R H I 
583 ' 
RHI 
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rtv. toceros, is found in various parts of Africa, ! 
and seems to have been the kind which was ! 
known to the anlient Romans, and by them 
exhibited m their public shows and combats 
Oi animals. In size it equals the common or 
single-horned species; and its habits and 
manner of feeding are the same ; but it dir- ! 
fers greatly in the appearance of its skin, ' 
which, instead of the vast and regularly- 
marked armour-like folds of the former, has 
merely a very slight wrinkle across the 
shoulders, and on the hinder parts with a few 
fainter wi inkles on the sides, so tint, in com- 
I parison with t lie common rhinoceros, it ap- 
i peats almost smooth ; the skin, however, is 
I rough or tubercul.ated, especially in the 
| larger specimens ; but what constitutes the 
| specific or principal distinction is, that the 
| nose is furnished with two horns, one of which 
is smaller than the other, and situated above 
it, or higher up on the fiont. These horns 
i are said to be loose when the animal is in a 
t ( l uie t slate, but to become firm and immove- 
| able when it is enraged. This observation 
is confirmed by Dr. Sparman, who observed, 
i in a specimen which lie shot in Africa, that 
j they w ere iixed to the nose by a strong ap- 
paratus of muscles and tendons, so as to a'low 
Hie animal the power of giving them a steady 
fixture on proper occasions. This, indeed, 
is treated by Mr. Bruce, the celebrated Abys- 
' sinian traveller, as an absurd idea; but, on 
inspecting the horns and skin on which they 
are seated, it does not appear that they are 
I firmly attached to, or connected with, the 
bone of the cranium. See Plate Nat. Hist, 
fig. 347. 
i Mr. Bruce’s description of the manner of 
f feeding, as well as of some other particulars 
relative to the two-horned rhinoceros, seems 
highly worthy' ot notice. He informs us, 
that, “ besides the trees capable of most re- j 
sistance, there are, in the vast forests within : 
the rains, trees of a softer consistence, and of j 
a very succulent quality, which seem to be j 
destined tor his principal food. For the pur- : 
pose of gaining the highest branches of these, ! 
his upper lip is capable of being lengthened j 
out so as to increase his power of laying hold [ 
witn this in the same manner as the elephant ; 
does with his trunk. With this lip, and the 1 
assistance of his tongue, he pulls down the j 
upper branches which have most leaves, and 
these he devours first; having stripped the ! 
tree of its branches, he does not, therefore, | 
abandon it ; but, placing his snout as low in j 
the trunk as he finds his horns will enter, he j 
rips up the body of the tree, and reduces it 
to thin pieces like so many laths; and when 
lie has thus prepared it, he embraces as much 
ot it as he can in his monstrous jaw.s, and 
twists it round with as much ease as an ox 
would do a root of celery, or any such pot- 
herb or garden-stuff. 
“ When pursued, and in fear, he possesses 
an astonishing degree of swiftness, consider- j 
ing his size, the apparent unwieldiness of his 
body, his great weight before, and the short- 
ness of Ins legs. He is long, and has a kind 
of trot, which, after a few- minutes, increases 
in a great proportion, and takes in a great 
distance; but this is to be understood with a 
degree of moderation. It is not true, that in 
a plain he beats the horse in swiftness. I 
have passed him with ease, and seen many 
worse mounted do the same, and though it is 
: certainly true that a horse can very seldom 
vox.; ii. 
come up with him, this is owing to his cun- | 
ning but not his swiftness. 
“ M he eyes of the rhinoceros are very i 
small, and he seldom turns his head, and i 
therefore sees nothing but what is before him. i 
To tliis lie owes his death, and never escapes < 
if there is so much plain as to enable the 
horse to get before him. His pride and 
fury, then, make him lay aside all thoughts 
of escaping, but by victory over his enemy. 
He stands for a moment at bay, then, at a 
start, runs straight forward at the horse like 
the wild boar, whom, in bis manner of action, 
he very much resembles. The hor-e easily 
avoids him by turning short aside ; and 
this is the fatal instant : the naked man, with 
the sword, drops from behind the principal 
horseman, and, unseen by the rhinoceros, 
who is seeking his enemyq the horse, he gives 
him a stroke across the tendon of the heel, 
which renders him incapable of further flight 
or resistance. 
“ In speaking of the great quantity of food 
necessary to support this enormous mass, we 
must likewise consider the vast quantity of 
water which he needs. No country but that 
of the Shangalla, which lie possesses, deluged 
with six months’ rain, and full of large and 
deep basons, made in the living rock, and 
shaded by dark woods from evaporation, or 
watered by large and deep rivers, which 
never fall low or to a state of dryness, can 
supply the vast draughts of this monstrous 
creature. But it is not for drinking alone 
that he frequents wet and marshy places: 
large, fierce, and strong, as he is, he must 
submit to prepare himself against the weak- 
est of all adversaries. The great consump- 
tion lie constantly makes of food and water 
necessarily coniine him to certain limited 
spaces ; for it is not every place that can 
maintain him; he cannot emigrate, or seek 
his defence among the sands of Atbara.” 
