R H 0 
extent, or 269 square leagues, and containing a population 
of 320,072 persons. It is divided into three circles or dis¬ 
tricts, including 26 cantons and 108 communes. The cir¬ 
cles are, Marseilles, having 142,058 inhabitants; Aix, 
97,938; and Tarascon, 80,076. According to M. Hassen- 
fratz, its extent in French leagues is 30 in length and 20 in 
breadth; its circles are 5, its cantons are 40, and its popu¬ 
lation consists of 446,643 persons. It is a portion of 
Lower Provence, and lies in north lat. 43. 40. Its capital 
is Aix. Its contributions to the land-tax, &c. amounted, in 
the 11th year of the French era, to 3,612,199 fr. j and its 
expences, administrative, judiciary, and for public instruc¬ 
tion, to 354,531 fr. 33 cents. Many of the hills in the 
northern districts are bare rocks, destitute of soil and ver¬ 
dure. The chief productions of the department are grain, 
wine, silks, olives, fruits, and pastures. It has mines of 
iron, alum, vitriol, with quarries of marble, &c. Pools 
and marshes are dispersed near the coast. 
RHONE, or Rhone and Loire, one of the eleven 
departments of the east region of France, bounded on the 
north by the department of the Saone and Loire, on the 
east by the departments of the Ain and the Isere, on the 
south by the departments of the Ardeche and the Upper 
Loire, and on the west by the departments of the Puy de 
Dome and the Allier; to the east it is bounded by the river 
Rhine, and the Loire passes nearly through its centre from 
north to south. Its extent is 147 square leagues, and its 
population consists of 345,644 persons. It is divided into 
2 circles, 25 cantons, and 261 communes. Its circles are 
Villefrauche, including 106,262 inhabitants, and Lyons, 
having 239,382. According to Hassenfratz, its extent in 
French leagues is 20 in length, and 9 in breadth; its circles 
are 2, its cantons 32, and its population is 323,177. It 
lies in north lat. 46, between Ain and Loire, and compre¬ 
hends the provinces formerly called Lyonnais and Beaujolais. 
Its capital is Lyons. The plains yield scanty crops of grain 
and pasture; the gentle eminences are covered with vine¬ 
yards, and the summits of the mountains are clothed with 
pines. This department has mines of copper, lead, coal, 
quarries of marble, free-stone, &c. 
RHOPALA, [from ponccXov, Gr. a club, or stake. The stem 
rising to the height of three or four feet before it sends off 
any branches.] in botany, a genus of the class tetrandria, 
order monogynia, natural order proteacese, (Juss.) Generic 
Character.—Calyx none. Corolla: petals four, spatulate, 
regular, concave, recurved at the extremity; nectary of four 
glands, separate, or combined, at the base of the germen. 
Stamina: filaments four, short, inserted above half-way up 
the petals; anthers oblong, two-lobed, projecting beyond 
their recurved extremities. Pistil: germen superior, ovate, 
with rudiments of but two seeds; style awl-shaped, perma¬ 
nent, the length of the corolla; stigma vertical, club-shaped, 
undivided. Pericarp: follicle ovate, somewhat woody, of 
one cell. Seeds two, bordered, winged at each end, the 
kernel central.— Essential Character. —Calyx none. Petals 
four, regular, recurved. Stamens inserted into the middle 
of each petal. Nectary of four glands. Stigma vertical, 
club-shaped. Follicle of one cell. Seeds two, bordered, 
winged at each end. 
The habit of the genus is arborescent. Leaves alternate, 
rarely whorled; simple, entire or toothed, rarely pinnate, or 
ternate on the same branch. Spikes axillary, sometimes 
terminal, racemose, the flowers in pairs with a single bractea 
to each pair. 
1. Rhopala montana.—A small tree, seven or eight feet 
high; its trunk three or four feet. Bark wrinkled and - 
cracked, whitish, as well as the wood. Both exhale, when 
cut, a strong fetid scent, like that of the serpents of the sdme 
country. Leaves smooth, of a firm dry texture, about three 
inches long. Footstalks an inch long, inflated at the base. 
Flowers about eight or ten alternate sessile pairs, in each lax 
spike. 
2. Rhopala media.—Leaves alternate, entire, ovate, flat, 
pointed, running down the footstalk, with depressed veins. 
