Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/219

 RANZANI RAPE 203 Garden Ranunculus (Ranun- culus Asiaticus). a large bright yellow flower ; its handsome foliage makes it an excellent plant for an aqua- rium. The remaining natives are only of bo- tanical interest. Among the exotic species cultivated in gardens is It. aconitifolius, which grows 2 ft. or more high, and has large white flowers ; there is a double form of it, with flowers like mi- nute camellias, which bears the fanciful name of " fair maids of France." Some other hardy species are grown in Eu- ropean gardens, but rarely in ours. The Asiatic ranunculus (B. Asiaticus) ranks as a florist's flower. The roots, which are imported in autumn by the seedsmen with Holland bulbs, are in small clusters, fleshy, an inch or more long, and apparently with- out signs of life ; they are not hardy gene- rally in the northern states, and if planted in the garden must be well covered ; they are often cultivated in pots, in the same manner as bulbs, and give large very double flowers, 2 in. across, and of a great variety of colors. RANZANI, Camillo, an Italian naturalist, born in Bologna, June 22, 1775, died there, April 23, 1841. He was educated at Bologna, and at the age of 22 became professor of philosophy in the university of Fano, where he received holy orders, and taught till 1798. Political disturbances compelling him to return to Bo- logna, he was appointed keeper of the botanic garden, and in 1803 professor of natural his- tory in the university, of which he became rec- tor in 1824. His chief work is his uncompleted Elementi di zoologia (10 vols., 1819 et seq.~). RANZ DBS VACHES, the name applied to cer- tain simple melodies played by the moun- taineers of Switzerland upon the Alpine horn, which are identified with the scenes and pur- suits of pastoral life. The term (in German Kuhreigen or Kuhreiheri) means literally cow rows, and the musical call of the herdsman is so named from the fact that the cattle in an- swering it move toward him in a row, preceded by those wearing bells. The character of these melodies, which are scarcely such in fact, as they are not governed by the ordinary rules of music, varies in different parts of Switzerland. They are in general without words. A collec- tion of the various Banz des Vaches and other Swiss airs was published at Bern in 1818 under the title of Sammlung von schweizer Kuhreihen und Voll-sliedern. They are also incorporated in the Allgemeines schweizer Liederluch (1851). RAOrL-ROCHETTE. See ROCIIETTE. RAPE (law French, rapt ; law Latin, raptus), the violation or carnal knowledge of a woman, forcibly and against her will. Early English statutes, which have perhaps in some of the United States the force of common law, extend this to the case of a woman child under the age of 10 years carnally known either with or against her will. Every civilized nation, an- cient and modern, has declared by its criminal code its abhorrence of this offence, and affixed to its commission the severest punishments. By the Mosaic law, to ravish a damsel who was betrothed to another was a crime punishable with death ; and in case of one not betrothed the offender was compelled to take the damsel to wife and pay her father a fine of 50 shekels. By the civil law rape was punishable with death and confiscation of goods. Unlike our law, however, the civilians made no distinction be- tween rape as defined by us, of which force is the characteristic element, and seduction with- out force, of which the common law takes no cognizance ; and by the civil law the unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman with her consent was subject to the same severity of punishment as if obtained forcibly and against her will. This, we are told, was because the Roman law entertained so high an opinion of the virtue and chastity of woman, that it would not pre- sume her to be capable of a violation of those qualities, unless induced thereto by the evil arts and solicitations of man ; and in order to secure her the more effectually from the dan- ger of these, it made such a violation of chastity, however consummated, equally a crime in him, and visited its penalties upon him alone. By the Saxons rape was also esteemed a felony and punished with death, though the woman ravished (if single) might redeem the offender from execution if she were willing to accept him as her husband, and he were willing to be so redeemed. But William the Conqueror, probably deeming the punishment of death too severe, altered it to castration and loss of the eyes. In the reign of Edward I. the law was still further modified, and rape was declared to be, and was punished as, a misdemeanor only ; but the consequences of this ameliora- tion proving disastrous and inducing a fearful increase of the crime, 10 years afterward, du- ring the same reign, it was restored to the rank of felony and punished as before with death. By 9 George IV. it was made a non-capital felony, and is now punishable by imprisonment with hard labor for not less than two years. In the United States, although by statute the punishment varies somewhat in different states, it is by all treated as felony and punished with imprisonment for life or for a term of years. It was for a long time an unsettled question what was requisite to constitute this offence, and proof of the full accomplishment of the act was once considered indispensable in order to secure a conviction. As far as the wrong and outrage to the individual ia concerned,