!; : 



VI-SIMD.I:. 



VIBUKNUM. 



IMI 



pith of dead bramble-sticks. ID this cue there was no appearance of 

 any fowl having been laid up with the grub. 



The grnus CVrumiiu U au exception to its family, since itu upper 

 wing* are not folded longitudinally, and are furnished with only two 

 ubmarginal colls. It differs also in some other characters. In its 

 habits it resembles the Odyneri. The species inhabit Europe and 

 South Africa. The genus Mtuarit, constituting Latreille's family of 

 .Vujririrfir, is also anomalous in some of its characters, but agrees with 

 Sumata in the manner of folding its wings. 



The Social Wasps constitute the restricted family of VapiJie of 

 WeHwood, the /'otittiilct of Saint Fargeau. They live in numerous 

 societies, consisting of males, females, and neuters, which are tempo- 

 rary, being dissolved at the approach of winter. The mandibles of 

 the retpida proper are not longer than broad, and are broadly and 

 obliquely truncated at their extremities. The labrum is short and but 

 .-lightly elongated, and the clypeus is nearly square. They are vora- 

 cious insects, preying upon others, and on meat, honey, fruit, &c. The 

 winged insects prepare the food in their stomachs for their young, 

 which they feed daily. The males are drones, and do not work, leaving 

 all labour to the females and neuters. The larvae are fleshy grubs, 

 destitute of feet, but furnished with lateral tubercles. Some of the 

 species, as the Hornet ( I'M/XJ crabro), are of considerable size. Such 

 as belong to the genus Vapa build a covering to their nests. The 

 nests of 1'otiitei have the cells undefended. The nests are constructed 

 of a papyraceous substance made from wood or the bark of trees, and 

 those of some species include an immense number of cells of an 

 hexagonal form, arranged in tiers with their mouths downwards; 

 sometimes as many as 16,000. A Brazilian species makes honey. A 

 Demerara wasp suspends its nest by a ring from the uppermost 

 branches of trees, so as to be out of the reach of monkeys. In the 

 collection of the Zoological Society is a wasp's nest from Ceylon, 

 built inside a great palm-leaf, and not less than 6 feet in length. In 

 the British Museum may be seen some curious nests of exotic species. 

 The hornet constructs its nest of a coarser substance than that used 

 by the common wasp, and builds it in the trunks of trees and in 

 old walls. 



Of the indigenous species, the Vespa vulgaris is the most common. 

 It U a ground-wasp, as U also the V. rufa, a rarer species, making 

 smaller nests and associated in less populous societies. Of Tree- Wasps 

 we have V. holiatica of Linnaeus, which is the V. Anglica of Leach, 

 and the V. Jirilannica of the last-named author. 



Wasps live in societies, composed of females, males, and neuters, or 

 workers, which are essentially females, but have the reproductive 

 organs undeveloped or passive. The females are usually largest, but 

 of them there ore two sizes one very much larger than the neuters, 

 and laying eggs which produce two sexes, while the other is about the 

 tame rite, and lays only male eggs. The larger kind ore produced 

 later than the workers, and come forth to be queens and to found new 

 colonies in the following spring. Destined to become the monarch of 

 a populous state, the queen-mother is at first an outcast and alone. 

 Industry effects her greatness. With instinctive ambition, ere her 

 subjects are born, she lays the foundations of the metropolis of her 

 kingdom, building the first houses herself. She then gives birth to 

 their tir.it inhabitants, whom she feeds and nurses without assistance. 

 " At length she receives the reward of her perseverance and labour, 

 and, from being a solitary unconnected individual, in the autumn is 

 enabled to rival the queen of the hive in the number of her children 

 and subject*, and in the edifice which they inhabit the number of 

 cells in a vespiary, sometimes amounting to more than 16,000, almost 

 all of which contain either an egg, a grub, or a pupa, and each cell 

 serving for three generations in a year ; which, after making every 

 allowance for failures and casualties, will give a population of at least 

 80,000. Even at thu time, when she has so numerous an army of 

 coadjutors, the industry of this creature does not cease, but she con- 

 tinues to set an example of diligence to the rest of the community. 

 If by any accident, before the other females arc hatched, the queen- 

 mother perishes, the neuters cease their labours, lose their instincts, 

 and die. (Kirby and Spence.) 



The community of wasps and iU nest are called a vespiary. There 

 are several hundred females in a large vespiary, few of which survive 

 the winter. The survivors 0y about in spring actively engaged in 

 preparation! for their future colonies. Once established, they never 

 quit the nest. In their youth they emerge from the pupa towards the 

 end of August, and at the same time with the males. They pair in 

 tfe|itetnlier and October. The males are about equal in number with 

 the females. Their habiU are industrious, and not, like those of drones, 

 luxurious and lazy. They are the street sweepers and undertakers of 

 their city. They carry off the rubbish and the bodies of the dead, 

 which, U too hravy for their strength, they quarter and carry away 

 pieceinesL Their lives are peaceful, and they die a natural death at 

 the close of the year, when the cold destroys both them and the 

 workers. 



