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VERESTCHAGIN

Parliament, and in   1875  was   made commander of the French Legion of Honor. He was also decorated by the emperor of Russia and by the khedive of Egypt. II Trovatore and La Traviata perhaps are his best-known operas. Falstaff, his latest production, was first given at Milan, Feb. 9, 1893, attracting visitors from all over Europe, the seats being sold at $50 each. Verdi died at Milan, Jan. 27, 1901.  Verestchagin (vye1're shcha!'gin), Vasili, a Russian battle-painter, was born at Novgorod, Oct. 26, 1842. In 1867 he was a soldier in Turkestan, and in 1877-8 in the Russo-Turkish war, in which he was wounded. He produced numerous paintings, many of them scenes in East India, while others are war-sketches. A collection of his pictures has been exhibited in New York, Chicago and other American cities. He died on April 13, 1904.  Ver'gil, Publius Vergilius Maro, a Roman poet, was born on Oct. 19 of 70 B. C. at Andes, near Mantua, Italy. He studied at Cremona, Milan (then Mediolanum) and Naples, his father, a small landed proprietor evidently appreciating his son's genius and having him carefully educated. He was not a Roman citizen by birth and does not seem to have aspired either to military or to political distinction. When the lands of the country were seized for the benefit of the army, his father lost his small farm, but it was restored by Vergil's influence with Pollio and the young Octavianus (Augustus). He had, however, to escape by swimming across the river from the violence of the soldier who held possession of it. He lived in Rome for a time, where for friends he had Maecenas, Varius and Horace and afterward at Naples and Sicily, and went with Horace on his famous journey to Brundusium. In 19 B. C. he went to Athens, intending to, spend three years in Greece and Asia in perfecting his Æneid, which was finished, but met Augustus at Athens and was persuaded by him to return to Italy. He died on the journey, Sept. 21, 19 B. C. at Brundusium. His tomb at Naples was long held sacred and visited as a temple.

His fame rests on three works: the pastoral poems or Bucolics, The Georgics and The Æneid, though a few other poems are thought to have been written by him. The Eclogues or Bucolics were published in Rome in 37 B. C., and are poems treating of matters of current interest, connecting with them the love of home and of nature. The Georgics are said to have been written at the suggestion of Maecenas, and treat of the life and work of an Italian farmer. The cultivation of the fields, the constellations which serve for a calendar, the signs of the weather, the culture of the olive and the vine, the rearing of herds and cattle and the care of bees are the subjects of the four books. His great work, The Æneid, is in 12 books, and gives the history of the wanderings of Æneas and his final settlement in Latium. He had not finished the poem to his satisfaction, and in his last illness is said to have called for the cases that held the manuscript, intending to have it burnt. He also left directions in his will that none of his unpublished writings be given to the world, but the commands of Augustus prevented the loss of this great poem. The Romans were very proud of Vergil and his work; his writings were used as text-books and copied by later poets; while various traditions made him looked upon as almost a magician. Dryden's and William Morris' translations of the Æneid are among the best English translations. Consult Sellar's Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. See, , , and.  Ver'mes or Worms, the subkingdom made up of worm-like animals. Under this heading are included an immense number of animals that are so diverse in structure that the very general title of worm is justifiable only as applying to their form or shape. It embraces about a dozen classes whose relationships are imperfectly known. The interest in the group is considerable, because the worms show affinities with the higher animals, including even the vertebrates. All are animals with three cell-layers, a body-cavity and a nervous system consisting of a brain mass, on the dorsal surface, and a ventral nerve-cord divided into joints. The upper and lower parts of the nervous system are connected by a ring of nervous substance that surrounds the throat. From the central nerve-cord are given off nerve-trunks which branch profusely and terminate in minute twigs within the tissues. The digestive system is diverse, the circulatory system is imperfect, and there usually is a set of tubes or nephridia connected with excretion. The worms live in the sea and fresh water, in the earth and upon it and as parasites within the interior of the tissues of various animals. They are divided into the jointed or segmented worms and the unsegmented worms. The former are more generally known and are mostly included under one class, called annelida. This class embraces the earthworms, the leeches and a few forms living in the sea. The earthworm series have hair-like bristles (set) on each joint, which aid in locomotion. The leeches are not 