Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/713

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, fearch of prey. Thefe hinder ones are broader} at their irifer- tipn, and fomewhat narrower at the point, and are very flexile and moveable every way.

The anus of the creature is placed near the end of the laft ring of the body, and is of a fquare figure ; it is furrounded With a number of rigid hairs or fpines, and at each corner has a fleflly tubercle, which Hands out a confidcrable way from the level of the body ; the two under ones are much larger than the other two, and the creature evidently ufes them to puih itfelf forward in its moving about. Probably, however, thefe parts have fome other more important ufe. The taking in of air or water is likely enough to be the ufe they are af- iigned for. . The cells which thefe creatures ufuaily live in are compofed principally of fragments of a light and fpungy earth, and to this they add the broken pieces of flicks and leaVes, and other fuch fubftances as are juft heavy enough to fink in water. Mr. Reaumur fufpefts that they have a method of Binning fome glutinous fluid out of their bowels, to fix thefe things toge- ther with. But though they ufuaily refide in thefe cafes, they often quit them; and are found fwimming about the water, or with their tails at the top, and playing about with their bo- dies ; or at the bottom, crawling on the furface of the mud. When the creature has lived its deftined time in this ftate, it changes into a nymph, in the cafe in which it had lived to the time of this change ; it throws off the head, and the productions that ferved as arms, and to fallen it at the botttom of the cafe. Nature has generally made the nympth and cryfalis ftate of animals a time of reft and incapacity of motion ; but in this as in the great worms, has given even the nymph a locomo- tive power, and that a very brifkone. The creature, in this ftate, had fufficient need of it, and could never arrive at its laft change without it. When the time of this final change comes on, the nympth rifes to the furface of the water, and°a crack opening on the back, the winged infect begins to ap- pear. The getting thoroughly out is a work of time; and this is the molt perilous period of the creature's life ; for if the weather be windy, it is commonly blown into the water and drowned, before the hinder parts are loofe. Reaumur Hift. Inf. vol. 9. p. 40.

"VERANO Ave, or AiAVisano, in zoology; the name by which the Portuguefe in the Brafiils call a large bird of the thrufh kind, approaching to the fize of a fmall pigeon, re- markable for its loud noife; and more commonly known by its American name, guirapanga. Ray's Ornithology, p. 14S. See the article Guirapanga.

VERATRUM, white Hellebore, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower is of the rofaceous kind, confining of feveral petals, arranged in a circular form. The piftil arifes from the mid- dle of the flower, and finally becomes a feed-veffel, compofed of three capfules joined together, and containing oblon» feeds, fomewhat refembling grains of wheat, and alated or fur- rounded with a foliaceous edge.

The fpecies of white Hellebore, enumerated by Mr. Tourne- fort, are thefe: I. The greenifh-flowered Veratrum. And 2. The earlier-flowering Veratrum, with blackifh purple flowers. Tourn. Inft. p. 272.

VERBASCULUM, in botany, a name given by many authors to the primrofe, and with the title of odoratum to the cowfiip Dale, Pharm. p. 187.

VERBASCUM, Mullein, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are' thefe : The flower conflfts of a tingle leaf, rotated, and divided into many fegments at the edge. From the cup there arifes a piftil, which is fixed in manner of a nail to the middle part of the flower, and finally becomes a fruit or cafe of an oval pointed figure, divided by an intermediate feptum into two cells, which ufuaily contain a number of fmall angular feeds fixed to a placenta. The fpecies of Mullein, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe : The common broad white-leaved yellow-flowered Mullein. 2. The white flowered common Mullein, called by many the female Mullein. 3. The great female Mullein, with a large yellow fcented flower. 4. Branched Mullein, with narrow, thick leaves, and a gold-coloured flower. 5. Black Mullein, with a purplifh yellow flower. 6. Annual green-leaved Mullein, with yellow flowers. 7. The black Mullein of Diofcondes. 8. Black Mullein, with leaves like the yellow horned poppy. 9. The powdery Mullein, with fmall yellow flowers. 10. The taper Mullein, with fmall white flowers, n. The branched perennial French Mullein. J 2. The perennial Alpine black Mullein, with white flowers, and purple ftamina. 13. Branched Mullein, with fmall white flowers. 14. Low perennial Alpine Mullein, with leaves and flowers like thofe of borrage. 15. Hoary Alpine borrage- leaved Mullein, with white flowers. Tourn. Inft. p. 146°

VERBENA, Vervain, in botany. See the article Vervain.

Verbena Femina. See the article Erysimum.

VERDELLO, in natural hiftory, the name of a green marble, ufed in Italy as a touch-ftone, for the trying of gold, &c.

VERDETUM, the name of a green fubftar.ee, ufed as a co- lour in painting. It is a very pure kind of verdegreafe, being an xrugo of copper, produced by the vapour of vinegar. Suppl. Vol. II.

