ROB 



R O B 



block. In the midfl of all thefe horrors he exhibited a fefti- 

 val, in which the exiilence of the Supreme Being was 

 folemnly recognifed ; and as the reftorer of religion, he ap- 

 pointed days for public worfhip. 



The reign of terror was now become too intolerable to 

 be endured. No man was fafe from a tyrant whofe bloody 

 difpolition feemed to grow with the ads of cruelty which 

 it generated, and who had eftablifhed fuch a fyftem of do- 

 meitic treachery, as deftroyed the confidence of fociety, and 

 fubjefted every individual to accufation. He loil his popu- 

 larity, and a decree of the convention was palled againft 

 him : in the aft of arrefting him two piftols were fired, by 

 which he was wounded in the head and the under-jaw. He 

 endured in filence the pain of his wounds, and the upbraid- 

 ing* of his foes, and was carried to the fame dungeon which 

 he had made to many the paflage to death. On the next 

 day, after being taken, with his accomplices, before the revo- 

 lutionary tribunal, he was led, July 28, 1794, to execution, 

 amidft the acclamations and curfes of thoufands of fpectutors. 

 Such was the well-merited end of Robcfpierre, in the 36th 

 year of his age. Although a concurrence of circumftances 

 enabled him to aft a confiderable part in the revolution, he was 

 not one of the fuperior figures in point of abilities and force 

 ofcharafter. Natural referve, cunning, habitual diffimula- 

 tion, and a total want of feeling, carried him through diffi- 

 culties which might have overwhelmed a greater man ; but 

 as he never made a friend, and was unfupported by native 

 courage, he funk under the firft ferious oppofition. He 

 was regarded as incorruptible, and never accumulated 

 money : neverthelefs, he always took care to open the path 

 of honour and wealth to his own creatures, and efpecially to 

 his rivals, in order that he might have an additional method 

 of ruining them. Upon the whole, he has kft a name 

 more the objett of horror and deteltation, than that of any 

 other among the perfonages of the fame awful drama. — 

 Ann. Regiiler. Lives of Remarkable Chara&ers, who hive 

 diftinguifhed themfelves in the French Revolution. Biog. 

 Anec. of the Founders of the Fr. Rev. 



ROBIA Herisa, in Botany, a name given by Paulus 

 iEgineta, and many others, to a plant ufed in dyeing. 



The near refemblance of the name to the word rubia, has 

 made many conclude that it was the rubia, or madder, which 

 they have meant by it ; but they have taken care in their 

 writings to diftingiiifh it from that plant, and it is plainly 

 the geniflella tiniloria, or dyer's weed, that they meant by the 

 robia herba. They fay it was ufed to dye yellow, and that 

 it was alfo a cuftom to ftain the hair with it. 



Thefe are the properties recorded of the cymene and eco- 

 maiium cf the Greeks, and the lutum, or lutea herba, of the 

 Latins, which were names of the genijleihi t'tnBoria. Pliny 

 lays, that the lutum had leaves like flax, and flowers 

 like broom, which is exactly the cafe with the geniflella 

 tinSoria, but by no means agrees with the glaftum or 

 woad. 



ROBIESSOU, in Geography, a town of Auftrian Po- 

 land ; 22 miles S. of Chelm. 



ROBIGALIA, or RuBlGALIA, in Antiquity. See Ru- 



B1GALIA. 



ROBILLANTE, in Geography, a town of France, in 

 the department of the Stura ; fix miles S. of Coni. 



ROBIN, or, as it is more nfually called, Robin red-breajl, 

 Rubecula, in Ornithology. Sec REV-breaJ. 



Robin, Ragged, in Botany. See Campion. 



Robin, Wake. See Wake Robin. 



ROBINAL, in Geography, a town of Mexico, in the pro- 

 vince of Vera Paz ; containing 800 inhabitants ; 40 miles 

 S.S.W. of Vera Paz. 



ROBIN-HOOD's Bay, a bay on the E. coaft 01 New- 

 foundland, frequented by fmall veftels. 



