Se | 
RAKING. 
The hand hay-rake, and the most important 
kinds of horse-rake for either hay or corn, are no- 
ticed in the article Hay-Raxsu.—The garden iron 
rake is a very simple yet very important imple- 
ment, of various sizes.—The drill rake is a large- 
headed rake with triangular teeth, like small 
coulters, set at 6 or 9 or 12 inches’ distance ac- 
cording to circumstances; and is drawn across 
prepared beds or ridges to form drills for plant- 
ing maize or saffron, or for sowing field crops of 
onions, carrots, or similar small-seeded crops.— 
The lawn or daisy rake has teeth closely set to 
one another, and sharpened on both edges like 
lancets; and is used for tearing off the buds and 
flower-heads of daisies and other intruding plants 
on lawns. 
RAKING, or Bacx-Raxine. The removing of 
hard foeces from the rectum of the horse with 
the hand. It is a useful operation in cases of 
constipation accompanying fever or inflamma- 
tion; and ought, in all such cases, to precede 
_ the injection of clysters. A boy with oiled hand 
and arm performs it best; but he must be a 
steady lad, and should proceed slowly and cau- 
| tiously. 
RAM. An entire male sheep,—called in Scot- 
landatup. Rams, except at particular seasons, 
must be kept constantly separate from the rest 
of sheep stock, and even ought not to be within 
reach of their smell. See the articles Saurp and 
BREEDING. 
RAMOON - TREE, —botanically Trophis. A 
genus of ornamental, tropical, ligneous plants, of 
the wild olive tree family. Two species, both 
green-flowered evergreens of between 20 and 30 
feet in height, loving a soil of loamy peat and 
propagable from cuttings, have been introduced 
to British collections; and some others are 
known. ‘They are of some use to cattle in their 
native country, and hence received the name of 
trophis, which signifies fodder. 
RAMPION,—botanically Phytewma. A genus 
of ornamental herbaceous plants, of the bellflower 
order. One species grows wild in Britain; about 
30 species have been introduced from other coun- 
tries; and several more are known. The great 
majority are hardy and perennial-rooted, and 
have a height of between 6 and 24 inches, and 
carry blue or violet flowers in summer, and love 
a soil of peaty loam, and are propagated by divi- 
sion of the root, and do well for either rockwork 
or the flower-border or small pots. 
The indigenous species, or round-headed ram- 
pion, Phytewma orbiculare, occurs on pastures and 
on the sides of roads in some of the chalk dis- 
tricts of England, but is rare. Its root is woody 
and long, and divided at the crown; its stem is 
solitary, simple, smooth, angular, leafy, and com- 
monly about a foot in height; its radical leaves 
are cordate or elliptico-lanceolate, and its cau- 
line ones crenate, and all smooth and reticulately 
veined ; and its flowers come out in a round head, 
with several leafy bracts, and are sessile, inodor- 
15 
RANUNCULUS. 
ous, and numerous, and have a violet or exceed- 
ingly brilliant deep blue colour, and bloom from 
June till August. 
The spiked rampion, Phytewma spicatwm, has 
sometimes been used as an article of food. It is 
a native of Continental Europe, and was intro- 
duced to Britain toward the close of the 16th 
century. It differs from all the other species in 
having white-coloured flowers; and it usually 
attains a height of about two feet, and blooms 
from June till August. 
RAMPION (German). “See GInANTHE. 
RAMPIONS, or Rampion BrenarLowEeR,—bota- 
nically Campanula Rapunculus. An indigenous, 
biennial, ornamental, and culinary plant, of the 
bellflower genus. See the article BeLLrLoweEr. 
It was formerly cultivated for sake of its escu- 
lent, tuberous root, but has, in a chief degree, 
ceased to be in request. It may, when wanted, 
be raised from seed sown in March or April, on 
a shady border, either broadcast or in drills 6 
inches apart. The young plants must be thinned 
out to distances of 6 inches from one another in 
May; and the root will be fit to draw in the fol- 
lowing autumn, winter, and spring. 
RANDIA. A genus of ornamental, evergreen, 
white-flowered, tropical shrubs, of the madder 
tribe. Seven or eight species, varying in height 
from 5 to 15 feet, have been introduced to the 
hothouses of Britain ; and all love a soil of loamy 
peat, and are propagated from cuttings. The 
prickly species, A. aculeata—called by some bo- 
tanists Gardenia randia—is the tallest and one 
of the best known of the introduced species, and 
was brought to Britain upwards of a century ago 
from the West Indies. The stem is shrubby, and 
has a whitish bark, and rises to the height of 
from 10 to 15 feet; the branches come out oppo- 
sitely from the sides of the stem, in such a way 
that each pair crosses the other ; the leaves come 
out by pairs on short footstalks, and are thick, a 
little indented at the top, and about an inch long 
and three-fourths of an inch broad; two short 
spines stand oppositely at the joints immediately 
under the leaves; the flowers come out from 
the side of the branches, and are small, tubu- 
lous, and five-parted, and bloom from May 
till September; and the fruit are oval berries, 
about the size of marbles, with a brittle shell 
under a thin skin, and containing many com- 
pressed seeds within a black pulp. 
RANUNCULUS. A large genus of ornamental, 
herbaceous, exogenous plants, constituting the 
type of the order Ranunculacee. This order 
stands at the head of the dichlamydeous division 
of exogens, or those which have both a calyx and 
a corolla,—of the thalamiflurous subdivision, or 
those which have the petals and the stamens in- 
serted into the receptacle,—and of the first sec- 
tion of that subdivision, or those which have 
the carpels numerous, or the stamens opposite 
the petals. It at present comprises, within the 
gardens and botanical collections of Britain, 8 
rad 
