vitiator 
You cannot say in your profession Plus nun vitiat ; plus 
is the worst vitiator and violator of the Muses. 
lAindor, Imng. Conv., Southey and Porson, ii. 
Viticeae (vi-tis'e-e), H. />l. [NL. (Schauer, 1848), 
< Vilex (-if-) + '-ex.] A tribe of gamopetalous 
plants, of the order Verbcnacese. It is character- 
ized hy an ultimately centrifugal cymose inflorescence 
composed of opposite dichotoinous cymes aggregated into 
a trichotomous, thyrsoid, pyramidal, or corymbose pani- 
cle, and by an ovary with the ovules laterally affixed, 
commonly at first, imperfectly but soon perfectly four- 
celled, drupaceous, and entire or four-lobed in fruit, usu- 
ally pulpy or fleshy, the endocarp of four nutlets, or form- 
ing a single four-celled nutlet. It includes 18 genera, of 
which Vitex (the type), Seetoria, Premna, CaUicarpa, and 
Clerodendron are the chief. Gemma of the Malay archi- 
pelago is exceptional in its usually five-celled ovary, and 
fruit with ten nutlets. The only member of the tribe with- 
in the United States is CaUicarpa Americana, the French 
mulberry. 
viticide (vit'i-sid), . [< L. vitis, vine, + -eidn, 
< credere, kill.] That which injures or destroys 
the grape or vine ; a vine-pest, as the phyllox- 
era. 
viticolous (vi-tik'o-lus), a. [< L. vitis, the 
vine, + colere, inhabit.] In bot. and goal., in- 
habiting or produced upon the vine, as very 
many parasitic and saprophytic fungi and vari- 
ous insects. 
viticula (vl-tik'u-la), .; pi. viticulee (-le). 
[NL., dim. of L. CT&S, vine : see Fifes.] In bot., 
a trailing stem, as of a cucumber. 
viticulose (vi-tik'u-16s), a. [< viticula + -ose.] 
tn hot., producing long, trailing, vine-like twigs 
or stems ; sarmentaceous. 
viticultural (vit-i-kul'tur-al), . [< viticulture 
+ -al.~\ Of or pertaining to viticulture: as, 
viticiiltiiral implements or treatises. 
Of the Austrian-Hungarian empire Hungary, from a viti- 
cultural point of view, forms by far the most important 
part. Encyc. Brit., XXIV. 610. 
viticulturalist (vit-i-kul'tur-al-ist), w. [< viti- 
niltiiral + -ist.] A viticulturist. Elect. Eev. 
(Amer.), XIII. xviii. 4. [Rare.] 
viticulture (vit'i-kul-tur), n. [< F. Viticulture, 
< L. vitis, vine, + culiilra, culture.] The cul- 
ture or cultivation of the vine. 
viticultiirist (vit-i-kul'tur-ist), n. [< viticul- 
ture + -ist.] One whose business is viticulture ; 
a grape-grower. 
To aid in these researches, relations have already been 
opened with horticulturists and viticulluriste. 
Nature, XLIII. 88. 
Vitiflora (vit-i-flo'rii), . [NL. (Leach, 1816), 
< L. vitis, vine, + flos (flor-), flower.] A genus 
of chats: a strict synonym of Snxicola. Also 
called (Enanthe. 
Vitiflorinae (vit*i-flo-ri'ne),.^. [NL., < Viti- 
flora + -inee.] A subfamily of birds : synony- 
mous with Saxicolinee. 
vitiligo (vit-i-li'gp), . [NL., < L. vitiligo, tet- 
ter.] A loss of pigment in one or more circum- 
scribed parts of the skin, with increase of pig- 
ment in the skin immediately about such 
patches. Also called acquired leucodermia or 
Vitiligoidea (vit"i-li-goi'de-a), n. [< L. vitiligo, 
tetter, + -oidca.] A skin-disease characterized 
by yellowish patches or tubercles, situated usu- 
ally on the eyelids; xauthoma. 
vitilitigate (vit-i-lit'i-gat), v. i. ; pret. and pp. 
vitilitiffated, ppr. vitilitigating. [< L. vitilitigatus, 
pp. of vitilitigare, quarrel disgracefully, calum- 
niate, < vitium, a fault, vice (see rice 1 "), + liti- 
gare, quarrel : see litigate.] To contend in law 
litigiously, captiously, or vexatiously. Bailey, 
1731. 
vitilitigation (vit-i-lit-i-ga'shpn), n. [< viti- 
litigate + -ion.] Vexatious or quarrelsome liti- 
gation. 