ROBINIA, in Botany, commemorates John Robin, bota- 

 nift to Henry IV. and Louis XIII. of France, who pub- 

 lifhed a catalogue of his own garden, which has gone 

 through feveral editions. He alfo fupplied defcriptions to 

 Vallet's figures. A popular French author, who calls 

 himfelf M. de Vigneul-Marville, but whofe real name was 

 d'Argonne, in his Melanges, (tigmatizes Robin for his 

 greedy and felfilh love of flowers, the more curious kinds 

 of which he would rather deftroy, than communicate to 

 his friends. In allufion to this, and to a report of his be- 

 ing an eunuch, he was addrefled in a bitter Latin fatire, as 

 by nature an enemy to all propagation. De Theis, never- 

 thelefs, fpeaks of Vefpafian Robin as his fon. They pub- 

 liihed conjointly a botanical Enchiridion, or manual, and one 

 of them introduced into the French gardens, from Ame- 

 rican feeds, that fpecies of Robinia called Pfedo-acacia by 

 Tournefort, who under that name founded the prefent 

 genus. — Linn. Gen. 378. Schreb. 501. Willd. Sp. PI. 

 v. 3. 1 131. Mart. Mill. Did. v. 4. Ait. Hort. Kew. 

 v. 4. 323. Purfh v. 2. 487. Jttff. 358. Lamarck Illuftr. 

 t. 606. Gsertn. t. 145. (Pfeudoacacia ; Tourn. t. 417. 

 Caragana ; Lamarck Did. v. 1. 615. Illultr. t. 607. 

 Jufl. 358.) — Clafs and order, Diadelphia Decandria. Nat. 

 Ord. Papilionacex, Linn. Leguminofit, Juff. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth inferior, of one leaf, fmall, 

 bcll-fhaped, four-cleft ; the three lower teeth narrower! ; the 

 upper one twice as broad, with a broad (hallow finus ; all 

 of equal length. Cor. papilionaceous. Standard roundifh, 

 large, fpreading, obtufe. Wings oblong-ovate, diftinft, 

 each with a very fhort blunt appendage. Keel nearly 

 femiorbicular, comprefled, obtufe, the length of the wings. 

 Stam. Filaments diadelphous, one fimple, the other nine com- 

 bined, afcending towards the extremity ; anthers roundifh. 

 Fiji. Germen cylindrical, oblong ; ftyle thread (haped, bent 

 upwards ; ftigma terminal. Peru. Legume large, long, 

 gibbous, comprefled. Seeds few, kidney-fhaped. 



Ed. Ch. Calyx four-cleft ; the upper fegment divided. 

 Standard roundifh, reflexed. Stamens in two diftinct 

 fets. Legume elongated, gibbous, of one cell, with many 

 feeds. 



Obf. Juflieu and Lamarck diltinguifh their genus Cara- 

 gana, by its fmooth abrupt ftigma, and a fomewhat cylin- 

 drical inflated legume. The former adds, that the leaves 

 are abruptly pinnate, without the terminal leaflet feen in 

 Robinia. Yet Lamarck's plates do not confirm all thefe 

 diflinctions. Linnaeus defcribes the ftigma as downy, and 

 yet in his Syft. Veg. ranges Robinia among genera which 

 want that character. In fact, the ftyle, rather than the 

 ftigma, is downy. 



I. R. Pfeudoacacia. Common Acacia, or Robinia. Linn. 

 Sp. PI. 1043. Willd. n. 1. Ait. n. t. Purfh n. 1. " Schmidt 

 Arb. t. 32." (Pfeudoacacia; Duham. Arb. v. 2. 188. 

 n. 1. t. 42.) — Partial llalks lingle-flowered. Leaves pin- 

 nate, with an odd leaflet. Stipulas fpinous. Legumes 

 fmooth, comprefled. — Native of dry fertile ridges, on the 

 mountains of North America, from Canada to Carolina, 

 flowering in May and June. Purfh. Cultivated here, by 

 the elder Tradeicant, before 1640. Parkinfon. This is a 

 large and handfome tree, of quick growth, beautiful in 

 foliage, and highly ornamental, when laden in fummer with 

 bundles of white fweet-fcented^iufrj-, refembling thofe of 

 the laburnum in fize and pofition. The branches are liable 

 to be Ihivered off by our auiumnal itorms. Mr. Purfh 

 fays, " the wood is almolt incorruptible, and particularly 

 calculated for pofts of gates and fences." The leaves are 



deciduous 



