Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/174

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166 RADZIWILL RAFFLESIA RADZIWILL, the name of a family long dis- tinguished in Lithuania and Poland. Nicholas IV., surnamed the Black, prince of Olyka and Nieswiez, the founder in the 16th century of the modern branch of the family, promoted the reformation, and published in 1563 the Radziwill Bible ; but his sons returned to the Catholic church. One of them, Prince Chris- topher, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, of which an account has been published (Polish, Breslau, 1847; Latin, Braunsberg, 1861). He appropriated 5,000 ducata for the purchase of copies of his father's Protestant Bible, intend- ing to destroy them. Among the other mem- bers of this family was Michael Jerome (Ge- ron) (1778-1850), an associate of Kosciuszko in the war of independence of 1794, and of Dombrowski in 1807. During the Russian campaign of 1812, Napoleon nominated him general on the battle field. In 1831 he was for a short time commander-in-chief of the patriot army, and after its defeat by the Rus- sians he was detained by them till 1836. Sub- sequently he resided in Dresden. RVKBl R, Sir Henry, a Scottish painter, born in that part of Edinburgh formerly called Stockbridge, March 4, 1756, died July 8, 1823. He was apprenticed to a goldsmith, but ob- tained his release, and began portrait painting in Edinburgh, where ho soon became a rival of David Martin, who then stood at the head of this branch of the art. After visiting Rome he returned to Edinburgh in 1787, and at once became the leading portrait painter there, a su- premacy which he maintained until his death. Among his sitters were Sir Walter Scott, Hen- ry Mackenzie, Dugald Stewart, Lord Eldon, George IV., Prof. Playfair, Dr. Hugh Blair, Jeffrey, and Alison. In 1814 he was elected an associate and in 1815 a member of the royal academy; and in 1822 he was knighted. RAFF, Joachim, a German composer, born at Lachen, Switzerland, June 27, 1822. He de- voted his early years to science and literature quite as much as to music. In 1843 he pub- lished a number of light pieces for the piano- forte, which met with such success that he renounced his career as a school teacher and gave himself up to the art of music. Remov- ing to Weimar, he wrote under the auspices of Liszt, for the theatre of that city, an opera entitled Konig Alfred, which possessed no de- cided merit. He has since resided in Cologne, Stuttgart, and Wiesbaden, devoting himself to musical composition and to writing upon musi- cal topics. He is one of the most prolific com- posers of the present day, having published about 200 pieces, mostly for the pianoforte. The works upon which his reputation chiefly rests are his six symphonies, among which the Leonore and Im Walde are most noted. RAFFAELLE. See RAPHAEL. RAFFLES, Sir Thomas Stamford, an English official, born at sea, off Jamaica, July 5, 1781, died July 4, 1826. He was an assistant clerk in the India house at the age of 15, and in 1805 was appointed under secretary to the new gov- ernment formed by the East India company at Penang. In 1807 he became chief secretary ; but intense application to business affected his health, and in 1808 he was compelled to go to Malacca. By his advice an expedition was fitted out against Batavia in 1811, and when that place was captured he was appointed lieu- tenant governor of Java and its dependencies. He held this office for five years, during which slavery was abolished. He was knighted in 1817. In 1818 he was made lieutenant gover- nor of Fort Marlborough at Bencoolen, Su- matra, and remained there six years, emanci- pating the slaves. He established the British settlement at Singapore, and founded a college there for the encouragement of Anglo-Chinese and Malay literature. The state of his health compelled him in 1824 to resign and return to England. On his homeward voyage his ship was burned, and his natural history collections, were lost. He founded the zoological society, and was its first president. He published a " History of Java" (2 vols. 4to, London, 1817), and "Malayan Miscellanies" (2 vols. 8vo, Ben- coolen, 1820-'22). His "Life and Remains" was edited by his widow (4to, 1830). RAFFLESIA, a remarkable genus of apeta- lous, exogenous plants, named in honor of Sir Stamford Raffles. While making a tour in the interior of Sumatra, Dr. Joseph Arnold, one of the suite of Raffles, was called aside by a native to see a fine flower, and was the first European to examine the largest flower known. A drawing was made, and, with portions of the reproductive organs preserved in spirits, sent to England, where Robert Brown de- scribed it as a new genus and called it in hon- or of those engaged in the discovery RqfflesiOr Arnoldi ; since then three or four other spe- cies have been found, all smaller than the first, and this genus and a few others form the order Raffltoiacem, all of them parasites. The spe- cies of rafflesia are all natives of Sumatra and Rafflesia Arnold!. the neighboring islands, and parasitic upon the roots and branches of species of vitis related to the grape. The plant consists solely of a flower, subtended by a few bracts, and directly sessile upon the stem of its host. The flower first appears as a small knob upon the vine,