VINLAND 



GOSS 



VIOLET 



Cheap vinegars, which usually contain some 

 "adulterating material, should be avoided. The 

 presence of sulphuric acid, a common adulter- 

 ant, can be detected by the simple process of 

 boiling together a small quantity of vinegar 

 and potato starch, and adding iodine to the 

 mixture when cool. Iodine will turn the mix- 

 ture blue if the vinegar is pure, but will cause 

 no change in the color if a brand containing 

 acid is used. Because acetic acid combines 

 with lead to form lead acetate, which is a 

 deadly poison, vinegar or foods containing it 

 must not be placed in metal vrssrls. Glass 

 and porcelain utensils alone are absolutely safe 

 for the purpose. See ACETIC ACID. 



VIN'LAND, the name given to a region on 

 the eastern coast of North America which was 

 visited and explored by Norsemen several cen- 

 turies before the voyages of Columbus. In 

 986 Bjarni Herjulfson, a Norwegian Viking, was 

 driven near this coast by storms while he was 

 voyaging from Iceland to Greenland, but the 

 land was not explored until the year 10QO, when 

 it was visited by Leif Ericson, son of Eric the 

 Red. He named it Vinland (also spelled Vine- 

 land and Wineland) because of the grapes found 

 growing there. Several attempts were made 

 afterwards to settle the country, but none was 

 successful. Authorities do not know the exact 

 location of Vinland, but believe that it lay 

 somewhere between Delaware and Labrador. 

 There have not been wanting scholars, how- 

 ever, who have assigned a very definite situa- 

 tion to the explorations and settlements of the 

 Norsemen in America. An American antiqua- 

 rian of the late nineteenth century gained wide 

 credence for his theory that the banks of the 

 Charles River, in the neighborhood of Boston, 

 were the site of one settlement. Even more 

 widespread is the belief that Norumbege, as the 

 Norse settlement was called, was in the vicinity 

 of Newport, Rhode Island ; and there is pointed 

 out there a building which these early visitors 

 are supposed to have constructed. This is the 

 Round Tower, or Old Mill, of which Longfellow 

 wrote in his Skeleton in Armor. 



Consult Olson's The Northmen, Columbus and 

 Cabot; Hovgaard's The Voyages of the Norse- 

 men to America. 



VI 'OL, a class of stringed instruments that 

 are of special interest as the immediate an- 

 cestors of the modern violin and other bowed 

 instruments allied to it. The viol of the fif- 

 teenth century represented the culmination of 

 several centuries of development, and may be 

 regarded as typical of the class. It had a flat 



back, from five to seven strings, sloping shoul- 

 lt rs and a broad, thin neck, and was made in 

 several sizes. The modern violin is the out- 

 growth of the small size, called treble viol; the 



THE VIOL 



modern viola, which is about one-seventh larger 

 than the ordinary violin, evolved from the sec- 

 ond size, or tenor viol. The next size, the bass, 

 was the precursor of the violoncello, or cello; 

 and the largest, the double bass, was the prede- 

 cessor of the modern double-bass viol. See 

 VIOLIN; VIOLONCELLO; ORCHESTRA. 



VI'OLET, a group of flowering plants whose 

 blossoms are among the most attractive of all 

 cultivated or wild flowers. They are common 

 to Europe, Asia and America, blooming in 

 early spring in shady dells, along mossy banks 

 of streams, and 

 even on barren, 

 gravel hillsides. 

 Low clusters of 

 gl ossy, heart- 

 shaped leaves 

 partly conceal the 

 five-petaled blos- 

 soms, each on a 

 slender flower 

 stalk. Although 

 certain varieties 

 bear white and 

 yellow blooms, 

 the blue and pur- 

 ple are universal 

 favorites. 

 Among the latter 

 are the common 

 purple meadow, 

 or hooded, spe- 

 cies ; the bird's- 

 joot violet, whose 

 blue and purple, golden-hearted flowers often 

 bloom twice a year, and the English, March or 

 sweet violet, the flower which has been adopted 

 by Yale College as its emblem. The dog vio- 

 let is so called by the English because it lacks 

 fragrance, "dog" being a term of contempt, and 

 is quite different from dog-tooth violet, which 

 is a member of the lily family and not a violet 

 at all. The velvety pansy, another garden 



Violets ! deep-blue violets ! 



April's loveliest coronets ! 



There are no flowers grow in 

 the vale, 



Kiss'd by the dew, woo'd by 

 the gale, 



None by the dew of the twi- 

 light wet, 



So sweet as the deep-blue 

 violet. 

 LANDON : The Violet. 