The, adversary just mentioned is a fly (pro- 
bably of the genus oestrus), which attacks the 
rhinoceros, as well as the camel and many 
other animals, and would, according to Mr. 
Bruce, as easily subdue him, but for the stra- 
tagem which he practises of rolling himself 
in the mud bv night, by which means he 
clothes himself in a kind of case, which de- 
fends him from his adversary the following 
day. The pleasure that he receives from 
thus rolling in the mud, and the darkness of 
the night, deprive him of his usual vigilance 
and attention. The hunters steal secretly 
upon him, and while lying on the ground 
wound him with their javelins, mostly in the 
belly, where the wound is mortal. 
RIIINOMACER, a genus of insects of the 
order coieoptera. The generic character is, 
antenna? setaceous, seated on tire snout ; feel- 
ers four, growing thicker towards the end, 
the last joint truncate. There are three spe- 
cies:, the curculioides, that inhabits Italy; 
the attelaboides, that inhabits Sweden ; and 
the cseruleus, found in Calabria. 
RHrZOBALl S, a genus of the tetragy- 
nia order, in the polvandria class of plants, 
and in the natural method ranking under the 
23d order, trlhilatax The calyx is mono- 
phyllous, fleshy, and downy ; the corolla 
consists of five petals, which are round, con- 
cave, fleshy, and much larger than the ca- 
lyx ; the stamina are very numerous, filiform, 
and longer than the corolla ; the styli are 
four, filiform, and of the length of the sta- 
mina; the pericarpium has four dtrupae, kid- 
ney-shaped, compressed, with a fleshy sub- 
stance inside, and in the middle a Hat large 
nut, cont ining a kidney-shaped kernel. Of 
this there are two species: the most remark- 
able is the pekia. The nut is sold in the 
shops as American nuts: they are flat, tu- 
berculated, and kidney-shaped, containing a 
kernel of the same shape, which is sweet and 
agreeable. 
RH1ZOPHORA, the mangrove or mangle, 
a genus of the monogvnia order, in the do- 
decandria class of plants, and in the natural 
method ranking under the 12th older, liolo- 
raceax The calyx is quadripartite, the co- 
rolla four-parted ; there is one seed, very 
long, and carnous at the base. There are six 
species. 
These plants are natives of the East and 
West Indies, and often grow 40 or 50 feet 
high. They grow only in water and on the 
banks of rivers, where the tide flows up twice 
a day. They preserve the verdure of their 
leaves throughout the year. From the low- 
est branches issue long roots, which hang 
down to the water, and penetrate into the 
earth. In this position they resemble so 
many arcades, from five to ten feet high, 
which serve to support the body of the tree, 
and even to advance it daily into the bed of 
the water. These arcades are so closely in- 
tertwisted one with another, that they form a 
kind of natural and transparent terrace, raised 
with such solidity over the water, that one 
might walk upon them, was it not that the 
branches are too much incumbered with 
leaves. The most natural way of propagat- 
ing these trees is to suffer the several slender 
small filaments which Issue from the main 
branches to take root in the earth. The 
most common method, however, is that of 
laying the small lower branches in baskets of 
mould or earth till they have taken root. 
The description just given pertains chiefly 
to a particular species of mangrove, R. man- 
gle, termed by the West Indians black man- 
gles, on account of the brown dusky colour 
of the wood. The bark is very brown, smooth, 
pliant when green, and generally used in the 
West India islands for tanning of leather. 
Below this bark lies a cuticle or skin, which 
is lighter, thinner, and more tender. The 
wood is nearly of the same colour as the 
bark; hard, pliant, and very heavy. It is 
frequently used for fuel ; the fires which are 
made of this wood being both clearer, more 
ardent and durable, than those made of any 
other materials whatever. The wood is al- 
most incorruptible, never splinters, is easily 
worked, and was it not for its enormous 
weight, would be commodiously employed 
in almost all kinds of work, as it possesses 
every property of good timber. To the 
roots and branches of mangroves that are 
immersed in the water, oysters frequently 
attach themselves; so that wherever this cu- 
rious plant is found growing on the sea-shore, 
oyster-fishing is very easy ; as in such cases 
these shell-lish may be iileraily said to be 
gathered upon trees. 
The red mangle or mangrove, a variety of 
the above, grows on the sea-shore, and at 
the mouth of large rivers ; but does not ad- 
vance, like the former, into the water. It 
generally rises to the height of 20 or 30 feet, 
with crooked knotty branches, which proceed 
