1199 



Ci)e 3Trea3urg ai Matniw. 



[VAHE 



syrups, puddings, tarts, &c. ; and they are 

 said to be used on the Continent for colour- 

 ing wine. V. uliginosum, a less common 

 plant than the preceding, has roundish 

 branches and small deciduous entire 

 leaves. V. Vitis idcea, the Cowberry, has 

 short procumbent stems and evergreen 

 leaves ; its flowers are of a pale-pink, and 

 arranged in terminal drooping clusters ; 

 and its fruits are of a reddish colour, and 

 edible, and are frequently sold as cran- \ 

 berries. The leaves and stems are used 

 for dyeing yellow ; the former, moreover, 

 are sometimes mixed with those of the bear- ] 

 berry , Arctostaphylus uva-ursi, from which, 

 however, they may be distinguished by the ■ 

 dots on their lower surface. The fruits of i 

 several other species are gathered for table J 

 use in America, and some of them are use- 

 ful on account of their astringency, or ! 

 from their yielding a blue dye. Several j 

 species are grown in this country as orna- , 

 mental shrubs. 



The true cranberry, Oxycoccus, is distin- 

 guished from Vaccinium by the corolla | 

 being split into four linear segments. See j 

 Oxycoccus. [M.T. MJ j 



VACH. The Sanscrit name for the Sweet j 

 Flag, Acorns Calamus. 



VACHELLIA. This genus was estab- j 

 lished by Drs. Wight and Arnott upon the 

 well-known Acacia Farvesiana (see ACA- i 

 CIA), but the characters relied upon for 

 distinguishing it from Acacia— viz., the 

 pods being swollen and nearly cylindrical, 

 filled with pulp, and not opening when ripe 

 —are common to numerous American 

 and African acacias; and many botanists 

 consequently reunite them, or retain the 

 group merely as a section of that exten- 

 sive genus, including the gum-arabic tree 

 (Acacia arabica) and other gum-producing 



Vachellia (Acacia) Farnesiana. 



species. The flowers c£ Vachellia (or Aca- 

 cia) Farnesiana, like those of so many 

 other acacias, grow in little globular heads; 

 they form the Cassie-flowers of the per- 

 fumers, who extract their fine violet-like 

 odour by macerating them in purified fat 

 or the finest olive-oil, which they use in 

 the preparation of various bouquets, or for 



mixing with violet perfumes to increase 

 their strength. This species is a large 

 shrub or low tree, and has bipinnate leaves 

 composed of from four to eight pairs of 

 pinnae, each with from ten to twenty pairs 

 of little narrow blunt leaflets. Originally 

 it appears to have been confined to the 

 tropics of the Western Hemisphere, but 

 it is now common in nearly all tropical 

 countries, and also in many parts of the 

 South of Europe, where it was introduced 

 early in the seventeenth century, and from 

 whence the perfumers derive their supply 

 of the flowers. Large quantities of gum, 

 resembling inferior gum-arabic, exudes 

 from its trunk and branches. [A. S.J 



VACIER, or VACIET. <Fr.) Vaccinium 

 Myrtilhcs. 



VACILLANS. Swinging, as the anthers 

 of grasses, which oscillate lightly from the 

 end of their filament. 



VACONA. (Pr.) Pandanus utilis. 



VACUOUS. Empty; a term applied to 

 cases when an organ does not contain 

 what usually belongs to it. Bracts which 

 usually support flowers are said to be vacu- 

 ous when they have no flower in their axils. 



VADARI. An Indian name for Zizyphus 

 Jujuba. 



VAGARIA. A name given by Herbert 

 to a plant which he afterwards ascertained 

 to be Lapiedra Placiana. 



VAGIFORM. Having no certain figure. 



VAGINA (adj. VAGINANS, VAGINATE). 

 A sheath ; a petiole rolled round astern, as 

 : in Grasses ; or any part which sheaths some 

 i other part. 



VAGINERVOSE. Having the veins ar- 

 ranged without any order. 



VAGINULA. A sheath that surrounds 

 the base of the seta in urn-mosses. 



VAGUS. Having no particular direction. 



VAHEA. Nearly the whole of the large 

 quantities of Caoutchouc or India-rubber 

 consumed by our manufacturers is ob- 

 tained from a spurgewort [Siphonia brasi- j 

 liensis) and a fig (Ficus elastica) ; but the | 

 milky juice of numerous plants belonging | 

 to the Apocynacece likewise contain it, such 

 a3 various species of trie genera Urceola, 

 Cameraria, Collophora, Willughbeia, and the 

 present genus Vahea, although, with the \ 

 exception of the first-named, it is not col- 

 lected from them for commercial purposes. 

 Vahea contains four species, three from 

 Madagascar and the neighbouring islands, 

 and one from Western Tropical Africa ; and 

 two of -these— viz., V. viadagasranensis, the 

 Voua-Here of the natives, and V. gummi- 

 fera— both Madagascar species, are known 

 to afford an abundance of caoutchouc, 

 which will probably at no distant date 

 form an article of export from that mag- 

 nificent island. These plants are tall 

 climbing shrubs or trees, with opposite 

 smooth more or lesselliptical blunt leaves, 

 and dense terminal cymes of rather large 



