Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/376

* KUE. 340 BXIFFINI. oblong leaflets, the teimiual leaflets obovate. It was formerly called herb of grace (see Hamlet, act iv., scene 5), because it was used for sprink- ling the people with holy water. Tt was in great repute as an amulet against witchcraft in the RUE {Buta graveoleus). time of Aristotle. The smell of rue when fresh is strong, and to many disagreeable ; yet it is used in some parts of Europe in cookery. Some of the species found in Northern India are sim- ilarly used. RUE CROWN. A Saxon order founded in 1807 by Frederick Augu.stus I., and intended as a distinction for high State officials. The cross is green, with white edges, and has golden rue leaves between the arms. The medallion is sur- rounded by a wreatli composed of sixteen rue leaves and bears the initials of the founder, with the motto Frovideiiiiw Memor. RUEDA, roo-a'Da, Lope de (?-c.I567), A Spanisli dramatist, born in Seville, where he was a gold-beater for some time. It seems probable that he was a versatile actor and manager of his troupe. He was the first popular dramatist of Spain. His works include four 'comedies,' mostly from Ital- ian sources, where there is much pleasant fooling and a plot usually liinging on mistaken identity. Rucda also wrote l)UColic dialogues, which are somewhat stiff, and ten Pasos, all drawn from every-day characters. His complete works are published in volumes 23 and 24 of the C'oleccidn de lihros espaiioles raros 6 curiosos (1895-96). RUELLIA (Xeo-Lat., named in honor of .Jean Rtiel. a French botanist of the sixteenth cen- tury). A large genus of plants of the natural order Acanthacese. mostly natives of tropical and subtropical Asia and Australia. Some beautiful species are cultivated for ornament in hot-houses. In Assam and in some parts of China Rvellia indigofera, called by some botanists Strobiltnithes flaccidifoUiis, is much cultivated for the excellent indigo which it yields. A few species, especially Ruellia strepens and RueVia ciliosa, with large blue or purple attractive flowers, are natives of the United States. RTJFF, or REEVE (probably from ruff, ab- breviation of ruffle, from JIDutch ruyffelen, to wrinkle: so called because of the neck-ruff). A European snipe (Machetes puifnax) noted for pugnacity. It is .about a foot in 'entire length, and in color ash-brown, spotted or mottled with black; the head, a prominent erectile ruff of neck feathers, and the shoulders are black, glossed with purple, and variously barred with chestnut. The female (the reeve) is mostly ash-brown, with spots of dark brown, is much more uniform in color than the male, and lacks the rull'. See Colored Plate of Shore Birds. RUFFED GROUSE. See Grouse. RUF'FIN, EUMUXD (1794-1865). An Ameri- can agriculturist, born in Prince George County, Va. He attended William and Mary College from 1810 until 1812, and then, on the outbreak of war with England, enlisted in a volunteer company. After scarcely six months' service, however, he returned to the estate left him ' by his father and thenceforth devoted himself to agriculture. He made a number of experiments which resulted in the discover}' of the value as a fertilizer of the great deposits of marl in Eastern Virginia. In 1833 he founded the Farmer's Register, a pioneer in arousing interest in scientific farming. In 1842 he was appointed agricultural surveyor of South Carolina, and later he founded the Virginia State Agricultural Society, of which he became president. As the oldest member of one of the military organiza- tions which besieged Fort Sumter, he fired the first shot of the war at half past four o'clock, Friday morning, April 12, 1801, Four years later when the conflict ended he committed sui- cide rather than give his allegiance to the United States. Consult Yearbool- of the United Utates Department of Agriculture (1875). RUELLIA (Ruellia ciliosa). RUFFINI, ruf-fii'ns, Giovanni (1807-81). An English writer of Italian origin, born in Genoa. He studied in his native city and came to know Mazzini, whose "Young Italy" (q.v. ) he joined in 1833. He fled from Italv, and from 1836 to 1842 lived in England. He then went to France. The revolutionary movement of 1848 permitted his return to his native land, and he entered the Sardinian Parliament in that year, becoming in 1849 Sardinian representative at Paris. After the battle of Novara he returned to England and devoted himself to the writing of novels. He published Doctor Antonio (1855), Dear Experience (1878), Lavinia (I860), Fin-