Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/117

Rh they are readily increased by dividing the crowns after flowering.



Other species known in gardens are: V. altaica, flowers yellow or violet with yellow eye; V. biflora, a pretty little species 3-4 in. high with small yellow flowers, the large petal being streaked with black; V. calcarata, flowers light blue or white, or yellow in var. flava; V. cornuta, flowers pale blue—there are a few good varieties of this, including one with white flowers; V. cucullata, a free-flowering American species with violet-blue or purple flowers; V. Munbyana, a native of Algeria, with large violet or yellow flowers; V. pedata, the bird's-foot violet, with pedately divided leaves and usually bright blue flowers; V. rothomagensis, a native of western Europe, with flowers bright blue striped with black, and sometimes called the Rouen violet; and V. suavis, a native of Asia Minor, the Russian violet, with pale-blue sweet-scented flowers. The garden pansies or heartseases are derivatives from V. tricolor, a cornfield weed, or V. altaica, a native of the Altai mountains. (See ). "Bedding violas," which differ from pansies in some slight technical details, have been raised from V. cornuta and V. lutea by crossing with the show pansies. The application of an infusion of violet leaves was at one time believed to have the power of reducing the size of cancerous growths, but its use is now discredited.

 VIOLIN, a musical instrument consisting essentially of a resonant box of peculiar form, over which four strings of different thicknesses are stretched across a bridge standing on the box, in such a way that the tension of the strings can be adjusted by means of revolving pegs to which they are severally attached at one end. The strings are tuned, by means of the pegs, in fifths, from the second or A string, which is tuned to a fundamental note of about 435 vibrations per second at the modern normal pitch: thus giving as the four open notes. To produce other notes of the scale the length of the strings is varied by stopping them with the fingers on a finger-board, attached to a "neck" at the end of which is the "head" in which the pegs are inserted. The strings are set in vibration by drawing across them a bow strung with horse-hair, which is rosined to increase adhesion.

The characteristic features which, in combination, distinguish the violin (including in that family name its larger brethren the viola and the violoncello) from other stringed instruments are: the restriction of the strings to four, and their tuning in fifths; the peculiar form of the body, or resonating chamber, especially the fully moulded back as well as front, or belly; the shallow sides or "ribs" bent into characteristic curves; the acute angles of the corners where the curves of the ends and middle "bouts" or waist ribs meet; and the position and shape of the sound-holes, cut in the belly. By a gradual process of development in all these particulars the modern violin was evolved from earlier bowed instruments, and attained its highest perfection at the hands of the great Italian makers in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, since which time, although many experiments have been made, no material improvement has been effected upon the form and mode of construction then adopted.

The body, or sounding-box, of the violin Is built up of two arched plates of thin wood, the belly and the back, united by side pieces or ribs to form a shallow box. The belly is cut from soft elastic wood, pine being universally used for this purpose, while the back is made of a close-grained wood, generally sycamore or maple. Both back and belly are carved to their model from the solid, but for utilitarian reasons are generally, though not always, built up of two longitudinal sections; while the sides or ribs, of very thin sycamore or maple, usually in six sections, are bent on a mould, by the aid of heat, to the required form. Into the corners are glued corner-blocks of soft wood, which help to retain the ribs in their sharply recurved form, and materially strengthen the whole structure. Into the angle of the joints between the sides and the back and belly are glued thin lining strips, bent to the mould, giving a bearing surface for the glued joint along the whole outline of the instrument; while, in addition, end blocks are inserted at the head and bottom of the body, the former to receive the base of the neck, and the latter the "tail pin" to which is attached the tail-piece, carrying the lower (fixed) ends of the strings. The belly is pierced with two sound holes in the form of ƒ ƒ near, and approximately parallel to, the "bouts." The size, shape and position of these holes have an important influence on the character of the tone of the instrument, and present distinctive variations in the instruments of the different great makers.

The neck, made of maple. Is glued and now always mortised into the block at the upper end of the body, bearing against a small semicircular projection of the back, and is inclined at such an angle that the finger-board, when glued on to its upper surface, may lie clear of the belly, over which it projects, but in such relation to the height of the bridge as to allow the strings to be stretched nearly parallel to, and at a convenient distance above, its own surface.

The bridge, cut out of maple, in the peculiar form devised by Stradivari in the 17th century, and not since materially departed from, is in the violin about 1 in. high by 1 in. wide, and tapers in thickness from about in. at the base to at the crown; but the dimensions of this very important member vary for different instruments according to the arch of the belly, the strength of the wood and other considerations. It is placed on the belly exactly midway between the sound-holes and in such a position as to stand on a transverse line dividing the surface into two approximately equal areas, that is, about 1 in. below the middle, the lower end of the body being wider than the upper part or shoulders; whereby a greater length is rendered available for the vibrating portion of the strings.

A short distance behind the right foot of the bridge, the sound-post, a rod of soft pine about in. thick, is fixed inside the body in contact with the belly and the back, and serves directly, not only to sustain the belly against the pressure of the bridge under the tension of the strings, but to convey vibrations to the back. It also exercises a very important influence on the nodal arrangement of these vibrating plates. The pressure of the other foot of the bridge, where the tension of the fourth string is far less than that of the first string, is partly sustained by the bass bar—a strip of wood tapering from the middle to both ends, which is glued underneath the belly and extends to within rather less than 2 in. of the ends of the instrument. This fitting not only serves to strengthen the belly mechanically, but exerts a profound effect upon the vibrations of that plate.

The fixed structure is completed by the head, which surmounts the neck and consists primarily of a narrow box into the sides of which are inserted the pegs round which the free ends of the strings are wound. The head is finished by an ornamentation which in the hands of the Italian makers followed the traditional pattern of a scroll, or volute, offering the skilled craftsmen infinite scope for boldness and freedom in its execution; but sometimes, especially in the Tirolean instruments, it was carved in the form of an animal's head, usually a lion's.

The strings, fastened at one end to an ebony tail piece or tongue, which is itself attached by a gut loop to the pin at the base of the instrument, pass over the bridge, along the finger board and over the nut (a dwarf bridge forming the termination of the finger-board) to the pegs. The effective vibrating portion of the strings is accordingly the length between the nut and the bridge, and measures now 