VIS 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



V I S 



755 



Viper's Bugloss. See Echium. 



Viper's Grass. See Scorzonera. 



Virecta; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Monogynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth five-leaved, per- 

 manent, superior ; leaflets subulate-setaceous, equal, erect ; 

 teeth between the calix-leaves very small, glandular, solitary, 

 between each pair. Corolla : one-petalled, funnel-form ; tube 

 three times as long as the calix, slender, equal, erect ; border 

 five-parted, equal, flat ; segments ovate, entire. Stamina : 

 filamenta five, inserted into the middle of the tube, very short; 

 antherae linear, subulate, converging. Pistil: germen infe- 

 rior, globular, within the calix, terminated by a raised per- 

 manent circle ; style filiform, smooth ; stigma two-parted ; 

 segments setaceous. Pericarp : capsule globular, angular, 

 hispid, crowned with the calix, two-celled, two-valved, the 

 partitions transverse, from the centre of each valve. Recep- 

 tacle : fleshy, filling the capsule, covered with one row of 

 seeds. Seeds: numerous, small, angular, hollow, dotted. 

 ESSENTTAJL CHARACTER. Calix : five-leafed, with teeth in- 

 terposed. Corolla : funnel-form. Stigma : two-parted. Cap- 

 sule: two-celled, two-valved, many-seeded, inferior. The 



species are, 



1. Virecta Biflora ;' Two-flowered Virecta. Leaves ovate; 

 peduncles two-flowered. Root annual ; stem round, a span 

 high or more, simple, sometimes rooting, pubescent ; corolla 

 becoming red, with a white mouth. Native of Surinam. 



2. Virecta Pratensis ; Many-flowered Virecta. Leaves 

 lanceolate; peduncles many-flowered. Stems two feet high; 

 branches roundish, opposite, with close-pressed hairs scat- 

 tered over them ; flowers four to six at the top of the pe- 

 duncle, scarcely pedicelled ; germen crowned at the edge ; 

 stigma club-shaped. Native of Guiana. 



Virginian Acacia. See Robinia. 



Virginian Cowslip. See Dodecathon Meadia. 



Virginian Creeper. See Clematis. 



Virginian Guelder Rose. See Spircea Opulifolia. 



Virginian Poke. See Phytolacca Decandra. 



Virginian Silk. See Periploca. 



Virgins Bower. See Clematis. 



Viscum ; a genus of the class Dicecia, order Tetrandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix: perianth four- 

 parted ; leaflets ovate, equal. Corolla : none. Stamina : 

 filamenta none; antheree four, oblong, acuminate, one grow- 

 ing to each calix-leaf. Female, commonly opposite to the 

 male. Calix: perianth four-leaved; leaflets ovate, small, ses- 

 sile, deciduous, placed on the germen. Corolla : none. Pistil: 

 germen oblong, three-cornered, indistinctly crowned with a 

 four-cleft margin, inferior; style none; stigma obtuse, scarcely 

 emarginate. Pericarp : berry globular, one-celled, even. 

 Seed: solitary, cordate, compressed, obtuse, fleshy. ESSEN- 

 TIAL CHARACTER. Male. Calix: four-parted. Corolla : none. 

 Filamenta: none. Antherce: fastened to the calix. Female. 

 Calix : four-leaved, superior. Corolla: none. Style : none. 

 Berry: one-seeded. Seed: cordate. The species are, 



1. Viscum Album; Common or White Misseltoe. Leaves 

 lanceolate, obtuse; stem dichotomous ; spikes axillary. This 

 plant, instead of rooting and growing in the earth, fixes itself 

 to the branches of trees, where it spreads and forms a bush. 

