"On the loamy flats, and even gibber plains, the most noticeable plant is <i>Salsola kali</i>, popularly known as the Rolly-polly. It is, when mature, one of the characteristically prickly plants of the Lower Steppes, and forms great spherical masses perhaps a yard or more in diameter."
<hw>Roman-Lamp Shell</hw>, name given in Tasmania to a brachiopod mollusc, <i>Waldheimia flavescens</i>, Lamarck.
<hw>Roo</HW>, a termination, treated earlier as the name of an animal. It is the termination of <i>potoroo, wallaroo</i>, <i>kangaroo</i>. See especially the last. It may be added that it is very rare for aboriginal words to begin with the letter `r.'
1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales' [Observations at the end, by Mr. John Hunter, the celebrated surgeon]:
Plate p. 272—A kangaroo. Description of teeth.
Plate p. 278—Wha Tapoua Roo, about the size of a Racoon [probably an opossum].
Plate p. 286—A Poto Roo or Kangaroo-Rat.
Plate p. 288—Hepoona Roo.
<hw>Rope</hw>, v. tr. to catch a horse or bullock with a noosed rope. It comes from the Western United States, where it has superseded the original Spanish word <i>lasso</i>, still used in California.
1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xxi. p. 150: