RUDOLF II., eldest son of the Em peror Maximilian II.; born in Vienna, July 18, 1552; he was educated at the Spanish court by the Jesuits; made King of Hun gary in 1572, King of Bohemia, with the title King of the Romans, in 1575, and on the death of his father in 1576 succeeded to the imperial crown. Gloomy, taciturn, bigoted, indolent both in body and mind, he put himself in the hands of the Jesuits and low favorites and left the empire to govern itself. His attention was given to his curiosities, his stable, his alchemi cal and magical studies; nevertheless his taste for astrology and the occult sciences, and his desire to discover the philosopher's stone, made him extend his patronage to Kepler and Tycho Brahe. The astrono mical calculations begun by Tycho, and continued by Kepler, known as "The Ru dolphine Tables," derive their name from this emperor. Meanwhile the Protestants
were bitterly persecuted by the Jesuits throughout the empire; the Turks invaded Hungary and defeated the Archduke Maximilian (1596) ; Transylvania and Hungary rose in revolt; and at last dolf's brother Matthias wrested from him the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, and RUE, the genus Ruta. The common rue is R. graveolens, a half-shrubby plant, of a fetid odor and an acrid taste. The bluish - green leaves are pinnate, the flowers yellow; a native of southern Eu rope, but grown in gardens in the East and West Indies, the United States, etc. Rue oil is a powerful topical stimulant, an anti-spasmodic and an emmenagogue. It is used internally in flatulent colic, hysteria, epilepsy, etc., and as an enema, and externally as a rubefacient.