V E R 



ginal works of his own. The cardinal Farnefe engaged 

 him to copy the great work of the Laft Judgment in the 

 Capella Scitina, upon a fmall fcale, which he accomplifhed 

 very much to the fatisfaftion of M. Angelo, who in confe- 

 quence engaged him to paint an altar-piece for the Capella 

 de Cefi in the church of La Pace, from a defign of his 

 own, of the Annunciation. There are feveral piftures in 

 England, which are called Michael Angelo's, that have 

 every appearance of being painted by Venufti. Some works 

 of his own are fpoken of with refpeft, particularly the 

 Martyrdom of St. Catherine, in the church of S. AgoftinO ; 

 and St. John in the Wildernefs, in St. Catherine alii Funari. 

 He died in 1576, aged fixty-one. 



VENZONE, in Geography, a town of Italy, in the 

 country of Friuli, on the Tajamento ; 18 miles W.N.W. 

 of Friuli. 



VEPILLIUM, or Vepillum, in jincient Geography, a 

 town of Africa, S. of Carthage, fituated two leagues S.E. 

 of Almana, which has Itill fome veftiges of the Romans. 



VEPRECULjE, in Botany, the thirty-firft natural order 

 among the Fragmenta of Linnaeus, named from -veprei, a 

 briar cr bramble, becaufe the plants which compofe this 

 order are pliant fhrubs, of humble growth. The genera 

 mentioned at the end of the Genera Plantamm are Dais, 

 Qulfqualls, Dirca, Daphne, Gnidia, Lachmta, Pajferlna, Stel- 

 lera ' and Thejium ; to which Linnxus has added in manu- 

 fcript, Strulhiola, Santalum ( with a doubt whether it fhould 

 not rather be referred to the Bicornes), and Scleranihus. 

 No remark occurs, in Gifeke's publication of the Prttlec- 

 t'lones of Linnaeus, on this order. As far as concerns the 

 eight firft named of the above genera, with Struthlola, it is 

 precifely analogous to Juffieu's Thymel;e;e, fee that article. 

 TheJium and Santalum belong to Mr. Brown's SANTALACEiE, 

 an order extrafted from the Onagre and Elaagnl of Juffieu, 

 which the reader will find in its proper place. Scleranthus 

 feems naturally one of the Caryophyllei, notwithftanding the 

 infertion of its ftamens into the calyx, which obliged Juffieu 

 to range it with his Porlulacen. Perhaps this decifion may 

 partly be fupported by the habit, and the afpeft oithejloijuer. 



VEPRIS, JuiT. 371, a name given by Commerfon to 

 what is now called Scopolia ; fee that article. 



VER-PucERON, in Natural Hljlory, a name given to a 

 kind of infefts which are fond ot eating the puceron, and 

 deftroy them in vaft numbers. 



They are thus called, as the ant-eater is, formica-leo, from 

 their deftroying great numbers of them. 



Thefe ver-pucerons are a fort of worms produced from 

 the eggs of flies, and are of two principal kinds ; the one 

 having legs, the other none. 



When we obferve the vaft number of young produced 

 by every puceron, and the quick progrefs they make in 

 their multiplication, we are apt to wonder, that every plant 

 and tree in the world are not covered vnth them ; but on the 

 contrary, when we obfene the devaftation thefe devourers 

 make among them, we are apt to wonder how any of them 

 efcape at all, to perpetuate the fpecies. Thefe worms in- 

 deed feem created for no other purpofe but to deftroy 

 them ; and this they do in fo violent a manner as is fcarcely 

 to be conceived. As the flies of many kinds lay their eggs 

 on meat and other fubftances, which they know will aff'ord 

 food for the young ones, when hatched from them : fo the 

 parents of thefe worms lay their eggs on the branches and 

 leaves of trees loaded with pucerons, on which they know 

 they will feed. The worms produced from them are de- 

 vourers from the very inftant they are hatched, and find 

 themfelves placed in the midft of prey, being every way fur- 

 rounded by a nation of creatures which are their proper 



V E R 



food, and which are furnilhed vrith no weapons, either offen- 

 five or defenfive, and which never fo much as attempt to 

 fly from them, but feem wholly ignorant of their danger, 

 till feized upon by the devourers. Reaumur's Hift. of In- 

 fefts, vol. vi. p. III. 