It is a most toylsome taske to run the wild goose chase 
after a well-breath'd Opinionist ; they delight in vitUiti- 
gation, N. Ward, Simple Cobler, p. 16. 
I'll force you by right ratiocination 
To leave your vitilitiffation. 
S. Butter, Hudibras, I. iii. 1262. 
vitiosity (vish-i-os'i-ti), n. ; pi. vitiosities (-tiz). 
[< L. vitio.iita(t-)s, corruption, vice, < vitiosus, 
corrupt, vicious: see vicious.] The state of 
being vicious or vitiated; a corrupted state; 
depravation; a vicious property. 
My untamed affections and confirmed vitiosity makes 
me daily do worse. Sir T. Browne, Eeligio Medici, i. 42. 
Vitiosities whose newness and monstrosity of nature 
admits no name. Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici. 
vitipust, vitiouslyt, etc. Obsolete spellings of 
vicious, etc. 
Vitis (vi'tis), . [NL. (Malpighi, 1675; ear- 
lier by Brunfels, 15:iO), < L. vitis, a vine, < viere 
(\/ vi), twist, wind : see aitlie, withy. Hence (< 
L vilis) ult. E. vise 1 .] A geuus of plants, in- 
6774 
eluding the grape, type of the order / 'itnrese or 
A mpelidaceee. It is characterized by polygamodicecious 
flowers, each with a cap of 5 coherent caducous petals. 
From Cissus, its tropical representative, it is further dis- 
tinguished l>y its conical or thickened (not subulate) style ; 
and from the other genera, as Ampelopsin, the common 
Virginia creeper or American ivy, by its pyriform seeds. 
There are about 30 species, natives of the northern hemi- 
sphere, chiefly within temperate regions. They are shrub- 
by climbers with simple or lobed leaves (rarely digitate, 
like Atnpelopsis), and long branching tendrils produced 
opposite the leaves, and also from the flower-stalk. The 
inflorescence is a thyrsus of inconspicuous flowers, often 
very fragrant, usually greenish, and peculiar in the fall 
of the unopened petals without expansion. The fruit, a 
pulpy berry, is normally two-celled and with two to four 
seeds, to which the pulp adheres in thy American, but 
does not in the one or two European species. By Planchon 
(1872) the genus is divided into two sections A'NV'(/.S-, 
with a peculiar thin brown fibrous bark which soon sepa- 
rates and hangs in shreddy plates; and Muscadinia, con- 
sisting of V. rotund/folia (T. vulpina), the muscadine, and 
V. Munsoniana, the bird-grape of Florida, peculiar in their 
closely adherent punctate bark, nearly elliptical seeds, 
somewhat cymose inflorescence, and unbranched tendrils. 
The most important species, V. vinifera, is the vine of 
southern and central Europe, known in America as the 
European, hot-house, or California grape, native in Turkey, 
Persia, and Tatary, probably also in Greece and in the 
Himalayas, and now cultivated in the Old World from 
nearly 55 north to about 40' south latitude, sometimes 
up to the altitude of 3,000 feet. In England its fruit ripens 
in the open air only in favorable seasons, although in the 
eleventh and twelfth centuries an inferior wine was there 
made from it. It grows in all soils, but best in those which 
are light and gravelly. Some individuals in warm climates 
have attained in centuries a trunk 3 feet in diameter. In 
the United States the climate is not favorable to it, except 
in California. It is the source of thousands of varieties, 
obtained by propagation from seed. To continue the ori- 
ginal variety in cultivation, propagation by layers, cut- 
tings, grafting, or inoculation is practised. (See vine and 
grape, also wine, raisin, and currant. ) The species are most 
abundant in the United States, there estimated by Munson 
at 23 ; they are especially numerous in Texas, which has 
12 species, or 8 as recognized by Coulter. The eastern 
United States is thought richer in useful species than any 
other part of the world, 4 of the 8 Atlantic species having 
given rise to valuable cultivated varieties. Of these V. 
Labmsca, the common wild grape of the New England 
coast, extends from 
Canada through the 
Atlantic States to Ten- 
nessee, and from Japan 
to the Himalayas ; it is 
the source of the Con- 
cord, Isabella, Cataw- 
ba, lona, Diana, and 
other grapes, and some 
claim that an Asiatic 
hybrid between it and 
V. rotundtfolia was the 
original of V. vinifera. 
