the fcene of leveral of her novels is laid. She was in 

 habits of intimate correfpondence with Garrick. The 

 works of Madame Riccoboni were printed collectively in 

 10 vols. 121110. Neufchatel, and 9 vols. i2mo. Paris. They 

 rank among the moft elegant and ingenious of the clafs, and 

 difplay much knowledge of the tender affections, and great 

 decency joined to vivacity. Several of her novels have been 

 tranflated into Englifh. She died in 1792, reduced by the 

 troubles of the time to a ftate approaching to want. 



RICE, in Botany. See OltVZA. 



Rice, in Rural Economy, the name of a plant cultivated 

 in many parts of the Ealt, in South Carolina, in America, 

 and alio in Spain, Italy, and Piedmont. It is a plant that 

 grows to the height of about two feet and a half, with a 

 ltalk not unlike that of wheal, but fuller of joints, and with 

 leaves refcmbling that of the leek. It branches out into 

 feveral ftems, at the top of which the grain grows in cluf- 

 ters, and each of them is terminated with an ear or beard, 

 and inelofed in a yellow rough hulk. When flripped of 

 ihis, they appear to be of an oval fhape, of a filming white 

 colour, and almolt tranfparent. It is probably a plant that 

 cannot be cultivated in this climate, as the experiments laid 

 to be made by fir .lofeph Banks, and detailed a6 below by a 

 niter in the tenth volume of the Agricultural Magazine, 



R I C 



feem to fliew . It is ftatcd, that the dry or mountain rice 

 which he received laft year from the Board of Agriculture 

 for trial, had been procured at a confiderable expence by 

 fir John Murray, from the neighbourhood of Serinagur, a 

 city in India, iitnated at the foot of mount Imaus, where 

 lnow lies till late in the fpring ; and where the climate has 

 been fuppofed to rcfemble that of England fufficiently to 

 make it probable that the vegetable productions of the one 

 would equally fucceed in the other country ; he therefore 

 conlidcrs it as a duty owing to the patriotic exertions of fir 

 John, to give the Board fome account of the refult of the 

 trial of it, made at Spring-Grove, near Hounflow, in Mid- 

 dleiex. He adds, that it was not till near the end of May, 

 when the famples, being of fix forts, were delivered out by 

 the Board, and they were fown immediately, on the 2 lit day 

 ot that month, on fix fmall beds in a garden, under the 

 fhelter of a paled fence, in a fouth expofure. And the 

 grains were fown very thin, in order that the progrefs of their 

 vegetation might be better noted : in a very few days they 

 appeared above ground. The feafon being warm, with 

 a moderate fupply of rain, it was feldom necefTary to water 

 them ; however, when they appeared to flag, which gene- 

 rally happened after three or four dry days had taken place, 

 they were well fprinkled with a' watering pot. He fays, that 

 in lefs than a month they had grown feveral inches high ; 

 each fort had acquired an appearance very different from the 

 reft ; fome were pale green, and had broader blades ; fome 

 were deeper coloured, and narrower in the blade ; and one 

 fort had a brown hue on the whole plant ; and the bafes of 

 the leaves in this kind were nearly black. 



He further ftates, that during the month of Auguft, they 

 tillowed much more than he has obferved any other corn to 

 do ; fo much fo, that although they had been fown very 

 thin, they became a denfe, compadt bed of plants : the 

 blades in feme of the kinds Handing as clofe, or clofer to 

 each other, than the thickeft fown barley ever does. At the 

 clofe of the month the blades were from a foot to eighteen 

 inches high ; the plants continued to tillow, each root 

 having by this time produced from ten to twenty off-fetfl, 

 but no fymptom of a rifing-ftem was at all obiervable. In 

 the middle of September they had ftill continued to tillou , 

 and the blades to ftrengthen, fo that fome of them were at 

 leaft two feet long. As the frofts of the autumn were now 

 nearly approaching, it became an objeft of fome importance 

 to examine the ftate in which the plants really were, in or- 

 der to afcertain the probability of their having produced 

 ears, or poffibility of their having ripened corn, if they had 

 been fown a month or two earlier. 



The moft careful infpeftion was therefore made by difTec- 

 tion, but no traces could be found of the rudiment of a 

 joint beginning to form itfelf on the crown of the root, or 

 ot the embryo of the glumes of the ear, which in all kinds 

 of corn are firlt difccrnible in that part. He fays that about 

 this period he was taken ill, and obliged to defilt from ob 

 ferving then- future progrefs ; but a froft loon after follow- 

 ed, which cut the blade down to the earth, and at once de. 

 ftroyed all hopes of thefe kinds of rice producing grain in 

 our climate ; the quantity of the blade was however fo un- 

 commonly great, that it is not impoffible, he thinks, it 

 might be advantageous to fow it as food tor cattle, for a vrr» 

 large proportion of flock might certainly b« maintained 

 upon an acre of it. He concludes b) obfurving, that be. 

 fore the froft fets in, he had ordered a tuft of each kind o! 

 the rice to be traitfplanted into a pot, and placed in a hot- 

 houfe, in order, it pollible, to afcertain the natural period 

 of this grain 1 whether, like winter corn, it requires eight 

 or nine months to come to perfection, or, like our Lent 

 E e 7. 



