years. The greatest acceleration and retardation of either planet amounts only to a few seconds of arc. (For transits of Venus, see TRANSIT.) VENUS'S FLOWER BASKET, the common name of the euplectella speciosa (Gray), a very beautiful silicious sponge, found among the Philippine islands. The animal framework or skeleton, which in the living specimen is covered with the usual fibro-gelatinous substance of the sponges, is made up of silicious fibres, running from base to top, surrounded by smaller ones, forming open meshes resembling a basket or network, or delicate lace-like fabric. It is of a regular cornucopia shape, from 6 to 15 in. high, about an inch in diameter at the base, which is attached to some submarine object, gradually increasing to nearly 2 in. at the top; it is surmounted by a ridge about a quarter of an inch wide, and is closed above by a delicate network; the shape is very elegant, and the structure light. It sometimes encloses a hermit crab, which has entered for protection and been covered in by the growing sponge. By immersing the sponge in a dilute solution of chloride of soda or lime, the gelatinous film is Venus's Flower Basket (Euplectella speciosa). removed, and the lace-like structure of pure silex is left untouched. The first specimen obtained was valued at over $150, but now they cost only a few dollars. VENUS'S FLY TRAP. See DIONEA. VENUS'S GIRDLE, the common name of the cestus Veneris (Les.), an acaleph or jelly fish Venus's Girdle (Cestus Veneris). canal, forming a ribbon-shaped body 4 or 5 ft. long and 2 or 3 in. high; the edges are provided with vibratile cilia; the mouth is below and in the median line. It is common in the Mediterranean, near Naples, appearing at night like a band of phosphorescent flame. VERA CRUZ. I. A state of Mexico, bounded N. W. by San Luis Potosí, N. by Tamaulipas, E. by the gulf of Mexico, Tabasco, and Chiapas, S. W. by Oajaca, and W. by Puebla and Hidalgo; area, 27,433 sq. m.; pop. in 1873, 459,262. Capital, Jalapa. It is traversed by the Sierra Madre, and is generally mountainous, excepting the sandy coast region, about 30 m. wide. The highest peak is Orizaba or Citlaltepetl (Star mountain), 17,176 ft. high, on the border of Puebla. The Cofre de Perote, near Jalapa, is 14,309 ft. high, and San Martin or Tuxtla 9,708 ft. All of these are volcanoes, and Orizaba is perpetually snow-capped. The principal rivers are the Pánuco, Alvarado, and Coatzacoalcos, the mouths of all of which are obstructed by sand bars. There are several large lagoons on the coast, of which Tamiagua is about 60 m. long and 20 m. broad. Alvarado, the largest in the south, is divided into smaller lagoons by many islands. The climate is hot (80° to 85°) and insalubrious on the coast, where yellow fever prevails from May to November; but in Jalapa, Córdoba, Orizaba, and other elevated places, it is agreeable and healthful. The soil of the interior is very fertile, and produces, according to elevation, a vegetation ranging from tropical almost to arctic. Sugar is cultivated in all of the 18 cantons, coffee in 15, tobacco in 14, cacao in 11, and vanilla in 5. Cotton also is extensively cultivated, as well as the cereals and fruits. The coffee is very fine, and the tobacco is said to equal the Cuban. Cattle are raised in great numbers. Among the mineral products are gold, copper, lead, and iron. The total value of manufactures in 1873 was $2,374,400, the | San Juan de Ulua or Ulloa, which stands on principal products being woollen and cotton cloths. In 1875 there were 528 public schools in the state, with an aggregate attendance of 19,702, 18 colleges or grammar schools, 6 schools attached to state prisons, and a military school. Vera Cruz is divided into 18 cantons: Acayucan, Chicontepec, Coatepec, Córdoba, Cosamaloapan, Huatusco, Jalapa, Jalacingo, Minatitlan, Mizantla, Orizaba, Papantla, Tampico, Tantoyuca, Tuxpan, Tuxtla, Vera Cruz, and Zonzolica. II. A city of the preceding state, in a marshy plain on the shore of the gulf of Mexico, lat. 19° 11' 56" N., lon. 96° 8' 36" W., 190 m. E. S. E. of the city of Mexico; pop. about 10,000. It is built in a semicircle fronting the sea, and is enclosed by a wall 6 ft. high and 3 ft. thick, and defended by two redoubts on shore and the castle of an island of the same name about half a mile from the shore. The streets are regular and wide, and form 66 squares, and some of