88 R I C 
Shockoe creek, a small rivulet; but these distinctions are 
now going out of use, and the sections are united together. 
Population in 1800, 5537; in 1810, 9735, of whom 4937 
were blacks; and in 1817, 14,333; 25 miles north of Pe¬ 
tersburg, and 123 west of South Washington. Lat. 37.30. N. 
long. 77. 31. W. 
RICHMOND, the name of several townships in the United 
States. 
RICHMONDSHIRE, a district of Ehgland, in the North 
Riding of Yorkshire, of which Richmond is the capital town. 
It is included in the duchy of Lancaster, was formerly a county 
within itself, and contains many towns and villages. 
RI'CHNESS, s. Opulence ; wealth. 
Of virtue you have left proof to the world; 
And virtue is grateful with beauty and richness adorned. 
Sidney. 
Finery; splendour; fertility ; fecundity; fruitfulness.— 
This town is famous for the richness of the soil. Addison. 
-^-Abundance or perfection of any quality.—1 amused my¬ 
self with the richness and variety of colours in the western 
parts of heaven. Spectator .—Pampering qualities. 
The living tincture of whose gushing blood 
Should clearly prove the richness of his food. Dryden. 
RICHTENBERG, a town of Prussia, in Pomerania; 10 
miles southrwest of Sfralsund, on a lake of the same name. 
Population 800. 
RICHTENSCHWEIL, a market town of Switzerland, on 
the south side of the lake of Zurich. It has a harbour, and 
some trade, with manufactures of silk, cotton, and knives. 
Population 2400; 11 miles south of Zurich. 
RICHVALD, a small town of Hungary; 15 miles west- 
by-south of Eperies. 
RICIMER, Count and Patrician of the Western empire, 
and an important civil and military character in the fifth 
century, was the son of Wallia, daughter of the king of the 
Visigoths, by a father of Suevian origin. From his youth 
lie served in the Roman armies, where he acquired great 
reputation by his warlike exploits, and came to be regarded 
as the ablest commander of the age. Sidonius Apollinaris 
accumulates in his character of Ricimer all the excellences 
of the most celebrated names in ancient Rome ; it appears, 
however, from his actions, that they had the alloy of perfidy 
and unprincipled ambition. In the feign of the Emperor 
Avitus, being one of the chief commanders of the Barba¬ 
rian troops which formed the defence of Italy, he destroyed, 
in the year 456, on the coast of Corsica, a fleet of Genseric 
the Vandal King, destined to ravage the coasts of Gaul or 
Italy. This success enabled him to avail himself of the pub¬ 
lic discontents to depose Avitus, and raise to the throne 
Majorian in 457. The vigour and ability with which this 
prince maintained his dignity having disappointed Ricimer 
in his expectations of enjoying the supreme authority under 
his name, he fomented a sedition among the troops at Tor- 
tona, where Majorian was encamped on his return from 
Gaul, and compelled him, in 461, to abdicate the purple, 
which act was soon followed by his death. Ricimer then 
elevated to the throne one Libius Severus, an obscure man, 
who bore the title of Emperor, during four years, without 
performing any one imperial function. In that period, and 
in an interregnum of two years more, Ricimer exercised 
sovereign authority, amassing treasures, forming a separate 
army, and negotiating alliances. He cut off a king of the 
Alans, with all his followers, who had invaded Italy; but 
he was unable to extend his sway beyond the Alps, where 
two generals, iEgidius in Gaul, and Marcellinnsin Dalmatia, 
maintained themselves in independence. The Barbarian 
birth of Ricimer prevented his assumption of the purple; 
and in 467 he concurred in the inauguration of Anthemius, 
whose daughter at the same time he married. The new Em¬ 
peror and his potent son-in-law passed some years in union; 
but at length dissentions broke out between them, ana Riei- 
mer, withdrawing from Rome, fixed his residence at Milan. 
There, after a feigned reconciliation with Anthemius, he 
R 1 C 
excifed his army to revolt, and with a reinforcement of new 
Barbarian levies marched to Rome. After a vigorous resist¬ 
ance, the unfortunate capital was stormed and sacked with 
every circumstance of cruelty, in July 472, and Anthemius, 
dragged from his concealment, was murdered by order of 
Ricimer, who caused Olybius to be proclaimed in his stead. 