 The branches are woody. The flowers come out from the 

 axils in short spikes, and are composed of four greenish- 

 yellow calix-leaves. The female flowers are succeeded by 

 round white berries, which are almost peJlucid, about the 

 size of currants, full of a tough viscid juice, in the middle of 

 which lies one heart-shaped flat seed. The root insinuates 

 its fibres into the woody substance of the tree on which it 

 grows. The stem affords one of the best instances we have 

 VOL. IL 129. 



of what Linneus calls dichotomous, in its mode of branching. 

 The Misseltoe has been celebrated from the time of the 

 Druids, both as a sacred plant and a medicine : the very Oak 

 on which it grew was also held sacred. The Druids sent 

 round their attendant youths with branches of the Misseltoe, 

 to announce the entrance of the new year; and this custom 

 has continued down to modern times, for in some parts of 

 France the children run about from house to house, asking 

 for Misseltoe in rude rhymes, and calling out, Aguilanevf, 

 that is, A gui fan neuf, or, To the Misseltoe, 'tis the new 

 year ; and in England branches of this plant are hung up 

 in most houses among other Christmas evergreens. As a 

 medicine, the Misseltoe of the Oak obtained great reputation 

 for the cure of the epilepsy; and Villars administered the 

 dry leaves in powder to two children between eight and ten 

 years of age, who were epileptic, and were cured by it ; but 

 he observes, that others were cured by emetics and Jesuits' 

 bark, whilst some patients have resisted all these remedies, 

 together with cauteries, setons, extracts of Henbane, and 

 electricity. Colbatch has however strongly recommended it 

 in various convulsive disorders. He administered it in sub- 

 stance in doses of half a drachm of the wood or leaves, or 

 an infusion of an ounce. This author was followed by others, 

 who have not only borne testimony to its efficacy in convul- 

 sions, but also in those complaints denominated nervous, in 

 which it was supposed to act in the character of a tonic. 

 The leaves reduced to powder, and taken in carduus or 

 poppy water, are a good medicine in pleuretic complaints. 

 The berries are taken by country people when they find them- 

 selves troubled with severe stitches, and they yield almost 

 instantaneous relief. The bark and the berries may both be 

 made into birdlime, which being applied to hard swellings 

 in any part of the body, ripens them in a short space of time. 

 The berries are devoured by several large birds, as the 

 blackbird, fieldfare, and thrush, thence named Missel 

 thrush or Misseltoe bird. Birdlime is made from these 

 berries, and also from the bark. The berries are boiled in 

 water till they burst, then are well beaten in a mortar, and 

 afterwards washed till all the branny husks are cleared away. 

 The Italians make their birdlime of the berries heated and 

 mixed with oil, as is also that which they make of Holly 

 bark, and add turpentine to make it bear water. The bird- 

 lime now commonly used with us is made of the bark of the 

 Holly, which is stripped off about Midsummer: it is boiled 

 for ten or twelve hours, and, when the green coat separates 

 from the other, is covered with Fern for a fortnight, and, 

 put in a moist place ; by that time the bark will be turned 

 to a jelly, and no fibres left: it is then beaten in a stone 

 mortar till it becomes a tough paste : this is washed in a 

 running stream, till no motes appear ; then put up to ferment 

 four or five days, and is scummed as often as any thing 

 arises, and then laid up for use. When used, a third part 

 of oil is incorporated with it over the fire. The bark of our 

 Way-faring shrub will, it is said, make as good birdlime as 

 that of the Holly. Found throughout Europe, on the 

 branches of old Apple-trees, Hawthorns, Lime-trees. Oaks, 

 Firs, &c. flowering in the spring. Propagation, SfC. Misse^ 

 toe is always produced from seed, and cannot be cultivated 

 in the earth like most other plants, but will always grow upon 

 trees : hence the ancients thought it was an excrescence of the 

 tree, without any seed being previously lodged there. It is 

 propagated by birds, who eat the seeds as food, and then void 

 them accidentally upon the branches of trees, where the few 

 seeds which escape the digestive power of their stomachs, 

 adhere and grow. It appears to grow equally well upon any 

 kind of tree, and to possess the same properties wherever 

 9 F 



