Runcinate
in botany (of a leaf): hook-backed; curved in a direction from the apex to the base, having the points of the great central lobes reflexed, as the leaves of Taraxacum officinale.
RUNES. In the Scandinavian lands, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, thousands of inscriptions have been found written in the ancient alphabet of the heathen Northmen. Similar records are scattered sparsely and sporadically over the regions which were overrun or settled by the Baltic tribes between the 2d century and the 10th. A few are found in Kent, England, which was conquered by. the Jutes, others in Cumberland, Dumfriesshire, Orkney, and the Isle of Man, which were occupied by the Norwegians, and in Yorkshire, which was settled by the Angles. One or two have been found in the valley of the Danube, which was the earliest halting-place of the Goths in their migration S.; and there is reason to believe that a similar alphabet was used by the Visigoths and Burgundians in Spain and France, while it is noteworthy that there is no trace of this writing having been used in Germany or by the Saxons and Franks.
There are several interesting runic inscriptions in England, among which may be mentioned that on the Ruthwell cross in Dumfriesshire, and that on the Bew- RUNJEET SINGH castle cross in Cumberland. Several crosses in the Isle of Man are carved with the old Irish interlaced ornaments, and are in the form of the old Irish cross. See ALPHABET.