The neuters are the incut numerous and busiest class of the vespine 

 community. They are the architects, soldiers, and commissaries of 

 the state. They build the nest, gather provisions, regulate the nur- 

 series, and revenge insult*. They ramble everywhere with impunity, 

 and all provision* are to their taste. They levy contributions where- 

 ever they can, and fight for their spoil If disturbed. Robbers and 



ferocious enemies of the rest of the world, they are faithful 

 servants of the commonwealth of which they are members. The 

 food they collect is shared among all with impartial justice. The 

 worker having brought home his spoil, perches on the top of the nest 

 amid his assembled compatriots, and disgorging the sweets he has 

 collected, fairly distributes them. When not occupied on foraging 

 expeditions, the neuters are employed in the enlargement ami repair 

 of the nest. Celerity and order prevail in all their operation". lvu-!i 

 of the masons has his allotted space, ant ncli or nn inch and a half in 

 extent, wherein he conducts his plastering occupation, his month 

 serving as a hod, carrying a ball of ligneous fibre, previously torn by 

 his powerful jaws from gate-posts, wood-blocks, aud neighbouring 

 trees. This fibre, kneaded together and moistened with saliva, is 

 made into a paper, of which are constructed the combs, each made 

 up of a number of hexagonal cells opening downwards. The outside 

 of the whole nest is coated with foliaceons layers. It is probable that 

 the substance of the comb is made from the scrapings of sound wood ; 

 that of the envelope from a mixture of sound and decayed. The nests 

 of Tree- Wasps are finest and closest in texture, which is necessary, 

 since they are so much more exposed to the vicissitudes of the weather 

 than those which are buried in the ground. Some foreign species 

 construct their nests of a solid and thick pasteboard, impenetrable to 

 the rain ; others diversify the outside of their habitations with conical 

 knobs of various shapes and sizes, supposed to be defences against 

 their larger enemies, and construct pent-roofs to protect the entrance 

 from the wet, the entrance-hall being so twisted as to prevent the 

 invasion of hostile insects. The cells of the comb of the common 

 English Wasp are brown, and coarse in texture ; but where the 

 have spun their cocoons, they are found lined with a white and semi- 

 transparent paper, fashioned on the mould of the cell, and probably 

 made by tho larva; themselves. 



Wasps have sentinels placed at the entrances of their nest to give 

 an alarm in cose of danger. If these guards are seized and destroyed, 

 the rest do not attack, Jjf. Knight observed that if a nest of wasps 

 be approached without alarming the inhabitants, and all communica- 

 tion be suddenly cut off between those out of the nest and those within 

 it, no provocation will induce the former to defend it and themselves. 

 But if one escapes from within, it comes out angrily, as if commis- 

 sioned to avenge the wrong, and will sacrifice its life in defence of the 

 community. 



(Westwood, Modern Clastification oflrusectt; Introduction to EtUo- 

 molofry.) 



VESUVIAN. [IDOCRASK.] 



VETCH. [ViciA.1 



VETCH, HOUSE-SHOE. [HrrroCREPis.] 



VIBRIO. [INFUSORIA.] 



VIBUKNUM, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Caprifoliacetf. The species consist of shrubs with opposite pctiolato 

 leaves and corymbose flowers. The limb of the calyx is 5-clcft, per- 

 manent; the corolla rotate, subcanipanulate, and tubular ; the fruit a 

 berry, ovate or globose, with 1 seed by abortion, and crowned by tin- 

 calycino teeth. The species are natives of Europe, America, aud 

 Asia, and are of easy culture in British gardens. Some of them wore. 

 known to the Greeks and Romans, though the species have not been 

 always identified. 



I'. Tinut, the Laurustimi*, has ovate-oblong quite entire permanent 

 leaves, with the veins beneath furnished with glandular huira ; the 

 corymbs flat; tho flowers white, rose-coloured before expansion; 

 berries dark-blue. This plant, now so common throughout Europe, 

 and the most general inhabitant of the gardens of Great Britain, is a 

 native of the south of Europe and the north of Africa. 



All the varieties of Lauruetinus are hardy shrubs, ore evergreen, 

 and bear the climate of Great Britain well ; moat of them blossom 

 from November till April, and sometimes during May and June. 



V. Lentayo, the Lentago, or Tree-Viburnum, has broad ovate-acumi- 

 nato sharply serrated glabrous leaves; petioles with narrow curled 

 margins ; terminal sessile corymbs ; white flowers, and black fruit. 

 It is a native of North America, and is found in hedges and on the 

 borders of woods from New England to the Carolinas and also in 

 Canada. 



V. Lantana, the Wayfaring-Tree, has cordate-rounded finely-ser- 

 rated leaves, clothed beneath, but more sparingly above, with a 

 stellate mealy pubescence ; the cymes pedunculate, brood, Hat, con- 

 sisting of numerous white flowers. This plant forms a shrub or low 

 tree, and is a native of Europe and the west of Asia, in low woods 

 and hedges, and chiefly on calcareous soils. It is not uncommon in 

 Great Britain. 



I . Ojiulat, the Guelder Rose, or Snow-Ball, is a glabrous plant, with 

 broad 3-lobed acuminate unequally serrated veiny leaves ; petioles 

 beset with glands towards the top, and several oblong leafy appendages 

 lower down ; flowers of a white colour arranged in cymes, the lateral 

 flowers dilated, flat, and without stamens or pistils ; the berries 

 elliptical, bright-red, very juicy, bitter, and nauseous. It is a native 

 throughout Europe, and is especially frequent in Britain nnd Sweden. 



I'. O.rycoccot, the Cranberry Guelder Rose, has 3-lobed acute 3- 

 nerved leaves ; the lobes divaricate, are acuminate, and coarsely and 

 distantly serrated ; the petioles glandular; the cymes of white flowers 

 radiant ; the berries sub-globose, red, and very much resembling cran- 



