EON 
and middle classes in Andalusia- 38 miles west-by-north of 
Malaga, and 48 south-east of Seville. 
RONDE, in French Music, a semibreve. 
RONDE de Table, a French kind of chanson & loire, or 
drinking song, with a refrain, or burden to it, and gene¬ 
rally mixed with sentiments of gallantry, composed of differ¬ 
ent stanzas, which are sung by turns at table, and in which 
all the guests join chorus in the refrain. 
RONDE ISLE, a small island of the St, Lawrence, at the 
entrance into Lake St. Peter. It belongs to the British go¬ 
vernment. It is low 5 but is well clothed with timber. It 
abounds also with all sorts of wildfowl. 
RONDE ISLE, a small island of the St. Lawrence, nearly 
in front of Montreal. 
RONDE, RHONDE ISLAND, or REDONDA, one of 
the Grenadines, dependant on the island of Grenada, in the 
West Indies; situate about mid-way between Cariacou or 
Cariovacou, and the north end of Grenada, about six miles 
north of Grenada, and 11 south-west of Cariovacou. 
It contains about 500 acres of excellent land, which are 
wholly applied to pasturage, and the cultivation of cotton. 
Lat. 12. 19. N. long. 61. 39. W. 
RONDEAU, s. [Fr.] A kind of ancient poetry, com¬ 
monly consisting of thirteen verses; of which eight have 
one rhyme and five another: it is divided into three couplets, 
and at the end of the second and third, the beginning of the 
rondeau is repeated in an equivocal sense, if possible. 
Trevoux .—He used to read to him a book of sonnets, 
rondeaus, and virelays. Warton .—A piece of music which 
ends with the first strain repeated. 
The term rondeau, derived from rondel, is of great anti¬ 
quity in France. In old English it was called a roundelay. 
Rousseau has very justly censured the writing and setting 
vocal rondeaus, in which the thought is begun in one strain, 
and continued or ended in another; or begins with a simile, 
of which the application is made in the second strain 
But Rousseau, after pointing out poetical and musical de¬ 
fects in the composition of rondeaux, indicates the means of 
avoiding both. “ Whenever a sentiment, expressed in the 
first strain, suggests a reflexion which confirms and enforces 
it in the second; whenever a description of the singer’s state 
of mind is the subject of the first strain, and illustrates a 
simile in the second; whenever an affirmation in the first 
strain, contains its proof and confirmation in the second; 
every time, in short, that the first strain contains a proposi¬ 
tion to perform some action, and a reason for it is given in 
the second; in these, and similar cases, a rondeau will be 
always well placed.” 
RONDEHAYE, La, a large village of France, department 
of LaManche. Population 1000; 6 miles north ofCoutances. 
RONDEL, in Fortification, a round tower, sometimes 
erected at the foot of a bastion. 
RONDELET (William), an eminent physician and na¬ 
turalist, bom at Montpellier in 1507, was the son of a drug¬ 
gist in that city. A weak state of health in his youth retard¬ 
ed his education so much that he was eighteen when he went 
to Paris to complete his course of Latin and philosophy. 
He returned to Montpellier in 1529 for the study of medicine, 
and as soon as he had obtained a batchelor’s degree he 
settled at a small town in Provence. His professional emo¬ 
luments here were so scanty that he was obliged to open a 
grammar-school for a subsistence. He afterwards revisited 
Paris, where he studied the Greek language, and lived some 
time with the Viscount Turenne, as preceptor to his son. Re¬ 
turning to Montpellier, he was admitted to the degree of 
M.D. in 1537. Soon after, he was appointed physician to 
the Cardinal de Tournon, whom he accompanied in his 
journeys as ambassador to Italy and other Countries. Ron- 
delet made use of his opportunities to collect information, 
especially in what regarded his intended history of fishes. 
In 1545 he was nominated to a medical chair in the Univer¬ 
sity of Montpellier, but for some years longer he continued 
to attend the Cardinal de Tournon. He was much attached 
to anatomical inquiries, and this passion so far overcame 
his other feelings, that he is said to have brought the body 
Vol. XXII. No 1507. 
