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cyprini the feveral fpecies have from thirteen to nineteen rtis on a fide, and the vertebra; are from thirty-feven to forty nine in number, differing greatly in number in the fevejal fpecies of the fame genus. The ribs, in many fifh, adheie to the vertebra;, by means of cartilages, and feem only continued parts of them ; but in others they are free, and loofe, and do not fo much as touch the vertebra;. _ We find infiances of the firft fort of ftruaure in the cyprini, fal- mons, Sri. and of the other in the pearch, the gadi, and the pleuronecte. In the fpinofe fifties, the laft vertebra al- ways is terminated by a pair of broad apophyles placed per- pendicularly, and touching one another, and by means of cartilages thefe are fixed to the bones of the tail. Artedi, ichthyolog. _
Ribs, among jewellers, the lines, or ridges, which diftinguiih the feveral parts of the work, both of brilliants and rofes. 'Jeffries on Diamonds.
RICA, among the Romans, a veil with which the ladies co- vered their beads. Danct, in voc.
RICCIA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants of the li- chen clafs, or, according to Linna;us, of the algre : the charaacrs of this genus are thefe. The male flower ftands on the furface of the leaf, without a pedicle, and has neither cup nor petals, nor even ftamina, but is a fimple anthera or apex, of a tapering form, but truncated, and opening at the top when ripe. The female flower grows fometimes on the fame, fometimes on different plants. It has fcarce any cup, and no petals, but is loaded with a globofe fruit, having only one cell, which contains a vaft number of feeds tinnai Gen. PI. p. 507. Michel Nov. Gen. p. 57.
RICE (Cycl.)— The Chinefe water their rice fields by means of moveable mills, placed as occafion requires, upon any part of the banks of a river. The water is railed in buckets to a proper height, and afterwards conveyed in channels to the deflincd places. Boyle's Works abr. Vol. 1. p. 108.
RICERCATA, in the Italian mufic. See Research, Cycl.
RICHARDIA, in bptany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The cup confiifs of one leaf, divided into fix parts, and is ereS and pointed, and of about half the length of the flower. The flower is mo- nopctalous, and of a cylindric funnel like fhape, the edge is divided into fix fegments. The ftamina are fix filaments, fo fhort as to be fcarce obfervable. The anthera: arc round ifh and final], and ftand in the notches of the flower. The germen of the piftil ftands beneath the cup. The ftyle ' capillary, of the length of the ftamina, and divided into three parts at the top. The ftigmata are obtufe. The feeds ftand naked, and are three in number ; they are roundifh, but angular, and are broad at the upper part and gibbous. lAnnai Gen. PI. p. 150.
RICINOCARPODENDRON, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, eftablifhed by Dr. Ammarr, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, confifting of three petals, difpofed in a circular order, in the center of which there arifes a large and open tube, through which fhoots up the piftil, which grows at the bot- tom of the cup. This piftil finally becomes a trigonal fruit, divided into three cells within, and containing each one feed in a rough coat. The leaves of this tree fomewhat rcfemble thofe of the afh, being compofed of three or four pairs of fmaller leaves joined to a "middle rib ; thefe are not fcrrated, and terminate in a fharp point. The flowers grow at the al*e of the leaves, they are white, and are difpofed in lax fpikes. The fruit is green at firft, afterwards it becomes of a yellowifh red, and finally fcarlet. It is of the bignefs of a walnut, and in fhape much refcmbles the fruit of the ricinus. The covering of the feeds is black on the outfide and red within, and each feed is divided into two lobes. When ripe, the fruit burfts, and the feeds fall out. It is a native of the Eaft Indies. Ad. Petropol. Vol. 8. p. 214. ,
The word is compounded of ricinus, kkptt^, frutlus, and h>&?o*. arbor. SceRiciNus.
RIC1NOIDES, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the character;, of which are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of feveral petals arranged in a circular form, and placed in a many leaved cup ; thefe, however, are male, or barren flowers ; for the embryo fruits appear on other parts of the plant ; thefe are contained in a cup, and finally become each a fruit, which is fiflile into three capfules, containing oblong feeds. The fpecies of ric'moides enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. I. The common French ricinoides, from which the French turnfolc is prepared, and which is called by many authors heliotropium, or turnfole. 2. The American ar- borefcent ricinoides with divided leaves. 3. The cotton leaved American ricinoides. 4. The American ricinoides with ftave's acre'leaves. 5. The hairy poplar leaved Ame- rican ricinoides. 6. The chefnut leaved American ricinoides. 7. The Ihrubby marfh mallow leaved and American ricinoides. 8. The mullein leaved American ricinoides. 9. The ieleagnus leaved American ricinoides, 10. The citron leaved American tree ricinoides with filvcry duft. Tourn. Inft. p. 656. Sea Heliotropium.