those running E. and W. have a stream in the middle. The houses are strongly built of corallimestone, in the old Spanish style, enclosing a square court with covered galleries. Most of the windows are furnished with iron gratings, and window glass is not common. Among the principal buildings are the municipal palace, built in 1609, custom house, provincial treasury, commandant general's office, and the old convent of San Francisco, the tower of which was fitted as a lighthouse in 1872. In the same building is the public library, founded in 1870. There are also several churches, a theatre, bull ring, exchange, casino, three hospitals, and an artillery school. The city is lighted with gas, is supplied with water from gling is common, and the official commercial returns seldom amount to more than half the real value of the trade. Vera Cruz is connected by railway with Mexico, with Medellin, and with Jalapa and Boca del Potrero, and by steamers with New York, New Orleans, the West Indies, and Europe.-The city of Villa Rica de Vera Cruz was founded by Cortes in 1519, a short distance N. of the present site; but it was abandoned in a few years for a position near the mouth of the Antigua, which was called Antigua Vera Cruz. About 1590 it was again removed to the present site and named Nueva Vera Cruz. Philip III. conferred on it the title and privileges of a city in 1615. The castle of San Juan de Ulua, which was the last foothold of the Spaniards in Mexico, was surrendered by them to the patriots in 1825. In 1838 Vera Cruz was bombarded and taken by the French, and in 1847 by the Americans under Gen. Scott. It surrendered to the allied British, French, and Spanish squadron in December, 1861, and was restored to Mexico in 1867. VERATRINE, or Veratria, an organic base discovered in 1818 by Meissner in sabadilla seeds, veratrum sabadilla, and soon afterward by Pelletier and Caventou in white hellebore, veratrum album. It probably exists also in other species of ceratrum. It is prepared by dissolving the alcoholic extract of the seeds in sulphuric acid. The solution is then treated with animal charcoal, and the veratrine, together with sabadilline, precipitated by an alkali. The precipitate is then again dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid, and nitric acid is added as long as it produces a black pitchy precipitate. To the filtrate dilute potash solution is added, again precipitating the veratrine, which is then washed and dried and dissolved in absolute alcohol. The alcoholic solution is then evaporated; the residue is boiled in water, the impure veratrine which remains is dissolved out by ether, and the ethereal solution on evaporation leaves the pure base veratrine. Delondre prepares veratrine by treating the crushed sabadilla seeds with very dilute hydrochloric acid in a displacement apparatus, precipitating the solution with slight excess of potash, and slightly heating the washed and dried precipitate with twice its weight of ether for four hours in a closed vessel provided with a safety tube. The ethereal solution on evaporation leaves pure veratrine.-Veratrine is ordinarily a white or whitish green crystalline powder, but by slow evaporation of its alcoholic solution it may be obtained in long prisms with a rhombic base. It is inodorous, but a minute quantity inhaled by the nostrils produces violent sneezing and headache. It is very acrid and poisonous, producing vomiting and purging when taken internally. It has a peculiar influence on the nervous system. Dr. J. L. Van Praag, in extensive experiments on the lower animals, found that it lowered the circulation and respiration, diminished the irritability of many of the nerves, and produced muscular relaxation, and in larger doses vomiting and purging. The secretion of saliva was much increased, but the urine was little affected. In poisonous doses the depressing effects were preceded by an accelerated pulse and respiration, and tetanic muscular spasms, followed by a characteristic dancing movement. It is used in medicine, both externally and internally. The diseases in which it has been employed are chiefly gout, rheumatism, neuralgia, dropsy, and functional diseases of the heart. Prof. Vogt of Bern employs it in pneumonia, in doses of about of a grain every two hours, gradually increased to ten times that quantity. It has also been employed in various nervous affections, as