commercially rattan-canes, are the whip-like prolongations (flagelli) of the petioles of Calamus Roxburghii, Griffiths, the C. Rotang of Roxburgh and other species (Nat. Ord. Palmaeae). These flagelli are often of very great length, and as they are armed at their extremities with long sharp prickles, when pushed amongst the foliage of other trees they serve as tendrils to these climbing palms. The greater portion of the flagellum is smooth and glossy, with a thick silicious coating having the appearance of varnish, and being very indestructible. They are collected in Bengal, along the Coromandel coast, in Java, and in China, in vast quantities, and are used very extensively for a great variety of purposes in all parts of the peninsula of India, from which they are largely exported to all parts of the world. Their great strength and flexibility, their cylindrical form, the ease with which they split, &c., render them applicable to a variety of purposes. The Hindustanese make hats, shoes, chairs, bedsteads, baskets, sieves, and other useful articles of them. They likewise use them as ropes for binding their wooden houses together, and form a great variety of mats from them. The Chinese use them to a great extent instead of cord for tying round their tea-chests. In Europe they are chiefly used in forming the bottoms of chairs and stools, and as a cheap substitute for whalebone. The imports in 1858 were 8,901,600 rattans. They usually come in bundles of about fifty in each, the canes being about 16 feet in length, and once bent in the bundle.

RAUCH, CHRISTIAN, one of the greatest sculptors of modern times, was born at Arolsen, in the principality of Waldeck, on the 2d of January 1777. The opening career of the young artist was attended with considerable difficulty. His parents were poor, and could not afford to place him under efficient masters. His first instructor, Valentin of Arolsen, taught him little else than the art of sculpturing grave-stones. Professor Ruhl of Cassel could not give him much more. A wider field of improvement opened up before him when he removed to Berlin in 1797; but poverty still hampered all his efforts. He was obliged to earn a livelihood by becoming a royal lacquerer, and to reserve the prosecution of his favourite art for his spare hours. The genius of Rauch, however, soon forced itself into notice, and recommended him to several influential individuals who were able to give him assistance. Queen Louisa surprising him one day in the act of modelling her fair features in wax, sent him to study at the Academy of Art. Not long afterwards, in 1804, Count Sandrecky gave him the means to go and complete his education at Rome. There also he found both aid and encouragement. William Von Humboldt directed his attention to the antique. Canova and Thorwaldsen advised and stimulated him in that study. Under such propitious patronage the young sculptor made rapid progress. Among other works, he executed bas-reliefs of "Hippolytus and Phaedra," "Mars and Venus wounded by Diomedes," and a "Child Praying."

It was in 1811 that Rauch entered upon the eminent part of his career. Commissioned in that year to execute a monument for Queen Louisa of Prussia, he summoned up all his strength and industry for the arduous task. It is said that he shut himself up from all intercourse with the world until, by unwearied meditation and experiment, he had caught and embodied the features of his departed patroness. The statue, representing the queen in a sleeping posture, was placed in a mausoleum in the grounds of Charlottenburg, and procured great fame for the artist. Commissions for portraits came pouring in upon him. The consummate tact with which he seized individual characteristics, and the artistic manner in which he treated them, established at once his reputation. The erection of all public statues came to be entrusted to him. He began to execute that long series of representations of great Germans in which his genius is exhibited to full advantage. As years passed by, statesmen, patriots, and men of genius, some colossal and others of the ordinary size, continued to come forth from his studio. In course of time almost every important town throughout the country possessed a bust of some worthy fresh and vigorous from his matchless chisel. There were, among others, Blücher at Breslau, King Maximilian at Munich, Pastor Franke at Halle, Albert Dürer at Nuremberg, Luther at Wittenberg, and the Grand Duke Paul Frederick at Schwerin. At length he reached the climax of his efforts, by commencing in 1840 a colossal monument at Berlin to Frederick the Great. This work was inaugurated with great pomp, and in the presence of a vast assemblage, in May 1851, and has ever since been regarded as one of the grandest masterpieces of modern sculpture. On a granite pedestal 25 feet in height stands the colossal equestrian statue of the king. His plain, pinched features, and his grotesque costume, are given with historical exactness, without impairing the artistic effect. An air of resistless majesty emboldens the mean countenance, and a bold and skilful treatment hides the absurdity of the garb. Nor are the representations on the pedestal less correct or less successful. On each of the four faces designs in high relief, of the size of life, and executed after authentic portraits, busts, or medals, appear lively groups of the generals, statesmen, and great men of the reign. Beneath these figures are tablets bearing the names of other noted Prussian contemporaries. Above are female forms of Justice, Strength, Wisdom, and Moderation, interspersed with emblematic bas-reliefs of the principal periods of the monarch's career. In fact, the entire monument is a vivid history in stone of the life and reign of Frederick the Great.

These numerous labours of Rauch were rewarded by a happy old age. The matchless excellence of his masterpiece had been recognised throughout the world, Princes decorated him with honours. All the academies of Europe enrolled him among their members. Especially did his own sovereign and countrymen regard him with proud affection and respect. Of late years his fine form, the very embodiment of elevated and venerable genius, was an object of interest at the court-balls of Berlin. Nor did he take less pleasure than he had ever done in the prosecution of his art. As he said himself, "his working-room was his home." A statue of Kant for Königsberg, and a statue of Thaer for Berlin, occupied his attention during some of his last years; and he had just finished a model of "Moses praying between Aaron and Hur," when the illness attacked him which eventually carried him off on the 3rd December 1857.