come in jars and quarter boxes, weighing about twenty-five pounds. Some of the inferior sort are brought to us in mats. Malaga raisins are in the highest estimation. The muscatels from Malaga fetch nearly twice the price of any other description of raisins. The Smyrna black is the cheapest variety. Exclusive of raisins, a considerable quantity of undried grapes is annually imported from Spain and Portugal in jars, packed in saw-dust.

RAPE: a plant of the turnip kind, which is cultivated principally for its seeds, which yield a useful oil.

RATAFIA: a spirituous liquor prepared from kernels, &c. of several kinds of fruit, particularly cherries and apricots, with an addition of spice and brandy. Ratafia is chiefly prepared by the French, with whom it makes an article of

commerce.

RATTANS, or CANES: the long slender shoots of a prickly bush, one of the most useful plants of the Malay peninsula and the Eastern islands. They are exported to Bengal, to Europe, America, and above all to China, where they are consumed in immense quantities.

sen long, of a bright pale yellow color, well glazed, and of a small size, not brittle or apt to break. They are purchased by the bundle, which ought to contain a hundred rattans, having their ends bent together, and tied in the middle. In China, they are sold by the picul, which contains from nine to twelve bundles.

RECEIPT: an acknowledgment in writing of having received a sum of money, or other valuable consideration.

REDDLE: an ore of iron in the state of red oxide, commonly used as a pigment. Red lead pencils, as they are vulgarly called, are made of this substance, which is likewise much used in marking sheep, and other coarse purposes.

RESIN a viscid juice oozing from several vegetable productions, as the pine, the fir, &c. That of fir is known by the name of rosin.

RETAIL is a dealing in small quantities, in opposition to dealing by wholesale. Dealing by retail is what principally distinguishes the tradesman from the merchant, who imports and exports goods, and sells them by wholesale.

RHAPONTIC: a medicinal root

resembling rhubarb. It was called rha-ponticum, or root of Pontus, because chiefly produced in Pontus, in Asia.

RHUBARB: the root of a plant, a native of China and Tartary. Three varieties of rhubarb are known in the shops, namely, Russian, Turkey, and East Indian or Chinese rhubarb. The two first resemble each other in every respect; they are in fact the same article, being both derived from Tartary. The portion destined for the Petersburgh market, being selected and sorted at Kiachta, acquires the name of Russian rhubarb; while the portion that is sent from Tartary to Smyrna, and other places in Turkey, is called Turkey rhubarb. This root is much used in medicine.

RICE a very valuable species of grain. It is largely cultivated in India, China, and most Eastern countries; in the West Indies, in many parts of the United States, and in some of the southern countries of Europe. In China the rice crop is of great importance; it forms the principal part of the food of the inhabitants; and, as much of the land lies flat and low, and the country is plentifully intersect

ed by canals, it has an excellent opportunity for irrigation. From the time the seed is sown till it is almost ripe, it requires the fields to be covered with one entire sheet of water.

Half the people of Asia live upon rice. It is almost the only food in many parts of Africa, especially among the Moors, in the northern provinces. Great quantities are also carried to Europe.

In 1697, rice was carried to South Carolina, where the soil and temperature have suited it so well that it has become a great addition to the products of that state. The grain grown there is larger than that which comes from the East Indies; which, added to its swelling and softening more in the cooking, makes it in higher repute.

The lands which produce rice are more numerous and more fertile in the southern parts of North Ame rica than in any other part of the world. Along the whole coast from the bay of Delaware to the gulf of Mexico, there is almost one continued tract of rice-fields. The rice-fields or marshes of Virginia alone produce more rice than is sufficient to supply all the people of America. There is also in the

inland parts of North America a description of wild rice, which has been found of considerable use to the new settlers, as affording them a supply till their lands could be made productive. It grows in places where the water is about two feet deep. The Indians gather it thus about the time that it begins to ripen from its milky state, they go into the midst of it in their canoes. They tie together large bunches of it, just below the ears or panicles; in about a month it becomes quite ripe and hard. Then, near the end of September, they return, and running their canoes under these several bunches, they beat the grain out, and catch it as it falls. They then dry it in smoke, and rub or tread off the husk.

ROPE: hemp, hair, &c. spun into a thick yarn, of which several strings are twisted together by means of a wheel. When made very small it is called a córd, and when very thick a cable. All the different kinds of this manufacture, from a fishing-line or whip-cord to the cable of a first rate ship of war, go by the general name of cordage. ROSEWOOD is produced in

Brazil, the Canary islands and other places. It is in the highest esteem as a fancy wood.