whooping cough, epilepsy, hysteria, and disorders caused by spinal irritation. From to of a grain may be given in the form of a pill, repeated every three or four hours, till its effects are produced. The tartrate, sulphate, or acetate may be used. Vera trine is much more employed externally than by the stomach, and is applicable in this way to all the complaints already mentioned. It is used as a local application in chronic swellings and indurations of the joints, whether from rheumatism, scrofula, or sprains. It may be used dissolved in alcohol, or rubbed up with a little lard in the proportion of from 5 to 20 grains to the ounce. VERATRUM. See HELLEBOre. VERBENA (Lat. verbenaca, vervain, from verbena, sacred boughs), the botanical and common name of a very large genus of herbs and shrubs, abundant in tropical countries; also called vervain, and in France verveine. The genus gives its name to a family, the verbenacea, which is closely related to the labiates, the most important difference being that in this the ovary is entire with the style attached at the top; the plants are generally without the aromatic qualities of the labiates. The teak tree (tectona) is an important member of the family. The verbenas have opposite, often much divided leaves; the flowers sessile, in bracted spikes, or in a flat cluster which elongates after flowering; calyx five-toothed; corolla tubular, often curved, with a spreading, rather unequally five-cleft limb; the included stamens four; the fruit when ripe splitting into four one-seeded nutlets. Formerly some of the species were regarded as medicinal, and several are said to be emetics. There are less than a dozen species in the United States, some of which in the wild state hybridize remarkably, and produce puzzling intermediate forms. The most common are coarse, weed-like, unattractive plants, found in old fields, along roadsides, and in waste places. The nettle-leaved verbena (V. urticifolia) is 4 to 6 ft. high, with coarsely toothed leaves, and long slender spikes of small white flowers; the blue verbena (V. hastata) is about as tall, with dense spikes of blue flowers; both are very common, and are often found together. The narrow-leaved, hoary, and bracted verbenas are mostly western and southern species; the European verbena (V. officinalis), a coarse inelegant species about 2 ft. high, is sparingly naturalized, especially in the southern states. The only one of our native verbenas sufficiently showy to be cultivated is V. Aubletia, which, with the absurd name of Rocky mountain verbena, and the incorrect botanical name V. montana, was a few years ago largely advertised as a new discovery; it is found southward and west-quet be left in water for a few days, the verward from Illinois and the Carolinas; the plant has the spreading habit and the deeply cleft leaves of the garden verbenas, with light purple flowers, and has been used in the various crossings which have produced these. -The garden verbenas are among the most popular of garden flowers, and have become so thoroughly mixed by numerous hybridizings and crossings that it is difficult to trace the now popular varieties to their origin. V. chamadrifolia was introduced into England in 1825 from Buenos Ayres, and V. phlogifolia into New York from Brazil in 1835; the first is the original scarlet, and the other the original rose-colored; about the same time seeds of V. teucroides, with white flowers, were Hybrid Garden Verbenas. sent to this country from Brazil; and with these three our florists produced a series of hybrids, remarkable for the brilliancy and great variety of their flowers; they comprise every color and shade, from pure white to the deepest maroon, except a yellow and a positive blue, though a close approach to blue has been attained. European florists have also been engaged upon this plant, and the named varieties are almost innumerable, with yearly additions to the list; great improvement has also been made in the size and substance of the flower, form of truss, and habit of the plant; a distinct bright eye to each flower is essential, and in the striped varieties there must be no blending of colors. The verbenas, on account of their easy propagation, rapid growth, and brilliant, constant, and long-continued flowering, are the most popular flowers for producing color effects in that style of gardening known as bedding or massing, and are among the few that are really successful in our hot summers. The propagation from cuttings is rapid and easy, every joint making a plant; so readily does the stem throw out roots, that if a boubena stems will be found with minute rootlets. Where no particular colors are desired, the plants may be raised from seed, and if sown in the open ground in May will bloom in August.