VER

VERDITER cV.-Mr. Boyle informs us, that the London refiners, to part filver and copper, diffolve the mixture of them in aqua-tortis, and afterwards dilute the faturated men- ftruum with water, and then with copper plates ftrike down the n.ver. but as much copper remains in the menftruum; to improve their liquor to the beft advantage, they pour it upon whiting that is, white chalk or clay finely powdered, cleanfed, and made up into balls, wherewith the tinged parts incorporating themfelves, will in fome hours conftitute a fort ot Verditer fit tor painters, leaving the reft of the menftruum an indifferently clear liquor; whence they afterwards, by boiling, obtain a kind of falt-petre, fit, with the addition of vitriol, to yield them a new aqua-fortis. But he obferves, that (ometimes the refiners could not make this Verditer for a great while together. But a remedy was found at laft, which is, to warm the menftruum well before it be poured on the tvhiting. Boyle's Works abr. vol. 1. p. 169. We have a way of making this colour in England by a mix- ture of powdered verdegreafe and whiting. This is much inferior to that Verditer which is made with the copper-water ufed in the wafliing of filver ; but its cheapnefs, and readinefs of irlofiKH at ' t!mos > has recommended it into general ufe. ViLKDUNh, in zoology, the name of a fifh of the turdus or wraile kind, called by fome authors turdus viridis minor It is of a fine green colour in all parts of its body ; the back, fides, and belly, have all plainly the fame colour ; but in fomewhat different degrees, the back being of the deepeft dye; the belly has fomething of yellownefs with the green, and the fides are variegated with lines of a fine blue. It has only one long fin on the back, which has thirty rays or ribs, the eigh- teen foremoft of which are rig id and prickly, the others foft and flexile. It is caught in the Mediterranean, and fold in the markets in Italy. Salvian de Aquat. p. 88. ^GADELLE, in zoology, the name of a filh of the miillee kind, called by others the ebelon, remarkable for the thicknefs vpdttS 8 " Rmdeleu de Pifc - See 'be article Cheion. VEiU I H, in ichthyology, a name given by Ifidore to the fifli commonly called by authors, thrijfa; by us; the Jhad, or the mother of the herrings. See the article Thrissa. It is eafily diflinguifhed from the herring, by the top of the upper jaw being bifid, and the fides fpotted ; but it is the opi- nion of that accurate obferver Artedi, that it differs only in fize from the pilchard, and the agone, alaufa, and fardina, or fmall pilchard. VERKENS Vifch, in zoology, the Dutch name of a filh caught in the Eaft Indies. It is about feven inches long, ofablackilh- green colour, with fins and tail wholly black, and with yellow infes to the eyes. It is caught in frefh waters in the Eaft In- dies, and is a very delicate fifh. It is very near related to the capnfeus, if not the fame fpecies. Ray's Ichthyogr. Append. p. 1. 3. See the article Capriscus. VERMELHO, in zoology, the name of an American fifh, mere ufuaily known by the name of the pudiano. It is a fmall fifh, of the fhape of the pearch, with a purple back, and yel- low fides and belly. ' Willugbty's Hift. Pifc. p. 339. See the article Pudiano. VERMES, Worms. See the articles Vermis and Worms. VERMICULARIS Crujla, a term ufed by fome anatomical writers, to exprefs the internal hairy and corrugated coat of the interlines. VERMICULUM, a word ufed by fome chemifts to exprefs a

tincf ure or elixir. VERMICULUS Marinus, the Sea-Worm, in natural hiftory, the name of a genus of fhell-fifh of the multivalve kind. The charaflers are thefe : They are multivalve fhells, formed in the ihape of tubes or pipes, and are rounded, wrinkled, and ufuaily crooked, though fometimes flrait. Thefe fhells are called vermieuli, or fea-worms, from the fifh contained in them, which is always a fort of worm. They ufuaily are found in great clufters together, interwoven oddly with one another.

Bonani calls them fea-ferpents, inclofed in fhells, from the various twilled forms in which they adhere to {hips and rocks. The author eftablifhes them among the multivalves, becaufe they are never found tingle, but always in thefe clufters; in this fenfe he looks upon the whole duffer as the fhell-fifh un- der confideration, not any one of the fingle tubes : Though he acknowledges that each of thefe tubes is a perfect fhell, in- dependant of the reft, and has its proper inhabitant. Strict-, nefs in natural hiftory therefore would not bear him out, in arranging them among multivalves, for they are certainly an univalve fhell, though many of them happen always to be found together.

Care muft be had not to confound thefe with the dentalia and entalia; for thefe laft are always found fingle ; and the vermi- euli, of the kind here treated of, are always found together in great numbers, forming clufters of ten inches, and often much more in diameter.

Of the Vermieuli, which are flrait, we have the following fpecies: 1. The Tubularia Purpurea, by many efteemed a fpecies of coral. This is called by fome the fea-organ, and has greatly the appearance of common red coral, but is in reality only a mafs of thefe tubes of worms. 2. The pale red 5 F Tuh-