He himself was shortly after carried off by disease, bequeath¬ 
ing the command of his army to his nephew Gundebald, a 
Burgundian prince, Univers. Hist. Gibbon. 
R1CINA, an island situated on the coast of Hibernia, 
being one of those called Ebudes, according to Ptolemy and 
Pliny.—Also, a town of Italy, in the Picenum, which be¬ 
came a Roman colony under the reign of the emperor 
Severus. It was situated south-west of Auximum.—Also, a 
town of Italy, in Liguria, south-east of Genoa. 
RICINOCARPODENDRON, [compounded of ricinus , 
Kapiroi;, Gr. fructus, and SevSpoi/, arbor. ] In Botany, the 
name of a genus of plants, established by Dr. Amman, the 
characters of which are these: the flower is of the rosaceous- 
kind, consisting of three petals, disposed in a circular order, 
in the centre of which there arises a large and open tube, 
through which shoots up the pistil, which grows at the 
bottom of the cup; this pistil, finally, becomes a trigonal 
fruit, divided into three cells within, each containing one 
seed in a rough coat. 
The leaves of this tree sometimes resemble those of the 
ash, being composed of three or four pairs of smaller leaves 
joined to a middle rib; these are not serrated, and terminate 
in a sharp point; the flowers grow at the alee of the leaves, 
they are white, and are disposed an lax spikes; the fruit is 
green at first, afterwards it becomes of a yellowish-red, and 
finally scarlet; it is of the bigness of a walnut, and in shape 
much resembles the fruit of the ricinus; the covering of the 
seeds is black on the outside, and red within, and each seed 
is divided into .two lobes; when ripe, the fruit bursts, and 
the seeds fall out.—It is a native of the East Indies. 
RICINUS, [so named from the similitude of the seed to 
a tyke or tick, which in Latin is Ricinus. Dioscorides-calls 
it K:ki or Kps rtov, Gr.] In botany, a genus of the class rco- 
noecia, order monadelphia, natural order of tricoccse, eu¬ 
phorbia, ( Juss.) Generic Character.—Male. Calyx : 
perianth one-leaved, five parted; segments ovate, concave. 
Corolla none. Stamina: filaments very numerous, filiform, 
branchingly collected below into various bodies. Anthers- 
twin, roundish. Females on the same plant. Calyx: pe¬ 
rianth one-leafed, three-parted ; segments ovate, concave;; 
deciduous. Corolla none. Pistil: germ ovate, covered 
with subulate corpuscles. Styles three, two-parted, from 
erect spreading, hispid. Stigmas simple. Pericarp: cap¬ 
sule roundish, three-grooved, prickly all over, three-celled, 
three-valved. Seeds solitary, subovate.— Essential Cha¬ 
racter. —Calyx five-parted. Corolla none. Male : stamens, 
numerous. Female: styles three, bifid. Capsule three- 
celled. Seed one. 
1. Ricinus inermis, or smooth-fruited palma Christi.—This 
is stouter than the common sort at the same age, but it can 
scarcely be regarded as a distinct species. Miller has two 
species without prickles: rugosus, n. 4. which is undoubtedly 
the same with this of Jacquin’s, and inermis, n. 6. The 
former native of both Indies; the latter of the Spanish West 
Indies. 
2. Ricinus communis, or common castor-oil tree.—The 
common palma Christi of Europe rises with a strong herba¬ 
ceous stalk to the height of ten or twelve feet; the joints are 
at a great distance from each other; the stalk and branches 
are of a gray colour; the leaves are large, and on long foot¬ 
stalks ; they are deeply divided into seven lobes, and are 
gray on their under side. The flowers are disposed in long 
spikes, which spring from the division of the branches: the 
males are placed on the lower part of the spike; the females 
which occupy the upper part, have prickly calyxes. 
The root is biennial, long, thick, whitish, and beset with 
many small fibres. Stem round, thick, jointed, channelled, 
glaucous, of a purplish red colour towards the top. The 
capsule is subglobular, corticate, echinated all over with 
small 
