OJ 1 I 
breadthwife, in fuch manner, that the firft tree of 
the fecond row commences in the centre of the fquare 
formed by the two firft trees of the firft row, and the 
two firft of the third, refembling the figure of the 
five at cards. This regular difpofition of trees was 
formerly more regarded than at prefent, and is ftill 
much in pradice in France for planting trees to form 
a grove. 
• , QJJ I 
Trees planted in Quincunx are fuch as are planted in 
the following form : 
* # « % * 
* * « . Hf v : - 
QJJ I N QJJ E F O L I U M. See Pqtentilla , 1 
s 
R A I 
R A I 
R ACEMIFEROUS fignifies bearing in 
clufters. 
RACEMUS, a clufter, is a ftalk divided 
or branched into feveral foot-ftalks, fuftain- 
ing the flowers or fruit fet together, as are the 
bunches of Grapes, Currants, &c. The firft of thefe 
conditions diftinguifhes it from a fpike, the laft from 
a panicle. 
RADIATED FLOWERS are fuch as have 
feveral femiflorets fet round a difk in form of a ra- 
diant ftar, as are the flowers of Daify, Cammomile, 
&c. Thefe are called radiated difcous flowers ; thofe 
which have no fuch ray, are called naked difcous 
flowers, as the Wormwood, Mugwort, Tanfey, &c, 
RADICLE denotes that part of the feed of a plant, 
which, upon its vegetation, becomes a little root, by 
which the tender plant at firft receives its nourifhment 
before the after-root be formed. This is that part 
of the feed, which, in making malt, fhoots forth, and 
is called the come or comb. 
RADISH. See Raphanus. 
RADISH (HORSE.) See Cochlearia. 
RAIN is generally accounted to be a crude vapour 
of the earth, but more efpecially of the fea, drawn 
up from thence by the attractive power of the fun, or 
carried thitherward by pulfion, and wafted by the 
winds into the aerial region, by which fublimation 
and rarefaction, and the virtual qualities of the fun 
and air, it is formed into clouds. 
The crudities are difpelled, and thefe clouds fufpend 
and hang in the air, and though it may be thought 
impoffible that they fhould be fo fufpended in the air 
by reafon of their great weight and prefTure, yet it 
will not appear fo on confideration. 
When thefe vapours are thus drawn up to any confi- 
derable height by the ftrength of the air which is un- 
derneath them, and which ftill grows greater and 
greater, and by its motion, undulating this way and 
that way, they rife gradually through the air. 
This is demonftrable by paper kites, which, after they 
are raifed to about fixty feet high, rife eafier and with 
greater fwiftnefs, and the higher, ftill the better and 
ftronger they fly. 
Thefe vapours, being this arrived into the upper re- 
gions of the air, are Toon aggregated and condenfed 
into bodies and clouds. 
And though they are blown here and there, they are 
ftill fufpended, till they are releafed from their im- 
prifonment by the genial difpofition of the fun, or by 
the natural warmth, humidity and rarefaction of the 
air. 
- It is not to be doubted, but that the Rain drops out 
of the clouds, becaufe we do not find it rain, but 
where clouds are to be feen, and by how much the 
fairer the weather is, the feldomer it rains. 
Rain is a very frequent and ufeful meteor, defeend- 
ing from above in form of drops of water. 
Rain feems to differ from dew only in this, that dew 
falls at fome particular times, and in very fmall drops, 
fo as to be feen when it is down, but is fcarce per- 
ceivable while it is falling j whereas Rain is grofler, 
and falls at any time. 
Rain is apparently a precipitated cloud, as clouds 
are nothing but vapours raifed from moifture, waters, 
&c. and vapours are demonftratively nothing elfe blit 
little bubbles, or veficulas detached from the waters 
by the power of the folar or fubterraneous heat, 
or both. 
Thefe veficulas, being fpecifically lighter than the at- 
mofphere, are buoyed up thereby till they arrive at 
a region where the air is a juft balance with them ; 
and here they float, till by fome new agent they are 
converted into clouds, and thence into either Rain, 
fnow, hail, mift, or the like. 
But the agent in this formation of clouds, &c. is a 
little controverted : the generality will have it the 
cold, which, conftantly occupying the fuperior re- 
gions of the air, chills and condenfes the veficute at 
their arrival from a warmer quarter, congregates them 
together, and occafions feveral of them to coalefce 
into little mafies ; by this means their quantity of 
matter increafing in a greater proportion than their 
furface, they become an overload to the lighter air, 
and defeend into Rain. 
The coldnefs of the air may caufe the particles of the 
clouds to lofe their motions, and become lefs able to 
refift the gravity of the incumbent air, and confequent- 
ly to yield to its prefTure, and fall to the ground. 
The wind may colled; the vapours in fuch abundance, 
as firft to form very thick clouds, and then to fqueeze 
thofe clouds together, till the watery particles make 
drops too big to hang in the air. 
But the grand caufe, according to Monf. Rohault, 
is ftill behind ; he conceives it to be the heat of the 
air, which, after continuing for fome time near the 
earth, is at length carried up on high by a wind, and, 
there thawing the frozen villi or flocks of the half- 
frozen veficulas, reduces them into drops, which, 
coalefcing, defeend, and have their diffolution per- 
fected in their progrefs through the lower and warm- 
er ftages of the atmofphere. 
Monfieur Le Clerc and others aferibe this defeent 
of the clouds rather to an alteration of the atmo- 
fphere than of the veficulas, and fuppofeitto proceed 
from 