Clusters axillary, solitary, longer than the leaves. Partial 
. Vot. XXII. No. 1484. 
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flower-stalks and petals somewhat hairy. Germen downy. 
—Gathered in the same country by Von Rohr, who sent 
specimens to Sir Joseph Banks. This seems very nearly 
related to the foregoing. 
3. Rhopala nitida. — Leaves alternate, entire, elliptical, 
short-pointed, flat. Clusters axillary, solitary, about the 
length of the leaves. Partial flower-stalks, petals and ger¬ 
men smooth.—Gathered by Joseph Martin in Guiana. 
4. Rhopala moluccana.—Leaves alternate, entire, el liptical, 
flat, finely veined, somewhat reticulated, longer than the 
clusters. Partial flower-stalks and petals smooth.—Gathered 
in the Molucca islands. 
5. Rhopala Cochinchinensis.—Leaves alternate, elliptic- 
ovate, short-pointed, flat, somewhat serrated above half¬ 
way down. Clusters axillary, solitary, about the length of 
the leaves. Partial flower-stalks, petals and germen smooth. 
—Native of woods in Cochinchina. 
6 . Rhopala serrata.—Leaves alternate, broadly elliptical, 
scarcely pointed, serrated; somewhat contracted and entire 
at the base; paler beneath. Clusters axillary, solitary, 
shorter than the leaves. Partial flower-stalks, petals and 
germen downy.—Gathered in the Molucca isles. 
7. Rhopala dentata.—Leaves alternate, ovato-lanceolate, 
folded, toothed, tapering at each end; with a linear point. 
Clusters axillary, solitary, rather longer than the leaves. 
Petals and germen downy.—Gathered in Guiana. 
8 . Rhopala Peruviana.—Leaves alternate, ovate, serrated, 
woolly; rusty beneath. Clusters axillary, solitary, longer 
than the leaves. — Native of the colder mountains of 
Peru. 
9. Rhopala diversifolia.—Leaves alternate, simple or pin¬ 
nate, very veiny; downy beneath. Clusters axillary, solitary, 
longer than the leaves. Follicles scymitar-shaped, downy. 
■—Native of waste ground, and the borders of fields in 
Peru. 
10. Rhopala sessilifolia,—Leaves four in each whorl, 
nearly sessile, oblong, somewhat wedge-shaped, slightly 
pointed, entire. Clusters terminal, umbellate. Flowers 
whorled.—Native of Guiana. 
RHOPALIC Verses, among the ancients, a kind of 
verses which began with monosyllables, and were continued 
in words growing gradually longer and longer to the last, 
which was the longest of all. 
They had their name from the Greek pcwraXov, a club, 
which, like them, begins with a slender tip, and grows 
bigger and bigger to the head. Such is that verse of 
Homer: 
“ fl fAaKao ArpeiSv; pxpyyeye?, oX&oSaupwv.” 
And this Latin one of Ausonius: 
“ Spes deus Eeternse stationis conciliator.” 
RHOPALOSIS, an unused name for the PLrcA Poto- 
NICA. 
RHOPIUM, [from gomov, a slender shoot, the flower- 
stalks of this plant having a delicate, twiggy appear¬ 
ance.] Schreber’s name for a genus of plants of the 
class gynandria, order triandria, natural order euphorbia?.— 
Generic Character.—Calyx: perianth inferior, of one leaf, 
permanent, cloven into six lanceolate, acute segments, 
each having a little bordered cavity at the base. Corolla 
none. Stamina: filaments none; anthers three, cloven, 
each adhering to a single styleunder the stigma, with distant 
cells, bursting transversely. Pistils: germen superior, 
roundish or triangular; styles three, erect, approximated; 
stigmas flat, acute, bent down over the anthers. Pericarp: 
capsule composed of three obtuse-angled lobes, with six 
cells, and six valves: partitions from the middle of the valves. 
Seeds two, one adhering to each side of the partition, ovate. 
—Essential Character. — Calyx six-cleft. Corolla none. 
Anthers three, with remote cells, and placed in the middle 
of the styles. Styles three. Capsule three-lobed, of three 
cells, each with two seeds. 
Rhopium citrifolium. — Native of woods in Guiana, 
where it flowers and bears fruit in January. The stem of 
S the 
