999 



€\>z Ercagttrp ai 2Sotan», 



[rush 



head is stalked, and has an involucre of 

 fifteen scales— the five outer leafy, the 

 '• ten inner much smaller, pointed, and era- 

 hracing by their bases the corresponding 

 achenes of the strap-shaped ray-florets, 

 which bear pistils only; while the central 

 tubular florets are perfect, and have their 

 achenes embraced by chaffy scales some- 

 -what like those of the ray. [A. A. B.] 



RUMINATED. Pierced by irregular pas- 

 sages, filled with colouring matter or mi- 

 nute dead cell-membranes, as the albumen 

 of nutmeg. 



RUMOHRA. Polystichum. 



RUMPHIA. The name applied to a tree, 

 native of Malabar, and considered to con- 

 stitute a distinct genus of Anacardiacece. j 

 The leaves are simple, and the flowers in 

 terminal racemes. The calyx is three-cleft, | 

 tubular ; there are three petals and as ; 

 many stamens ; the ovary is solitary, and 

 the fruit is fleshy, top-shaped, marked with 

 three furrows, and containing a three- 

 celled three-seeded stone. The generic 

 name celebrates a botanist of the last cen- 

 tury, known particularly by his work on 

 the Botany of Amboyna. [M. T. M.] 



RUN CH. Raphanus Raphanistrum. 



KUNCINATE. Curved in a direction 

 from the apex to the base ; as the leaf of 

 Leontodon Taraxacum. 



RUNCINATO-LACINIATE. 

 cinate and laciniate. 



Both run- 



When a straight-ribbed leaf has its ribs 

 interrupted or swollen at intervals. 



RUPTUREWORT. Herniaria glabra; 

 also Altemanthera polygonoides. 



RUPTURING. An irregular not definite 

 mode of bursting. 



RUSCUS. Evergreen shrubs belonging 

 to the tribe Asparagece of liliaceous plants. 

 Its characters are :— Root not bulbous ; 

 flowers six-parted, persistent, imperfect ; 

 stamens connected at the base and form- 

 ing a nectary ; fruit a berry. R. aculeatus, 

 the Butcher's Broom or Knee-Holly, is a 

 singular plant, growing wild mostly in the 

 South and West of England, but frequently 

 planted in shrubberies. The stems, which 

 are green erect rigid and branched above, 

 grow to the heighc of about three feet, and 

 bear numerous small coriaceous leaves, 

 each terminating in a single spine. The 

 flowers are small greenish-white, and soli- 

 tary on the disk of the leaves ; and the berry 

 is about the size of a small cherry, and of 

 a brilliant scarlet colour. The young 

 shoots are sometimes eaten like those of 



RUNNER. A prostrate slender stem 



RUPE3TRIS. Growing on rocks, or in 

 rocky places. 



RUPICOLA. Inhabiting rocks. ♦ 

 RUPPIA. A submersed aquatic belong- 

 ing to the order KoAadacece, and distin- 

 i guished from Potarnogeton by having the 

 | four one-seeded capsules on long stalks. 

 j R. maritima, the only species, is an un- 

 attractive plant with the habit of the 

 smaller pondweeds, remarkable only for 

 the peculiarity of the stalk or spadix which 

 bears the seed-vessels. This in its early 

 stage is included within sheathingbracteas, 

 but as the flowers approach maturity, their 

 stalks become spiral and lengthen five or 

 : six inches, thus raising the flowers to the 

 : surface of the water. The plant is very 

 widely diffused, being found in Britain 

 and America, and also in the Sandwich Is- 

 lands, and on the coasts of Southern India 

 and Ceylon, constantly preserving the same 

 appearance. [C. A. J.] 



RUPRECHTIA. A genus of Polygonacece, 

 inhabiting the West Indies, Brazil, and 

 Guiana, distinguished from the closely 

 allied genus Triplaris by having the fruit ] 

 pyramidal with three furrows, and the j 

 nucleus three-lobed, runcinate. [J. T. S.] 



RUPTILE. Bursting irregularly, not in | 

 the line of union of parts in cohesion. 



RUPTINERYIS, 



RUPTINERVIUS. 



Ruscus aculeatus. 



asparagus, and the mature plants made 

 into brooms. R. racemosus or Alexandrinus 

 is a favourite evergreen shrub with thick 

 unarmed leaves and terminal racemes of 

 small flowers. R. androgynus, a native of 

 the Canaries, bears its flowers along the 

 edges of the leaves. In R. Eypophyllum, 

 from the South of Europe, they are borne 

 beneath the leaves ; and in R.Hypoglossum, 

 also from the South of Europe, on the up- 

 per side under a leaflet. French : Fragon 

 piquant ; German : Mausdorn. [C. A. J.] 



RUSH, POLISHING, or DUTCH RUSH- 

 ES. The commercial name of Equiaetum 

 hyemale, which is imported principally 

 from Holland, as a material for polishing 

 wood, ivory, and brass, in consequence of 

 the large quantity of silex it contains in 

 its tissues, which is so abundant that the 

 form may be retained when the plant is 

 burnt. The greater number of the particles, 



