ROSETTA (see EGYPT, r01. vii. p. 768). The cele-brated Rosetta Stone, a basalt stele containing a. decree of Ptolemy V. Epiphanes in hieroglyphics, demotic, and Julien, 4 miles north of the town, in 1799, by Boussard, a French officer. It is now in the British Museum. ROSEWOOD. Under this name several distinct kinds rosewood, the palissan,dre of the French, the finest quali-ties of which, coming from the provinces of Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, are believed to be the produce principally of Dalbergia nigra, a Leguminous tree of la,rge dimensions, called cabiuna and jacaranda by the Brazilians. The same name, jacaranda, is applied to several species of Illachmrium, also trees belonging to the natural order Legu-minosx; and there can be no doubt that a certain propor-tion of the rosewood of commerce is drawn from these to be the produce of a species of Triptolomma, but that Jamaica, and Honduras. The heartwood attains large centre. On this account squared logs or planks of rosewood are never seen, the wood being imported in half round flitches 10 to 20 feet in length and from 5 to 12 inches in their thickest part. Owing to its irregular form the wood is sold by weight, and its value varies within wide limits according to the richness of colour. Rosewood has a deep ruddy brown colour, richly streaked and grained with black resinous layers. It takes a fine polish, but on account of its resinous nature it is some-what difficult to work. The wood is very much in demand both by cabinetmakers and pianoforte-makers, by whom it is used both solid and in veneer.

The wood of ,Dalbergia latifolia, a native of the East Indies used for ornamental furniture and carvings under the name of black wood, is frequently termed East Indian Rosewood, as is also the allied tree of Madras, Dalbergia sissoides. The Boi4 de Rose of the French, tho Portuguese Pao de Rosa, and the German Rosenholz, is a Brazilian wood, the produce of Physocalymma floribunda, called in the United Kingdom tulip wood, and very highly esteemed on account of its beautiful rose colour and grain. African rosewood is from Ptcrocarpus erinaceus, Dominican from Cordia Gerascanthus, and in New South \Vales the wood of Synoum glandulosum locally receives the same name.