RON 353 
of one of his own children into the dissecting room. He 
also urged one of his colleagues, whom he visited in a dan¬ 
gerous disease, to suffer his body to be opened after death. 
He obtained at court the erection of an anatomical the¬ 
atre at Montpellier, under Henry II. in 1556. In that 
year he was elected chancellor of the university, which 
office he filled with great attention till his death in 1566. 
Rondelet was of so liberal a disposition with regard to money, 
that notwithstanding his considerable appointments and 
professional gains, he left scarcely any property but his 
writings. Rabelais, his contemporary, has thrown some 
ridicule upon him under the name of Rondibilis, alluding 
both to his real name and to the roundness of his form. 
This physician was not only learned, but was also an atten¬ 
tive observer of nature, qualities (as Haller truly observes) not 
frequently in conjunction. He is best known by his works 
on fishes, which were “ De Piscibus Marinis, Libr. XVIII,,” 
fob, 1554; and “ Universse Aquatilium Historise Pars altera,” 
fob, 1555; both translated into French by Laurence Jou- 
bert, under the title of u Histoire entiere des Poissons,” fob, 
1558. This work is accompanied with figures, and contains 
much curious information with respect to this class of the 
animal creation, and many valuable anatomical remarks 
arising from his own researches. Some observations in hu¬ 
man anatomy are interspersed, and he appears to have been 
the first who has described the valve of the colon. His 
principal medical writings were “ De Ponderibus, seujusta 
Quantitate et Proportione Medicamentorum,” 8vo., 1555, 
often reprinted; “ Methodus de Materia Medicinali et Com- 
positione Medicamentorum,” 8vo., 1556; “Methodus cu- 
randorum omnium Morborum Corporis Humani,” 8vo., 
1574, several times reprinted. Halleri. 
RONDELETIA, (so named by Plunder in memory of 
Rondelet.) In botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order 
monogynia, natural order of rubiacese, ( Juss .) Generic 
character.—Calyx: perianth one-leaved, superior,five-parted, 
acute, permanent. Corolla: one-petalled, funnel-shaped ; 
tube cylindrical, longer than the calyx, bellying a little at 
top ; border five-parted, from reflex fiat; segments roundish. 
Stamina: filaments five, awl-shaped, almost the length of 
the corolla; anthers simple. Pistil: germ roundish, inferior; 
style filiform, the length of the corolla ; stigma bifid. Peri¬ 
carp : capsule roundish, crowned, two-celled. Seeds several, 
or sometimes solitary.— Essential Character. —Corolla fun¬ 
nel-shaped. Capsule two-celled, inferior, many-seeded, (or 
with one or two seeds only,) roundish, crowned. 
I.—With many seeds. 
1. Rondeletia Americana.—Leaves sessile, panicle dicho¬ 
tomous.—This rises with a woody stalk ten or twelve feet 
high, branching out on every side; the branches covered 
with a smooth greenish bark. Leaves oblong, ending in 
acute points, entire, the upper surface lucid green, the under 
pale ; they are a little crumpled, and stand alternate. The 
flowers come out in bunches at the end of the branches, are 
white, and have little scent. They appear in autumn, but 
are not followed by seeds in England. 
The seeds were first sent here by Mr. Robert Miller, who 
collected them on the north side of the island of Jamaica. 
2. Rondeletia odorata.—Leaves petioled, subovate, blunt. 
—This is an inelegant, irregular, upright shrub, five or six 
feet high. Branches round. Leaves opposite, entire, some¬ 
what rugged on the upper surface. Stipules within the 
petioles, wide, acute. Common peduncles erect, termina¬ 
ting, in threes, three-flowered. Flowers scarlet, with the 
projecting rim of the tube orange coloured, smelling like 
violets. The corolla is very often six-parted, with a six¬ 
leaved calyx, though it has always five stamens. The cap¬ 
sules have many angular seeds.—Native of the West Indies. 
3. Rondeletia triioliata, — Leaves tomentose under¬ 
neath, panicles axillary.—This is an upright tree, twelve 
feet in height. The younger branches are obtusely 
triangular and hirsute. Leaves lanceolate, acute, quite 
entire, smooth on the upper, slightly tomentose on 
the lower surface, three inches long, on hirsute petioles. 
4 X Stipules 
