1215 



Q%z Erca^ury at Sfltanp. 



[viGL 



plant was Hamke, in a.d. 1801. Bonpland 

 subsequently met with it, but >L D'Orbigny 

 was the first to send home specimens to 

 Paris in 1828 : they were, however, neg- 

 lected or overlooked. In a work published 

 some few years after this time, M. D'Or- 

 bigny mentions having discovered the 

 plant in the River Parana in Guiana. It 

 was known, he says, to the natives by the 

 name of Irupe, in allusion to the shape of 

 the leaves, which resembles that uE the 

 broad dishes used in the country. The 

 Spaniards call the plant "Water Maize, as 

 they collect the seeds, and eat them roasted, i 

 In 1832 a German traveller found it in 

 some tributaries of the Amazon ; but it 

 was not until the late Sir Robert Schom- | 

 burgk discovered it in the Berbice River, • 

 in British Guiana, in the year 1837, that ; 

 public attention was drawn to the magni- j 

 ficent plant. Sir Robert, in a letter to the 

 Royal Geographical Society, describes the | 

 largest specimen he met with as having . 

 leaves six feet five inches in diameter, with 

 a rim five to six inches high, and flowers a J 

 foot and a quarter across. The Victoria has j 

 now for some years been introduced to this 

 country, and has delighted and astonished J 

 thousands, by the size of its leaves and the ' 

 beauty and fragrance of its flowers. At j 

 Chatsworth, at Syon, at Kew, at Oxford j 

 I and elsewhere, it has been grown to even j 

 larger size than it attains in its native : 

 rivers. The late Sir "William Hooker pub- 

 lisbed an account of it, splendidly illus- 

 trated, from which much of the above in- 

 formation has been derived. [M. T. M.] 



VICTORIALE. (Fr.) Allium Victorialis. 

 — ROXDE. Gladiolus communis. 



VICTORIPERREA. An undescribed ge- 

 nus of Pandanacece, the sole species of 

 which, V. impavida, is named and figured 

 in Hombron and Jacquinot's Voyage au 

 p,;le Sud: but neither its native country, 

 nor the characters upon which it is found- 

 ed, are mentioned. [A. S.] 



VICUIBA. Myristica Bicuhyba. 



VIDIMARAM. An Indian name for 

 Cordia Myxa. 



VIELSSELXIA. A genus of tuberous- 

 rooted Iridaceo?, natives of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and named in honour of a Swiss 

 physician. The species have narrow sword- 

 shaped leaves, and a cylindrical branched 

 stem, bearing stalked flowers originating 

 from the axils of spathes. The perianth is 

 six-parted • 'the three outer segments nar- 

 rowed at the base into a sort of stalk, and 

 clothed with hairs, the three inner portions ' 

 much smaller, awl-shaped, or with three [ 

 terminal points; the filaments are cohe- | 

 rent so as to form a tube, and are inserted : 

 below into a disk surmounting the ovary ; 

 the style i3 short, and surmounted by three 

 petaloid stigmas. The flowers of many of 

 the species are very ornamental, on which 

 account they are cultivated in this country, 

 thoush frequently confounded with the ! 

 closely-related Mwcea. [M. T.M.] I 



VIGNA. This is one of the genera found- 1 



ed upon plants originally referred to the 

 old LimiiEan genus Dolichos, belonging to 

 the papilionaceous division of the Legu- 

 minostt?. It is distinguished by its pods 

 being nearly cylindrical, instead"of flatten- 

 ed as in Dolichos, and constricted between 

 the seeds, which are separated from each 

 other by thin spurious partitions. Its 

 flowers have a bell-shaped four-cut calyx ; 

 a pea-like corolla having a roundish upper 

 petal, with two ear-like appendages at the 

 base ; one free and nine united stamens ; 

 and a hairy-topped style, with the stigma 

 on one side. The species, upwards of thirty 

 of which are described, are dispersed over 

 the tropics of both hemispheres, most 

 numerously, however, on the American 

 continent ; and are herbs with twining or 

 prostrate annual stems, trifoliate leaves, 

 and axillary flower-stalks, having the flow- 

 ers, which are usually yellow or purplish, 

 disposed in short racemes or collected into 

 heads. 



V. sinensis is very extensively cultivated 

 in the East, particularly in India, where its 

 pulse is called Chowlee, and forms, in con- 

 junction with rice, a considerable part of 

 the food of the Hindoos, the large am ount of 

 nutritive matter it contains copipensating 

 for the smaller quantity in the^rice, which 

 is so largely consumed by them. The Chi- 

 nese, who call the plant Tow-Cok, cook and 

 eat tne green pods as we do kidney-beans. 

 "When ripe the pods are frequently as much 

 as a yard long, and contain about twenty 

 seeds, of variable colour and diversely 

 marked. A variety of this plant (the 

 Dolichos melanophthalmus of some authors') 

 is cultivated in Italy and other parts of 

 Southern Europe under the name of 

 Fagiolo del Occhio. [A. S.] 



VIGNE. (Fr.) Vitis, — BLANCHE 

 Bryonia. — DE JLDEE. Solanum Dulca- 

 mara. — DE SALOMON. Clematis mau- 

 ritiana. — DE VIERGE. Ampelopsis he- 

 deracea. — DC MONT IDA. Vaccinium 

 Vitis idea. — DU NORD. Humulus Lupu- 

 lus. — ELEPHANTE. Cissus glauca. — 

 MALGACHE. Buddlea madagascariensis. 



— NOIRE SALVAGE. Tamus communis. 



— SALVAGE. Vitis Labrusca. 

 VIGNEAL. (Fr.) Ulex europceus. 

 VIGNETTE. (Fr.) Spiraea Ulmaria ; also 



Clematis, and Mercurialis annua. 



VIGNOLDIA. A little-known genus of 

 Cinchonaceo?, comprising certain Abyssi- 

 nian shrubs, with white or purple flowers. 

 One of the sepals of the calyx exceeds the 

 others in size. The fruit is capsular, two- 

 celled, dehiscing from above downwards 

 by two valves. [M. T. M.] 



VIGLIERA. A genus of Composite, 

 whose species are natives of Tropical South 

 America. The stems are herbaceous, 

 branched, the leaves triplinerved, and the 

 flower-heads in loose corymbs ; involucre 

 somewhat globose, of one or two rows of 

 leafy scales ; receptacle flat, studded over 

 with scales that sheath round the fruits; 

 florets strap-shaped at the outside, tubular 

 in the centre of the head, all yellow ; stig- 