V. bicolor (formerly in- 
cluded with V. eesti- 
valis), the blue or win- 
ter grape, occurs from 
New York to Wiscon- 
sin and southward ; 
and V. SRStivalis, the 
summer grape, from 
Virginia to Texas. 
From these come the 
Delaware and the 
most promising native 
American red-wine 
grapes, as the Cynthi- 
ana and Norton's Vir- 
ginia- V. riparia (V. 
palmata), the river- 
grape, is widely distrib- 
uted through all the 
Northern States and Canada to Colorado, and is the only 
Rocky Mountain species ; in cultivation it is extensively 
used in France to supply phylloxera-proof stock for fine 
wine-producing varieties of V. vinifera. Many other valu- 
able varieties have been formed from the American grapes 
by hybridizing with one another or with V. vinifera ; these 
hybrids are in general proof against the phylloxera, and 
include by far the best American table-grapes. The fourth 
North Atlantic species, V. cordifolia, the frost-, chicken-, 
or possum-grape, ranges from New York to Iowa and 
the Gulf of Mexico, and is the most common of the 3 
species of Canada. It produces small blackish or am- 
ber colored fruit, sometimes used, after it has been 
touched by frost, for preserves. Among these species, 
V. riparia is readily distinguished by its leaves with a 
broad rounded basal sinus, and its growing tips envel- 
oped with young undeveloped leaves, and V. cordifolia by 
leaves with both sides smooth and shining. The other 
three have the upper surface dark-green and more or less 
rugose ; the lower in V. bicolor bluish with a bloom, in V. 
eesticalis dusty-flocculent, with short broad stipules, and 
in V. Labrusca densely white or rusty with close tomen- 
tum, with long cordate stipules. Their berries are mostly 
small in V. bicolor and V. sextivalis apt to be astringent 
and white-dotted ; those of V. Labrusca and V. rotundi- 
folia, the fox-grapes, have a musky or foxy taste or odor 
(see fox-grape). Thelatter,themuscadine or bullace grape, 
the source of the scuppernong (which see), is the largest- 
fruited American species, and extends from Virginia to 
Texas, and from Japan to the Himalayas. Many other 
American species are quite local; 3 are confined to Flori- 
da, 7 mainly to Texas, as V. candicans, the mustang or 
cutthroat grape, and V. monticola, the sweet mountain 
grape ; several others are nearly restricted to the Missis- 
sippi valley, as V. cinerea, the sweet winter grape, and V. 
rubra, an ornamental species. V. Arizonica, the canon- 
grape of Arizona, and V. Girdiana, of southern California, 
are small-fruited species ; V. Califontica, the vaumee of 
the Indians, bears large clusters of purple fruit of rather 
pleasant flavor. ('. Carib<ea is the Jamaica grape or water- 
Vitis l.abrttsca. 
inflorescence ; *, apex of branch 
with leaves and tendrils; c, leaf 
vitreousness 
withe of the West Indies, Mexico, and Central America. 
The only other American species not found in the United 
States is V. Blancoii of the Sierra Madre. A few species 
are peculiar to Asia, 5 to Japan, China, and India, V. 
Amurensis to Siberia. The numerous tropical and south 
temperate species formerly ascribed to Vitis are now re- 
ferred to Cissus, including 17 in Australia. Several in 
mountains of India and Java produce edible fruit; 3 ex- 
tend within the southern United States, 2 in Texas the 
shrub V. bipinnata (now Cissns stans) and the ornamen- 
t;il vine known as yerba del buey, F. (C.) incisa - and 1 
in Florida, V. (C.) sicyoides, for which sec china-root and 
bastard bryony (under bryony). 
vitlert, " An obsolete spelling of victtuiler. 
vitoe, n. [Tupi.] A South American nocturnal 
monkey of the genus Xyetipitliecus, as X.felhiitt:, 
the eia. See doitroucouli. 
vitrea 1 , n. Plural of vitreum. 
vitrea 2 (vit're-a), it. pi. [NL., neut. pi. of L. 
ritreus, of glass : see vitreous.] A term used for 
antique glass vessels or fragments of the same. 
11. S. fuming, J. A. A., X. 19L>. 
vitrella (vi-trel'a), 11.; pi. vitretlee (-e). [NL., 
< vitiTiiut + dim. -ella.] Same asretiiiiiphoru. 
Ommatidium consists of two corneagen cells, four m- 
trellse, and seven retinular cells. Amer. Nat., XXIV. 350. 
vitreinitet, " An unexplained word which oc- 
curs in the following lines: 
She that helmed was in starke stoures, 
And wan by force tonnes stronge and toures, 
Shal on hir heed now were a vitremyte. 