The flies, which are produced from thefe worms, are all ] 

 of the two-winged kind ; but there are feveral different ' 

 fpecies of them ; the generality of them refemble wafps, 1 

 and have a very flat body. Goedart, who has defcribed 

 fome of thefe flies, was furprifed to fee them very fmall 

 when firft produced from the chryfalis, )'et growing very 

 large in a quarter of an hour's time, and that without 

 taking any nourifhment ; but this was only owing to their 

 feveral parts having been fqueezed while in the chryfalis, 

 and expanding themfelves when they were at liberty from 

 the compreffion. Thefe are the changes of this kind of 

 leo-puceron ; but the other devourer of thefe creatures, 

 which has fix legs, is of a different kind, and indeed is in 

 itfelf reducible to feveral fpecies, fome of thefe fix-legged 

 worms becoming four-winged flies, and others a kind of 

 beetles. Thefe, from their near refemblance to the fonnica- 

 leo, are by Reaumur diftinftly called puceron-lions. 



N'e.^-Polype, a name given by Reaumur, and fome other 

 authors, to a fpecies of water-worm, by no means to be 

 confounded with the creature called fimply the polype, and 

 which is fo famous for its reproduftion of parts cut off, 

 and for many other fingular properties. 



This ver-polype is a fpecies of water-worm, produced 

 from the ^^g^ of a tipula, and had this name given it from 

 fome remarkable produftions, placed at the anterior and 

 pofterior parts of the body, which are fuppofed to have 

 fome analogy with the parts of the fea-fifti called the polypus. 

 Thefe worms are found in muddy ditches, ufually either 

 crawling upon, or buried in thf mud. Reaumur's Hift. 

 Infefts, vol. ix. p. 49. 



Ver du Card, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Gard ; 6 miles S.E. of Uzes. 



VERA, in jincient Geography, a town of Afia, in Media, 

 on an eminence, and ilrong by its fituation. — Alfo, the name 

 of a river of Gaul. 



Vera, in Geography, a town of Spain, in Navarre ; 25 

 miles N. of Pamplona. — Alfo, a town of Spain, in the ■ 

 province of Grenada ; 34 miles N.E. of Almeria. N. lat. I 

 37^8'. W. long. 2^4'. — Alfo, a river of European Tur- 

 key, which runs into the gulf of Salonichi, near the mouth 

 of the Vardar. J 



Vera Bilk. See Billa. I 



VERABADURGAM, in Geography, a town of Hin- 

 doottan, in Myfore ; 8 miles W.S.W. of Caveripatam. 



VERACINI, Antonio, in Biography, uncle .ind mafter 

 to Francefco Maria Veracini, the celebrated performer on 

 the violin, publiftied at Florence, in 1692, ten fonatas, the 

 ufual number, till Corelli's time ; and afterwards, " Sonate 

 da Chiefa," two fets ; but this author not bemg poflefled 

 of the knowledge, hand, or caprice of his nephew, his 

 works are now not fufficiently interefting to merit further 

 notice, particularly as there was nothing marked or original 

 in his ttyle ; the harmony indeed was correft ; but " much 

 may be right, yet much be wanting." 



Veracini, Francesco Maria, a native of Florence,, 

 and contemporary with Tartini, who were regarded as the 

 greateil mafters of the violin that had ever appeared ; nor 

 were their abilities confined merely to the excellence of their 

 performance, they extended to compofition, in which they 

 both manifefted great genius and fcience. But 'vhatever re- 

 femblance there may have been in the profeflional (kill of thefe 

 two mafters, it was impoffible for any two men to be more 



diflimilar 