-The sweet-scented or lemon verbena belongs to a different genus of the same family; it is Lippia (formerly Aloysia) citriodora, a low, weak-branched shrub from Chili, with whorls of linear-lanceolate roughish leaves, and small, slender spikes of bluish white flowers; the leaves abound in glandular dots which contain a volatile oil, the fragrance of which is generally acceptable, and they are much used in summer bouquets. The plant is deciduous, and must have a season of rest; it is usually set in the open ground in spring, and housed in winter under the stage of a greenhouse or in a cellar. It can be trained in the form of a tree, with a distinct trunk and round head. VERBOECKHOVEN. I. Eugène Joseph, a Belgian painter, born at Warneton, West Flanders, June 8, 1799. He studied under his father, who had settled in Brussels as a sculptor, and learned painting alone. In 1821 he became known as an animal painter by his "Cattle Market at Geneva." In 1834 he received 10,000 francs from Baron James de Rothschild of Paris for his "Herd of Cattle in an Autumn Landscape." Some of his subsequent works, several of which are in the United States, brought still higher prices. Among them are "A Herd of Sheep overtaken by a Storm," Horses attacked by Wolves," and "A Herd of Cattle in the Roman Campagna." He has published several volumes of etchings. II. Charles Louis, a Belgian painter, brother of the preceding, born in 1802. He was a pupil of his brother, and at, first painted animals; but he afterward resided in Holland, devoting himself to marine painting. His works include "Fishing Boats drying their Sails," "Rising Tide," "Fishing Vessels in sight of Fort Lillo," and "View of the Port of Flushing." VERCELLI (anc. Vercella), a city of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Novara, on the W. bank of the Sesia, 40 m. N. E. of Turin; pop. in 1872, 27,349. It is the capital of a district of the same name, formerly a province, and is the seat of a bishop. The ramparts have been converted into boulevards. The Milan gate is of fine architecture. The cathedral, of the 16th century, is the most celebrated among many fine churches. It contains the tombs of St. Eusebius and St. Amadeus, and a library with manuscripts of great antiquity. The town has a palace, once the residence of the dukes of Savoy, a hospital with a picturesque cloister, a crypt-like Gothic chapel, a small museum with a botanic garden, a lyceum, a gymnasium, a technological school, an episcopal seminary, and a theatre. The main products of the en virons are rice, hemp, flax, and silk, which is manufactured here. The ancient Vercellæ, probably several miles from the present city, was the chief town of the Libici, in Cisalpine Gaul, and became a fortified Roman municipium. The Raudian fields, on which Marius defeated the Cimbri in 101 B. C., are supposed to have been near Vercellæ, though some place them near Verona. In the middle ages it was a lordship, and for some time a republic. In | 1427 it was ceded by Milan to Savoy. Spain held it from 1638 to 1659, after which it remained in possession of Savoy till 1704, when the French, to whom it surrendered, razed the fortifications. In 1786 it was retaken. VERCHÈRES, a S. W. county of Quebec, Canada, bounded N. W. by the St. Lawrence and S. E. by Richelieu river; area, 195 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 12,717, all but 100 of French origin. It is traversed in the south by the Grand Trunk railway. Capital, Verchères. VERD, Cape. See CAPE VErd. VERD ANTIQUE. See MARBLE, vol. xi., pp. 147, 148. | politicians of Italy, and the libretto of Macbeth was full of allusions to which the populace attached a political significance. In 1847 Verdi also visited London, and there produced I masnadieri, in the representation of which Jenny Lind took the principal part. In the same year his Lombardi was given, with French words and under the title Jérusalem, at the grand opera in Paris. In 1848 he wrote for Trieste Il corsaro, which failed, and