ROSIN: a substance obtained from different species of fir.

RUBY: : a precious stone much valued. The color of the Oriental Ruby, when perfect, is a cochineal red, presenting a richness of hue the most exquisite and unrivalled. Rubies are found in Pegu and the island of Ceylon.

RUDDER: in navigation, a piece of timber turning on hinges in the stern of the ship, and which, opposing sometimes one side of the water, and sometimes another, turns or directs the vessel this way or that.

RUM: a well-known spirituous liquor, obtained, by means of fermentation and distillation, from molasses, the refuse of the canejuice, and portions of the cane, after the sugar has been extracted. Taken internally, it is, like all alcoholic preparations, deleterious to the system; but it is sometimes useful in external applications.

RYE a useful species of grain, produced from a plant which is a native of the island of Candia.

S.

SABLE: an animal of the weasel tribe, found in the northern parts of Siberia and America, and hunted for the sake of its fur. Its color is generally of a deep glossy brown, and sometimes of a fine glossy black, which is most esteemed. The finer sorts of the fur of sables are very scarce and dear.

SACK, or CANARY: a sort of sweet wine, brought to us from the Canary islands. This wine is chiefly produced in the island properly called Canary.

SADDLES: seats adapted to the horse's back, for the convenience of the rider. The hog-skins which, when tanned, are used for the seat of the saddle, are mostly imported from Russia.

SAGAPENUM: a concrete gum resin, the produce of an unknown Persian plant. It is imported from Alexandria, Smyrna, &c. It is used only in medicine.

SAGO: a species of meal, the produce of a palm tree, indigenous to and abundant in the East Indies, where it forms a large portion of the farinaceous food of the inhabitants. The fruit of the tree is worth nothing as food; the only

eatable part being the pith, which fills the inner part of it, and which constitutes the sago. The natives are obliged to destroy the tree to get at this substance, which is very important to them as a substitute for bread, besides being an article of exportation. The tree grows to be thirty or forty feet high, and its diameter is often two feet. This large tree is cut down and sawed into pieces, each about five or six feet long; and these are split, that they may more easily strip off the bark and get at the mealy pith. This substance they scrape out carefully, and soak and wash it in water, to get it quite clear from any fibrous or woody matter that may adhere to it. They then pound it in mortars, and strain it through bags and cloths, as the meal will run through with the water, and leave the refuse behind. The meal thus becomes a kind of paste, which may be eaten directly, or preserved for several years.

Sago comes to us in small grains, somewhat resembling coriander seed. To bring it to this state, it is moistened, and then rubbed through a sieve, into an iron pan, under which is a fire, which partly hardens each drop as it falls; thus

the separate grains are half baked; in which state it will keep a long while, if well defended from the air; otherwise it is liable to become sour. Three or four hundred weight of sago are often obtained from a single tree. There is a species of sago brought from the West Indies, but it is inferior to that brought from the East.

SALT: a mineral body, readily soluble in water, not inflammable, and having a sharp or pungent taste. Immense masses of it are found in this and many other countries, which require only to be dug out and reduced to powder. In this state it is called rock-salt. The salt commonly known by the name of bay salt is obtained from the water of the sea by evaporation. It had this name from being first made in the bay of St. Ubes, in Portugal; and great quantities of it are still exported from that place. In France large shallow pits are dug by the sea-shore, into which the water flows at high tide, and by a sluice it is prevented from returning when the tide falls. The heat of the sun evaporates this water; the salt crystallizes on the edges and bottoms of the pits; and this is carefully gathered up for use.

Much salt is prepared in vats at Cape Cod and other places along the sea-coast of the United States. Salt springs abound in the western part of the state of New York; and at Salina there are large establishments for the manufacture of salt. The salt water is obtained by sinking wells and boring; and the salt is beautifully white and fine-grained. Besides its vast utility in seasoning food, and preserving meat, both for domestic consumption and during the longest voyages, and in furnishing muriatic acid and soda, salt forms a glaze for coarse pottery, by being thrown into the oven where it is baked; it improves the whiteness and clearness of glass; it gives hardness to soap; in melting metals it preserves their surface from calcination, by defending them from the air, and is employed with advantage in some assays; it is used as a mordant, and for improving certain colors, and enters more or less into many other processes of the arts. Many contradictory statements have been made as to the use of salt as a manúre. Probably it may be advantageous in some instances, and not in others.

SALTPETRE: a salt very well