ire 
= 
50 eRe NCHOsIA. 
twice a-year, in spring and in autumn; and 
after being cleansed and decorticated, and the 
smaller branches cut off, the body of the root is 
divided transversely into pieces of a moderate 
size, which are placed on tables, and turned 3 or 
_ 4 times a-day during 5 or 6 days. A hole is then 
bored through each piece, by which it is hung 
up to dry, exposed to the air and wind, but 
sheltered from the sun. In about two months, 
the roots have lost seven parts in eight of their 
weight, and are fit for the market.” But a 
variety of ways has been recommended as most 
suitable. in Britain;' and some of the chief of 
these are discussed in seven articles by different 
writers in the first volume of the Bath Papers.— 
Rhubarb root is medicinally used in powder, in 
infusion, in tincture, in extract, and in various 
solid and liquid combinations; and it acts on 
man as a tonic and an aperient, and is useful in 
dyspepsy, hypochondriasis, and relaxation of the 
bowels; but, in cattle medicine, it is of small 
service, and acts only or chiefly as a stomachic. 
The colouring principle of it is of some service 
in some of the arts. 
RHUS. See Sumacz. 
RHYNCHOSIA. A diversified genus of exotic 
plants, of the kidney-bean division of the legu- 
minous order. About 20 species have been in- 
troduced to British gardens; two or three of 
them hardy, but the majority tropical; two or 
three annuals, and the rest perennials; two or 
three erect, and the rest climbers or twiners; 
some ligneous and some herbaceous; two or 
three with simple leaves, and the rest with trifo- 
liate leaves; three or oot with white or brown 
or purple flowers, and the rest with yellow 
flowers; four or five ornamental or handsome, 
and the rest possessing little or no beauty; four 
or five from 5 to 8 feet high, and the rest from 
14 to about 44 feet high. Fully one half of the 
species are Rene by some botanists to the 
genus glycine, and three or four of the others to 
the genus dolichos. See the articles Guyctnu 
and DoxicHos. 
RHYNCHOSPORA. A genus of sedgy or 
coarsely grassy plants, of the cyperaceous order, 
The name signifies ‘ beaked seed,’ and is descrip- 
tive. Two British species, the white-headed and 
the brown-headed, both about a foot high, and 
blooming in autumn, occur in bogs; and nearly 
40 foreign species are known. 
RIBBING. A slim method of half ploughing 
stubble-land. It consists in throwing up the 
| land, after harvest, into a kind of one-bout ridge- 
| lets or drills, leaving a slip of fast soil unploughed 
between every two drills, and covered up by the 
two ploughed plots. It is nearly the same thing 
on stubble land as raftering is on grass land. 
See the article Rarrzrine. It is practised on 
all sorts of soils, but chiefly when they are ina 
very foul state, and are intended next year for 
barley ; but it is condemned, in all circumstances, 
by the majority of good practical farmers, as 
RIBKES. 
slovenly, unfarmer-like, and eventually wasteful ; 
and it has been abandoned in many districts 
where it once was common, and is now rarely 
practised in any but remote or backward dis- 
tricts. It is usually done with the small one- 
horse plough. 
A species of drilling in spring, with the small 
plough, is also called ribbing; and this is some- - 
times found to be peculiarly suitable on soils of 
a soft friable texture, and also on clays which 
have been long ploughed, and on naturally soft 
soils of any kind which have become so smooth 
as to seem incapable of affording sufficient cover 
for the seed in the ordinary way by the harrow. 
A particular implement, somewhat in the form 
of the old, heavy, quadrangular grubber, has 
been recommended for doing this kind of work; 
but a common grubber ean at any time be con- 
verted into an efficient and economical ribbing- 
machine, by changing its common tines for a set 
carrying each a pair of small mould-beards. 
RIBES. A genus of calyciflorous, deciduous 
shrubs, constituting the natural order Grossu- 
lariaceze. This order is nearly alhed to the cacti 
family, but may readily be distinguished from 
them by the woodiness and leafiness of its stems 
and by the definite number of its stamens. Seven 
species of it grow wild in Britain; upwards of 
30 have been introduced from other countries, 
—principally North America and Continental 
Europe; and a number more are known. Three 
of the introduced species are procumbent or 
trailing plants; and all the other introduced 
species, as well as all the indigenous ones, are 
upright shrubs, nearly all hardy, and the great 
majority from 3 to 6 feet high. One group or 
subgenus are represented by our common goose- 
berry plant, and, with one exception, have green- 
ish-white flowers ; another group are represented — 
by our common red currant,—and some of these 
have naturally red fruit and others black fruit; 
a third group are intermediate between goose- 
berries and currants, and produce their fruit 
in bunches somewhat similar to those of grapes; 
and a fourth group are unarmed shrubs, and 
have yellow, tubular calyxes and many-flowered 
racemes. The rough gooseberry, the smooth 
gooseberry, the red currant, and the black cur- 
rant, in their many cultivated varieties, are uni- 
versally known as the most common fruit-shrubs 
of Britain; several other species produce fruit 
not greatly inferior to that of the red currant; 
and the majority of the rest produce tolerable, 
watery, sweet, acid berries, Many, also, are 
very ornamental, and some make a prominent 
figure among the most exquisite beauties of the 
shrubbery. 
The two gooseberry species, the red currant, 
and the black currant, grow wild in respectively 
the hedges, the river banks, and the moist hedge- 
banks of some parts of Britain; and they will be 
found sufficiently noticed in our articles Goosz- 
BERRY and Currants. Yet we may remark here 