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RICINUS, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the apcta- lous kind, confifting oniy of a number of ftamina which arife from a cup. Thefe flowers are barren, and the embryo- fruits grow on other parts of the plants ; thefe become at length each a trigonal fruit, compofed of three capfules, con- taining feeds covered with a hard rind.
The fpecies of ricinus enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. 1. The common ricinus ox palma chrifti, 2. The great American ricinus with green italics. 3. The great American ricinus with red jointed italics. 4. The ffnall American ricinus. 5. The ricinus of Ceylon with deeply divided leaves. See Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafs 15. The feeds of almoft all the fpecies of this plant are very violent emetics and cathartics. Some have ventured to give them in fmall dofes, in dropfies, but the practice is hardly juftifiable.
RICKETS ( Cycl. ) — Rickety children have larger livers, and lefs hearts, and lefs blood, than children in health, from too full and too grofs a diet, and too little exercife; and they have larger livers than children in health, from the livers al- ways increafing in weight, when the weight of the heart and quantity of blood leffen. See Heart and Liver. Dr. Hahn, in a letter on the cyrtonofus, or rickets, which is commonly thought to be a modern difeafe ; quotes Hip- pocrates, and feveral other antient writers, as treating of-it. Med. Eff. Edin.
RIDE(C>/.) — To ride land-locked, at fea. See the article hAND-lachd.
To ride by the Jlc-ppers, at fea. Seethe article Stoppers. *
RIDGES {Cycl.) — The method of plowing land up into ridges, is a particular fort of tillage. The chief ufe of it confifts in the alteration it makes in the degrees of heat and moifture ; thefe being two of the grand requifites of vegetation, and very different degrees of them being requifite to the different forts of plants. Thofe plants commonly fown in our fields require a moderate degree of both, not being able to live upon the fides of perpendicular walls in hot countries, nor under the water in cold ones, neither are they amphibious ; but they muff, have a furface of earth, not covered, nor much foaked with water, which deprives them of a proper degree of heat, and caufes them to languifh. In this cafe they look weak, and their leaves yellowifh. They ceafe growing ; and, in fine, die in a weak and very bad Hate. The only way to cure the land of giving this difeaie to plants, is to lay it up in ridges, that the water may fall off, and run into the furrows below, from whence it may be conveyed by drains and ditches into fume river, or other- ways carried wholly off" from the land.
The more any foil is filled with water the lefs heat it will have. The two forts of land moil liable to be overglutted with water are hills, the upper ffratum of mould in which lies on clay ; and generally, all deep and ffrong lands. Hills are made wet and fpewy, by the wet that falls in rains, dews, and miffs ; and this wet not being able to finfe through the clay, in thefe foils, runs down between it and the mould ; but extending itfelf through the mould all the way, and making it continually wafhy. The plowing this fort of land in ridges, made from the higher to the lower part of the field,' is of no benefit; for the water will prefs from below upwards in thefe ridges, being forced by the addition of frefh fupplies above.
There are fwo methods of draining a hill ground like this. The one is to dig feveral deep trenches crofs-wife, or hori- zontally on the fides of the hill : let thefe be nearly filled up with fhores, and the furface covered in the common me- thod : the wet will be received into thefe in all parts, and difcharged at the ends j and the plow will go over the ftones, without ftriking through the depth of earth that covers ■ them. Thus the land will be dried for a time ; but, as thefe channels fill up with earth, between the ftones, they be- come of no ufe, and the expence of making new ones is very great.
The other way is to plow the land in ridges almoft horizon- tally, and then the furrows between them are fo many drains, carrying off the water at their lower ends ; if the plow is made to ftrike a few inches deep into the clay, and the ends of the furrows are no higher than the other parts : every furrow will be a drain to every ridge, and the land of the ridges will be kept dry. If there were no other manner of plowing the ridges, on the fides of hills, than -there is in the plain lands, this method of having open furrows, or drains, on declivities, wouid be impracticable ; becaufe the plow could not turn up the furrows againft the hill and againft the ridge a!fo, from the lower fide of it. But the eafy remedy againft this inconvenience, 13 to plow fuch ridges in pairs, without throwing any earth into the trenches, and then the ridges will be plain at top, and the rain water will run ipeedily downward to the next trench, and thence to the head land, and fo out of the field. Thefe trenches will be made, as well as kept always open by plowing in pairs ; and this is abundantly more eafy than the way of plowing ridges fingly.
Every time-of plowing the ridges mult be changed as to the
pairs ;