Chaucer, Monk's Tale, 1. 382. 
[The early editions read autremite, the Six Texts and Tyr- 
whitt read as here, and the Harleian MS. has uyntcrmyte. 
Skeat conjectures that it means a 'glass head-dress,' as 
contrasted with a helmet. Nothing as yet really satis- 
factory has been proposed.] 
Vitreodentinal (vit/'re-o-den'ti-nal), . [< 
ritrcwlciitiiie + -at.] Of the character of vit- 
reodentine; pertaining to vitreodentine. 
vitreoclentine (vit"re-o-den'tin), n. [< L. ritrt-- 
us, of glass, + E. dentine.] A variety of den- 
tine of particularly hard texture, as distin- 
guished from osteodentine and raswleiitiiie. 
Vitreo-electric (vit"re-d-e-lek'trik), . [< L. ri- 
trcus, of glass, + E. tiectne.] Containing or ex- 
hibiting positive electricity, or electricity simi- 
lar to that which is excited by rubbing glass, 
vitreosity(vit-re-os'i-ti), 11. [< ritreonx + -it;/.] 
Vitreousness. 
The pages bristle with "hard words," some of which 
are new to science. Vitreosily has an uncanny sound. 
Nature, XLI. 49. 
Vitreous (vit're-us), a. and n. [Cf. F. vitreux 
and Sp. vitrcu = Pg. It. vitreo; < L. ritreus, of 
glass, < vitruiii, glass, orig. *vidti"um. a transpa- 
rent substance, < videre, see: see vision. Cf. 
vitrine, rerre, etc.] I. a. 1. Of, pertaining to, 
or obtained from glass; resembling glass. 2. 
Consisting of glass : as, a vitreous substance. 
3. Resembling glass in some respects ; glassy : 
thus, an object may be ritreous in its hard- 
ness, in its gloss, in its structure, etc. Specifi- 
cally, in anat. and zoiil., vitrifprm ; glassy; like glass 
(a) in transparency, as a clear jelly may resemble glass ; 
hyaloid: as, the vitreous body or humor of the eye ; (6) in 
translucency, thinness, or smoothness ; hyaline : as, a vitre- 
ous shell ; (c) in hardness and brittleness : as, the vitre- 
ous tableta of the skull ; (>/> in mode of cleavage ; clean- 
cut : as, a vitreous fracture ; (e) in chemical composition ; 
silicious: as, a vitreous sponge. Vitreous body of the 
eye, the pellucid gelatinous substance which fills about 
four fifths of the ball of the eye, behind the crystalline 
lens ; the vitreous humor or lens. See cut under eyel. 
Vitreous degeneration. Same as hyaline degeneration 
(which see, under hyaline). Vitreous electricity, elec- 
tricity produced by rubbing glass, as distinguished from 
resinous electricity. See electricity. Vitreous humor of 
the ear, the fluid filling the membranous labyrinth of 
the ear: same as endolymph. Vitreous humor of the 
eye, the vitreum. Vitreous lens, the vitreous body of 
the eye : correlated with crystalline lens. Vitreous me- 
SOChoruS, Megochorus vitreus, a hy- 
menopterous hyperparasite which was 
supposed to destroy the army-worm. 
Vitreous mosaic, mosaic the tes- 
serae of which are of glass, especially 
in jewelry for personal adornment, 
where it differs from enamel work in 
that the pieces of glass are cut out 
cold and inlaid like gems. Vitre- 
ous Silver. See silver. Vitreous 
sponge, a silicious sponge ; a glass- 
sponge: correlated with gelatinous, 
ftbrous, and calcareous sponge. See cut under Euplectella. 
Vitreous Structure, in lithol. Properly speaking in 
a perfectly vitreous rock there is an entire absence of 
structure, and of any appearance of individualization : 
such glassy material has no influence on polarized light. 
Inasmuch, however, as a perfectly vitreous condition is 
very rare, devitrification having almost always been begun 
at least, lithologists sometimes for convenience use the 
term structure in designating a rock as vitreous, or speak 
of a "vitreous structure." Vitreous table (or tablet) 
of the skull. See table, n., 1 (c). Vitreous warts of 
Descemet's membrane, minute roundish transparent 
bodies frequently found near the border of Descemet's 
membrane, on the posterior surface of the cornea. 
II. n. The vitreous body of the eye. 
vitreousness (vit're-us-nes), . The state or 
quality of being vitreous; vitreosily. 
Vitreous Mesocho 
