ROSEWOOD, a name given to the wood of a number of different trees, valued for beauty; and used for ornamental furniture.—The rosewood of commerce has been thought to be the produce of a species of mimosa, a native of Brazil. It is also said that rosewood is the timber of several species of triptolomea (natural order leguini 91.0&E, suborder papilionacew); but the trees yielding rosewood are, in general, still doubt ful to the botanist, although different kinds of rosewood, imported from South America, are much used for veneering, in making furniture, musical instruments, etc. Rosewood has for a long time been second only to mahogany as a furniture-wood in Europe. It has a dark blackish-brown color, beautifully marked with streaks of dark red, and when being sawn or cut, yields an agreeable smell of roses, from which it receives its name. We receive it chiefly from Para and Maranham, in logs usually about 10 ft. in length; each log is only half the trunk, which is split in two to be sure it is sound. 'Violet wood and king wood are from similar trees. The name rosewood has been also given to kinds of timber grown in Jamaica, in Africa, and in Burmah. One valuable kind of rose wood is yielded by an East Indian tree, dalbergia latifolia, also called b.'aekwood. It is found chiefly in Malabar, and grows' to a height of about 50 feet. It is of the natural order legUilli1108W, suborder papilionacew. The timber is very valuable. It is much used in Bombay for ornamental furniture. Planks of 4 ft. in breadth are sometimes obtained, after the sapwood has been removed. The increasing value of the wood has led to the formation of new plantations, under the care of the government conservator of forests, in several parts of the Madras presidency.
ROSICRt'CIANS. the name of a secret society of the 17th c.. which is involved in much mystery, and the history of which has led to a great deal of discussion. The name is explained by Mosheim and others, as derived from roe, dew, and crux, the cross. Caux is supposed mystically to represent Lux or light, because the figure + exhibits the three letters LVX; and light, in the opinion of the Rosicrueians, is that which pro duces gold. Now dew (ros) is the greatest solvent of gold in the ancient science of alchemy. But without insisting on this very mysterious explanation of the name Rosi crucians, we must be content with an account of the association itself. The beginning of the 17th c. was a period which manifested an extraordinary tendency to mysticism in science as well as in religion: alchemy, astrology. and divination divided the public interest with Pietism in the Protestant world, and the Convuheionist mania in the Catho lic community. A remarkable impulse was given to this tendency by the simultaneous appearance of two anonymous books, printed at Cassel in 1614, in German, entitled Universal and General Reformation of the whole wide World; together with the Fauna Fraternitatis. or of the Illustrious Order of the R. a (Rosy Cross); to the Rulers, States, and Learned of Europe; printed at Cassel, by William Wessel. The first
of these books is a kind of mystic allegory. In the reign of Justinian, Apollo, finding the world full of every kind of corruption, resolves on effecting a reformation: and with this view, calls up the seven wise men of Greece, and three Roman philosphers. of whom Cato and Seneca are the chief advisers. Their deliberation forms the subject of the book, which is a satire at once on the philosophy and the political systems and gov ernments of the age. The Fauna Fraternitatis is the story of a certain holy and reverend brother Christian Rosenkreuz c.. Rosy Cross). who is represented as living in the 14th century. This father, a German of nobl_ birth, having been educated in a monas tery, conceives a design for the reformation of the world; and after learning at Jerusalem and Damascus all the science of the Arabians, spends three years at Fez, in Morocco, in the study of the magical science of the Moors, and returns to Germany, where he establishes, in a house under the title Sancti Spiritus. with the aid of seven monks from the convent where he had been educated, a fraternity, which is the original brotherhood of the Rosy Cross. These adepts having framed a system with secret symbols, and com mitted it to paper, sent forth father Rosenkreuz to propagate the brotherhood, which I was to be kept secret for 100 years, the members, however, meeting once each yetu' in the mother-house of Sancti Spiritus. Rosenkreuz died at the age of 106, and the place of his burial was held secret by the adepts; but he ordered that an inscription should be placed on one of the doors of Sancti Spiritus: "Post cxx. annos patebo." In the fol lowing year. 1615, a thitd tract appeared, also in German, entitled Confessio, or Confes sion of the Society and Brotherhood .1?. C., which purports to be a defense of the brother hood from the false rumors in circulation regarding it. The mixture of absurdity with seeming fanaticism displayed in these books has long proved a literary puzzle, of which not the least plausible solution is that which regards them as simply a serio-eomie satire on the philosophical follies of the time, written by Johann Valentine Andrclt, of Herren berg, as a mere exercise of humor, and without the intention or the expectation of their serious acceptance. Certain it is, that whatever was the secret of the Rosicrucians, if there really was any, it has been well kept. They are not heard of for the rest of the 17th c., and their supposed connection with the Illuminati of Weishaupt, at the close of the 18th c., is more than doubtful. Equally doubtful is the theory of their connection with the Tempters. From a book entitled Curious 7'hings of the Outside Wield: Last Fire (Load. 1861), it would appear that the brethren of the Rosy Cross are not yet extinct. Sec Buhle, fiber Ursprung end Eehichsele des Ordens der Bosenkrcuzer (GZItt. 1803); Jen ning's Ihmierucians (1870).