It o o 



It o o 



RGONAY, in Geography, a town of Bengal ; 33 miles 

 S.E. of Ghidore. 



ROOI', a term applied to fignify a hoarfenefs, fuch as 

 happens among animals of the cattle kind. 



ROOPAPOUR, m Geography, a town of Hindooftan, 

 in Oude ; 31 miles E.N.E. of Manickpour. 



ROOPAT, a town on the E» coaft of Sumatra. N. lat. 

 1° 3'. E. long. ioi" 12'. 



ROOPGUNGE, a town of Bengal ; 34 miles N.N.W. 

 of Dinagepour. 



ROOPGUR, a town of Hindooftan, in Guzerat ; five 

 miles S. of Surat. 



ROOPNAGUR, a town of Hindooftan, in the country 

 of Agimere ; 30 miles E. of Agimcre. N. lat. 26° 39'. E. 



long- if 52'- . . , 



ROOPOUR, a town of Hindooftan, in the circar of 



Sirhind; 58 miles N. of Sirhind. 



ROOS, Philip, better known by the name of Rofa da 

 Tivoli, in Biography, was the fecond Ion of a painter, whole 

 name was John Hendrick Roos ; and he was born at Frank- 

 fort in 1655. His early inclination to the art praclifed by 

 his father, and the proficiency he exhibited, gained him the 

 favour of the landgrave of Hefle, at whole court the father 

 and an uncle of Philip 1 , called Theodore Roos, refided ; and 

 for whom they painted, conjointly, compofitions of animals, 

 landfcapcs, and figures. 



This prince became the patron of Philip alfo, and pre- 

 fent.-d him with a fum of money to profecute his ftudies at 

 Rome, from whence lie never returned to repay the obliga- 

 tion. He married a beautiful woman, daughter of an hif- 

 torical painter, Giacinto Brandi, but was diflipated and 

 extravagant. 



He took up his residence at Tivoli, from whence comes 

 his cognomen of Roia da Tivoli, and there he imitated and 

 combined the forms he met with. His pictures are generally 

 made up of a group ot deep, goats, or cattle, a herdfman 

 or woman, and a piece of building, illumined with ftrong 

 contrails of light and fhade, and touched with uncommon 

 fpirit and freedom. That latter quality is their bane, for 

 relying upon its cflecl upon the obfervers, and working ge- 

 nerally from neccflity, or the fpur of the moment, he was 

 tempted to reft latisfied with incorreclnefs and common- 

 place. His fhadows are generally too dark and too brown, 

 <ti t-d by leaving tin- dark ground upon which he worked ; 

 but the arrangements of his lights are ingenious and capi- 

 tally executed, and the colour is frequently rich and full. 

 He died 111 1705, at the age of co. 



ROOSANT), in Geography, a town of Norway ; 48 

 miles N.N.E. of Romfdal. 



ROOSEBURG, a Imall ifland in the Meufe ; 3 miles 

 N.E. from the Brill. 



