RUNRIG. 
pants regard themselves as entitled to a portion 
of each kind of soil or surface in a townland ; 
and whoever has a very good piece at one ex- 
¢remity, may have a very bad piece at the oppo- 
site extremity, and a middle-rate piece in the 
centre, and two or ten or twenty pieces of inter- 
mediate quality between. This miserable system 
produces endless confusion, trespasses, disputes, 
litigation, and fighting, and effectually prevents 
all georgical improvement, and even incites all 
occupants to cultivate the land with the least 
possible amount of manuring and labour. On a 
certain day in autumn, all the cattle belonging 
to a townland are brought from the mountains, 
or outlying pastures, and sent indiscriminately 
over all the arable land, and kept there in per- 
fect commonage till a certain day in spring ; so 
that no man can grow clover or other green 
crops, or can allow a late crop of potatoes in a 
backward year to remain in the ground till they 
ripen, or can perform any winter-fallowing opera- 
tions, or can practise any system of husbandry 
whatever except the rudest and most unpro- 
ductive. Evenif a piece of bog or mountain 
should be reclaimed by any man of more than 
ordinary industry or enterprise, it is liable to be 
taken from him as soon as he has got one crop 
off it, and divided among all the tenants of the 
townland. 
RUNRIG. An old Scottish tenure of land, of 
the nature of commonage. A large portion of the 
arable land of Scotland was formerly under this 
tenure ; and seems to have been originally laid out 
in alternate ridges belonging to different vassals, 
| and afterwards became separate properties in 
perpetual feu-rights, similar to the English copy- 
| holds of inheritance. “The origin of these in- 
termixed patches of property in arable land,” 
|| says Sir John Sinclair, “has been endeavoured 
to be accounted for in different ways. Some 
have conceived that it was on purpose to estab- 
lish a common interest in the defence of their 
lands or their productions among the occupants ; 
but it was more probably occasioned by the po- 
verty of our ancient peasantry, requiring two, 
four, or even more, to unite in furnishing the 
numerous oxen then requisite for working a 
plough.” This destructive system began to be 
broken up under the authority of an act passed 
in the year 1695; and it long ago ceased to dis- 
grace any of the improved districts of the king- 
dom ; yet it still leaves traces, or even remains 
entire, in some of the remote parts of the High- 
lands and Islands. 
RUNT. See Cartux. 
RUPPIA. A small genus of floating plants, of 
the order Fluviales. The sea ruppia, or tassel 
pondweed, /. maritima, is a perennial indigen of 
the salt-water ditches of various parts of Bri- 
tain. Its herbage is submersed; and its flowers 
_have a herbaceous colour, and bloom in July. 
RUPTURE, or Hernra. The protrusion of 
some part of the intestines from their proper 
RUSH. 101 
cavity. In the horse, it is not frequent ; and is 
caused by accidents, kicks, over-exertion, and 
violent straining ; and may be distinguished from 
a swelling or tumour by disappearing beneath 
the pressure of the fingers ; and reappearing as 
soon as the pressure is withdrawn ; and in some 
cases is so trifling as not to cause the animal 
any inconvenience, but in general is sufficiently 
serious and peculiar as to require treatment by 
a veterinary surgeon. In the cow or the ox, it 
is sometimes very bad from goring or from some 
similar accident, and can be properly dealt with 
only by a person of much surgical skill, and cer- 
tainly should never be tampered with in the way of 
trying to return the bowel by mere manipulation. 
Some calves are born with rupture ; and all such 
should, with the utmost care and speed, be fat- 
tened for the butcher. 
RUPTUREWORT,—botanically Herniaria, A 
genus of curious, green-flowered plants, of the 
paronychia family. Their name alludes to their 
supposed medicinal virtue. The smooth species, 
H, glabra, is a procumbent or trailing, perennial- 
rooted indigen of the sandy and gravelly soils of 
some parts of England. Its root is tapering 
and somewhat woody ; its leaves are stalked and 
obovate ; and its flowers are small, and grow in 
dense clusters, and bloom in July. The herbage 
of this plant has a saltish taste, and possesses 
astringent and diuretic properties; and the 
juice is alleged to have the power of clearing 
away specks from the eyes.—The hairy species, 
H. hirsuta, resembles the smooth in at once cha- 
racter, duration, height, and habitat; but is 
more rare, and has a rough stem and hairy 
leaves, and blooms in July and August.—Two 
annual species, and four or five perennial ones 
have been introduced from the South of Europe. 
RUSCUS. See Broom (ButcuEr’s). 
RUSH,—botanically Juncus. A genus of en- 
dogenous, herbaceous, coarsely grassy - looking 
plants, constituting the type of the natural order 
Juncee. This order is nearly allied, on the one 
hand, to the sedge family, and, on the other, to 
Fluviales or pondweeds and duckweeds ; but it 
wants uniformity or close definedness of cha- 
racter, and comprises plants of somewhat widely 
dissimilar appearance. A few of its species carry 
pretty yellow flowers ; but most are rigid, coarse, 
unpleasant-looking weeds. One genus has the 
habit of a low palm; and the others present 
more or less the appearance of carices, sedges, or 
stiff, smooth grasses. Some species, particularly 
some of the British ones, indicate by their pre- 
sence a deep and rich, though moist and ne- 
glected soil; and other species, amounting to the 
great majority, occur only on lands which are 
waste or more or less barren. About 60 hardy 
species and about 20 tender and half-tender ones 
have a place at present in the British Hortus ; 
and three-fourths or so of the whole belong tothe 
two closely allied genera, juncus and Iuzula,—and 
the rest are distributed among five other genera. 
