V E L 



long, entire, broadly undulated ; of a deep grafs-green 

 above ; pale and glaucous beneath. Stalk folitary, ereft, 

 ftraight, naked, eighteen or twenty inches high, elegantly 

 fpottcd and ttreaked with blood-red or purple, bearing a 

 long, denfe, ovate clufler, of pendulous mo^orow^ fotvers, 

 each accompanied by an awllhaped pink braBea, much 

 longer than its Jlalh. The corolla is of a waxy pink, or 

 glaucous rofe-colour, pale yellow, or gi-eenifti, about the 

 extremity ; its length about an inch and a half. Capfules 

 nearly the fame length, of a tender bladdery texture, pale 

 and pellucid, fo as to (hew the h\dick feeds within. 



2.V.glauca. Glaucous-leaved Veltheimia. Willd. n. 2. 

 Ait. n. 2. Curt. Mag. t. 109 1. Jacq. Hort. Schoenbr. 

 V. I. 40. t. 77. ( Aletris glauca ; Ait. ed. 1. v. I. 463.) — 

 Leaves lanceolate, glaucous, tipped with a fmall point ; 

 fomewhat crifped at the margin. Teeth of the corolla 

 fpreading. — Native likewife of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 from whence it was brought to Kew garden by George 

 Wynch, efq. in 1 78 1, being among the many new fpecies 

 of plants, chiefly from that country or from America, for 

 the knowledge of which the botanical world is indebted to 

 the late Mr. Alton, and his learned coadjutors, in the firft 

 edition of the Horlus Kewenjis. The number of fuch is 

 greatly increafed in the fecond edition, principally from 

 New Holland and the Eaft Indies. No work of the kind 

 has furnifhed fo many. The plant before us differs from 

 the preceding in having a more oblong pointed bulb ; much 

 ftraighter and more ereft leaves, glaucous on both fides, 

 whofe marginal undulations are flight and very fmall. The 

 floiuers are fmaller, paler, and lefs (howy ; their marginal 

 fegments more expanded. This is much more rare than 

 V. I'indifoUa, being more difficult of culture and lefs hand- 

 fome. It flowers from January to April. For the two 

 other fpecies referred to this genus by Willdenow, Uvaria 

 and pumlla, fee Tritoma. 



VELTZEN, or Ulzen, in Geography, a town of Weft- 

 phalia, in the principality of Luneburg ; 20 miles E. of 

 Lucko. 



VELVALEG, a town of Grand Bucharia ; 5 miles 

 S. of Arhenk. 



VELUCA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Hifpania 

 Citerior, belonging to the Arevaci. Ptolemy. 



VELVET, a rich kind of (luff, all filk, covered on the 

 outfide with a clofe, fiiort, fine, foft fliag, the ofher fide 

 being very ftrong and clofe. 



The word is formed of the French -velours, which figni- 

 fies the fame, and which comes from velu, a thing covered 

 with hair. 



The knap or (hag, called alfo the velveting, of this fl;uff, 

 is formed of part of the threads of the warp, which the 

 workman puts on a long narrow channelled ruler, or needle, 

 or wire ; and which he afterwards cuts, by drawing a rtiarp 

 fteel tool along the channel of the needle to the ends of the 

 warp. 



The principal and befl: manufaftories of velvet are in 

 France and Italy, particularly at Venice, Milan, Florence, 

 Genoa, and Lucca ; there are others in Holland, fet up by 

 the French refugees, of which that at Haerlem is the moft 

 confiderable. 



Velvets are now made to great perfeftion at Mauchefler 

 and other parts of England. 



There are fome brought from China, but they are the 

 word of all. 



There are velvets of various kinds, zs plain, that is, uni- 

 form and fmooth, without either figures or ftripes ■.—figured, 

 that is, adorned and worked with divers figures, thoaigh the 



V E N 



ground be tlie fame with the figures ; that is, the whole 

 furface velveted : — ramage, or branched, reprefenting long 

 ftalks, branches, &c. on a fattin ground, which is fome- 

 timcs of the fame colour with the velvet, but more ufually 

 of a different one. Sometimes, infte.id of fattin, they make 

 the ground of gold and filvcr, whence the denominations of 

 velvets with gold grounds, &c. : — uncut, that in which the 

 threads that make the velveting, have been ranged over the 

 channelled ruler, or wire, but not cut there : — Jlriped, that 

 in which there are ftripes of divers colours running along 

 the warp ; whether thofe ftripes be partly velvet and partly 

 fattin, or all velveted : — cut, that in which the ground is a 

 kind of taffety, or gros de Tours, and the figures velvet. 



Velvets are likewife diftinguifhcd, with regard to their 

 different degrees of ilrcngth and goodnefs, into velvet of 

 four threads, three threads, two threads, and a thread and 

 a half: the firft are thofe where there are eight threads of 

 fliag, or velveting, to each tooth of the reed ; the fecond 

 liave only fix, and the reft four. 



In gencr.al, all velvets, both worked and cut, (horn and 

 flowered, are to have their warp and (hag of orgauzine, (pun 

 and twifted, or thrown in the mill, and their woof of filk 

 well boiled, &c. They are all of the fame breadth. 



VELUM, in Ecclejiajlical Writers, the fame with what is 

 other wife called brandeum. 



Velum Quadragejimale, a veil or piece of hangings, an- 

 ciently drawn before the altar in Lent, as a token of mourn- 

 ing and forrow. 



Velum, in Anatomy, a part in the brain. See Brain. 



Velum Palati, or Pendulum, the foft palate. See De- 

 glutition. 



VEMANIA, called Fiona by Ptolemy, in Ancient Geo- 

 graphy, a place of Rhaetia, upon the route from Pannonia 

 in the Gauls, in pafiing by Sopianae, between Campodunum 

 and Brigantia. Itin. Anton. 



VEMMETSTOSTE, or Wemmelstoste, in Geogra- 

 phy, a town of Denmark, on the E. coaft of the ifland of 

 Zealand ; 6 miles S.W. of Heding. 



VEMPSUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of Italy, in 

 Latium. Ptolemy. 



VENA, in Geography, a town of Naples, in Calabria 

 Ultra ; 9 miles N.W. of Squillace. 



Vena, in Mythology. See Vina. 



Vena, Vein, in Anatomy. See Vein. 



VENABULUM, in Antiquity, a long kind of fpear, 

 ufed in hunting wild beafts. 



VEN.iE LACTE.iE, in Anatomy, the abforbing veffels, fo 

 called becaufe they were fuppofed to be veins. See I^ACTea 

 Fafa. 



Ven^ Lymphuiict. See Lymphatics. 



VENAFRO, in Geography, a town of Naples, in La- 

 vora, the fee of a bifhop, iuffragan of Capua ; 14 miles N. 

 of Sezza. N. lat. 41° 30'. E. long. 13° 58'. 



VENAFRUM, (Venafro,) in Ancient Geography, a 

 town of Italy, in Campania, northwards, towards the Sam- 

 nium, which became a Roman colony. It was famous for 

 its olives and oils. 



VENAISSIN, Comtat dc. County of Fcnaijm, in Geo- 

 graphy, a country of France, bounded on the N. by the de- 

 partment of the Dr6nie, on the E. by the department of 

 the Lower Alps, on the S. by the department of the 

 Mouths of the Rhone, and on the W. by the Rhone, which 

 feparates it from the department of the Gard, about 12 

 leagues in length, and 7 in breadth. It takes its name 

 from Venafque, the Vendanlca or Vendafca of the ancients, 

 and was poflefled, after the nth century, by the counts of 



Touloufe, 