for Rome La battaglia di Legnano, which was interdicted on account of the political bearing of the story. In 1849 he wrote for Naples Luisa Miller; in 1850, for Trieste, Stiffelio; in 1851, for Venice, Rigoletto; in 1853, for Rome, Il trovatore; and in the same year, for Venice, La traviata. In 1855 Les répres siciliennes was produced at the grand opera in Paris; and Un ballo in maschera was first represented in 1859 at Rome. His subsequent operas are Aroldo (a revision of his Stiffelio), Simone Boccanegra, Una vendetta in domino, La forza del destino (St. Petersburg, 1863), Don Carlos (1867), and Aida (Cairo, 1871). This last opera did much VERDI, Giuseppe, an Italian composer, born at to elevate the reputation of its composer, being Busseto, in the duchy of Parma, Oct. 9, 18143 written with great elaboration. În 1874 he His father was an innkeeper, and his first composed a requiem mass for the anniversary instructions in music were given him by an of Manzoni's death, which was performed unobscure organist. In 1833 Antonio Barezzi der his direction in Paris, and in 1875 in Lonoffered to provide the means for his instruction don. He generally spends the winter at the at Milan. Failing to obtain an entrance into Doria palace in Genoa. Verdi in 1859 was a the conservatory, he was placed under the in- member of the national assembly of Parma, struction of Lavigna, a member of the orches- and in 1861 of the Italian parliament; and in tra of La Scala. After studying operatic com- November, 1874, the king made him a senator. position for six years, Verdi produced in 1839 VERDIGRIS. See COPPER, vol. v., p. 319. his first work, Oberto di San Bonifazio, which VERDUN (anc. Verodunum), a town of Lormet with moderate success. His next effort, raine, France, in the department of Meuse, on a comic opera hastily written to order in 1841, the river Meuse, 130 m. E. N. E. of Paris; pop. called Un giorno di regno, was a positive fail- in 1872, 10,738. The Meuse, which is navigaure. In 1842 he presented Nabucco, which ble here, separates into several streams within instantly established his fame. In this work the walls, which reunite on leaving the town. he developed those characteristics of brilliant It has fine promenades, a cathedral and other melody and vivid musico-dramatic effects which churches, an episcopal palace and garden, an have maintained his popularity undiminished ecclesiastical seminary, a public library, and to the present time. In 1843 he produced I a theatre. The trade is in wine, liqueurs, Lombardi, a work of similar musical character confectionery, oil, grain, timber, and cattle; to Nabucco, though somewhat more finished in and linen and woollen fabrics, leather, &c., detail. During the years 1844-'5 he wrote four are manufactured. It has a strong citadel degrand operas, Ernani, I due Foscari, Giovanna signed by Vauban, separated from the town d'Arco, and Alzira. For a time Ernani was by an esplanade, and the enceinte consists of the most popular of his works. Its qualities ten fronts.-Verdun was a town of some imare extreme vigor and brilliancy of melody, portance under the Romans. Charlemagne's without floridity, strongly marked melodra- Frankish empire was divided into three kingmatic effects, and very resonant orchestration. doms by the treaty of Verdun in August, 843. It was first represented at Venice in March, The Verdunois territory belonged to the dukes 1844. At Venice he produced in 1846 his of Lorraine, who governed it through local Attila, a feeble work, and at Florence in 1847 counts. Baldwin, the brother of Godfrey of Macbeth, which, though exceedingly faulty, Bouillon, sold it to the bishop of Verdun, who secured extraordinary public recognition. The gave it in fief for some time as a viscounty to composer was called before the audience more the count of Monçon and Bar. Verdun early than 30 times at each of the first three per- became a free imperial city of the German emformances, escorted to and from the theatre pire; but the bishops claimed absolute authorby triumphal processions, and offered the tes-ity, and the numerous conflicts resulted in 1552 timonial of a golden crown. This, however, was not exclusively an artistic laudation. Verdi was an ardent sympathizer with the liberal in French domination, which the Westphalian treaty sanctioned. The royalists surrendered the town to the Prussians, Sept. 2, 1792, in |