ROOT, (Radix,) in Botany and Vegetable Phyfiology, 

 an important part of the vegetable body, being the bafts of 

 the whole, and what is firft produced from the feed, when 

 evolved by the procefs of germination. Its ufes are, to fix 

 the plant to a commodious fituation, and to derive nourifh- 

 ment for its fupport. This organ is therefore perhaps in- 

 difpenfably neceliary, it the firll period of the growth of 

 sables ; and it ulually continues to be fo, at lealt 

 amongil what are termed the more perfeft kinds ; the Cuf- 

 euta, or Dodder, being almoft a lolitary inftance, of a 

 phxnogamous plant, parting with its root at an early age, 

 and milling for its future fullcnance to the vegetable bodies 

 on which it parafitically fixes. In foine cryptogamous tribes 

 the roots, though Lefs difcernible to us, are not the Iefs 

 effective tor the performance of one or other of thefe func- 

 tions. Thus, the crullaceous Lichens have not only a 



coniiderable inequality of furface underneath, infinuating 

 itfelf into every minute irregularity of the ftone or bark 

 over which they fprcad, but feveral of them have very dif- 

 tinguifhable, fibrous, branched roots ; witnefs Lichen faxi- 

 fragus, Sm. Tranf. of Linn. Soc. v. 1. 82. t. 4. f. 4, and 

 L. lartareus. The Submerfed sllgs, or Sea-weeds, feem, 

 at firft fight, to be merely fixed by their fmall difk-likc 

 roots ; though many of them have branched and entangled 

 radicles, infinuating themfelves among pebbles at the bottom 

 of the fea, which lalt may well be organs of nourifhment, 

 as well as of fupport. But even fnch as are fixed by a mere 

 dill-, are f.mr.d, if cut down to that part, to fprout up again 

 with all the rapidity and vigour of a full-grown fhrub, 

 treated in the fame manner. Hence it appears that the difk 

 in queftion mud aft as an organ for imbibing nutriment. 

 That procefs indeed feems not to be accompliihed, as ufual, 

 by the bafe, or under part, efpecially confidering the nature 

 and iize of the bodies to which this kind of root is com- 

 monly attached. But fomething analogous may be ob- 

 ferved in feveral parafitical plants of the Orchis family, (fee 

 Ouchide.t:,) whole thick fibrous roots lie naked upon the 

 bark or branches of trees ; and if they do imbibe a part of 

 their fuftenance from the latter, fhould feem alfo to be in- 

 debted confiderably to the atmofphere, (to which a much 

 larger portion of their furface is conftantly expofed,) as fea- 

 weeds are to the circumambient water. With the roots of 

 parafitical ferns, indeed, as well as the fupplementary radi- 

 cles, thrown out from the climbing ftem of the Cufcuta, the 

 cafe may be different, as both are infinuated into the bark 

 of the plants on which they grow. Floating fea-weeds, and 

 abundance of frefli-water plants nearly related to them, 

 agree with the Cufcuta fo far, that after vegetating on fome 

 fixed fpot, to which the parent feed attaches itfelf, they 

 foon feparate therefrom, and can derive nothing fubfe- 

 quently from thence. But being entirely difengaged, they 

 can obtain matter of growth and nourifhment, in future, 

 from no other fource, than the water in which they float. 

 Who (hall fay whether fuch nutriment is abforbed by their 

 whole furface ; or whether the various and multiplied, 

 fibrous or tubercular, appendages of their curious, and 

 often complex, ilrutture, may not, many of them, be ana- 

 logous to the fibrous radicles, thrown out by the flems of 

 the Dodder ? 



The moft ufual economy of the roots of plants is to be 

 immerfed in the earth, they having always a tendency to 

 grow downwards, as flems in general have to afcend. Dr. 

 Darwin's fimple and luminous explanation of this phenome- 

 non is quite fufficient, and precludes all others. He con- 

 ceives that each part elongates itfelf in the dire&ion in 

 which it is moft ftimulated ; the infant ftem being moft 

 a£tcd upon by air, the radicle by moiflure. 



A root commonly confills of two parts; the eaudes, or 

 body, and radicula, the fibre. The latter, generally greatly 

 multiplied, branched, and extended, is the eflcntial organ 

 of nourifhment. 



The duration of roots is either annual, biennial, or peren- 

 nial. Annual Roots, confiding chiefly of numerous hi 

 belong to plants whole exillence is limited to one lunimer, 



as Barley, and a valf tribe of field or garden flowers, many 



ot which mull occur to every one's recolll etioii. Biennial 

 Roots produce, the firft ieaion of their growth, only herb- 

 age, and, living through the enfuing winter, bear flowers 

 mil fruit, or teed, in the following dimmer, after which 



they pciifh ; for they never bloflbm or (nit'tify but once, 

 any more than annual herbs. Their cxiltenec indeed may 

 be prolonged by accidents which hinder their flowering, 

 year after year, in l< but after perfecting feed, or 



