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VAR 
VAR 
•was a more honourable title; for all young gentlemen , until 
they came to be eighteen years of age, were termed so ; be¬ 
sides those that waited in the king’s chamber, and who were 
for the most part gentlemen , [who] had no other title than 
of ‘ valets de chambre,’ until that Francis the first, perceiv¬ 
ing such as attended him to be no better than ‘ roturiers,’ 
brought in above them another sort, and caused them to be 
styled ‘ gentilhommes dela chambre;’ presently after which 
the title of valet grew into disesteem, and is at the length 
become opposite to that of gentilhomme." The word is from 
vassa/letus, low Lat. dimin. of vassallus. ] A page or 
knight’s follower; any servant or attendant. [Pages, varlets, 
ou damoiseaux; noms quelquefois communs aux ecuyers. 
De St. Palaye, Mem.'] 
They spyde 
A varlet running towards hastily:- 
Behind his back .he bore a brasen shield; 
-Right well beseemed it 
To be the shield of some redoubted knight. Spenser. 
A term of reproach; as in some parts of the north a vile 
person is still called a varlet ,* a scoundrel. T. his word has 
deviated from its original meaning, as fur in Latin.—I am 
the veriest varlet that ever chew’d. Shakspeare. 
VA'RLETRY, s. Rabble; croud; populace. 
Shall they hoist me up. 
And shew me to the shouting varletry 
Of cens’ring Rome ? Shakspeare. 
VARNA, or Waena (the ancient Odessus), a large town 
of European Turkey, in Bulgaria, situated at the bottom of 
a bay of the Black sea, at the mouth of the river Varna, 
•which here forms a considerable lake ; 120 miles north-north¬ 
east of Adrianople, and 150 north-by-west of Constantino¬ 
ple. Lat. 43. 6. 56. N. long. 27.59. 7. E. 
VA'RNISH, s. \yernix, Lat. Accordingly Chaucer, and 
our old lexicographers, write it vernish. Prompt. Pare. 
and Barret.] A matter laid upon wood, metal, or other 
bodies, to make them shine. 
We’ll put on those shall praise your excellence, 
And set a double varnish on the fame. Shakspeare. 
Cover; palliation. 
To VA'RNISH, v. a. [yernisser, vernir, Fr.] To cover 
with something shining. 
O vanity! 
To set a pearl in steel so meanly varnished Sidney. 
To cover; to conceal or decorate with something orna¬ 
mental. 
Specious deeds on earth, which glory excites; 
Or close ambition varnish'd o’er with zeal. 
Milton 
To palliate; to hide with colour of rhetoric. 
Cato’s voice was ne’er employ’d 
To clear the guilty, and to varnish crimes. Addison. 
VA'RNISHER, s. One whose trade is to varnish.—An 
oil obtained of common oil, may probably be of good use 
to surgeons and varnishers. Boyle. — A disguiser; an 
adorner. 
Modest dulness lurks in thought’s disguise; 
Thou varnisher of fools, and cheat of all the wise. Pope. 
VARNITZA, a small town of Lower Moldavia, near 
Bender, remarkable as the residence of Charles XII. of 
Sweden, from 1709 till 1713. 
VAROLI (Costanzo), was born at Bologna in 1542, and 
became a professor of physic and surgery in his native city. 
In 1572, he was invited by pope Gregory XIII. to settle at 
Rome as his first physician, and professor in the college of 
Sapienza. He was advancing in reputation by his anatomi¬ 
cal discoveries, as well as in his practice of medicine and 
surgery, when a premature death cut him off in 1575, in the 
33d year of his age. He was particularly distinguished in 
the anatomy of the brain, which he described in his work, 
“ De Nervis Opticis nonnullisque aliis praeter communem 
Opinionem in Humano Capite observatis Epistola ad Hiero- 
nymum Mercuriaiem,” Patav. 1570. Among the parts of 
the brain which he discovered, or more accurately described, 
was that known by his name, the “ Pons Varoli,” formed 
by the union of the crura cerebri and cerebelli, and the place 
whence several nerves originate. 
VARPA, an island near the north-east coast of Sumatra, 
about 30 miles in circumference. Lat. 0. 36. S. long. 
103. 25. E. 
VARRO (Marcus Terentius), the most learned of the 
ancient Romans, received from Pompey the Great, in the 
piratical war, a naval crown, and joined this chief in the 
civil war against Caesar; but afterwards submitting to the 
latter, he was employed by him in making a collection of 
books for the public library which he proposed to establish 
at Rome. The death of Caesar prevented the accomplish¬ 
ment of this design ; and Varro, being involved in the pro¬ 
scription by the triumvirates, escaped with his life, but with 
the loss of his library. After the restoration of tranquillity, 
he retired for the prosecution of his studies, and composed 
books till his 88th year. His life was prolonged to the age 
of 90, and he died about the year B. C. 27. He is highly 
extolled for Ins various talents and literary performances by 
ancient writers, and particularly by Cicero, in his “ Acade¬ 
mics.” Aulus Gellius cites a passage from Varro, in which 
he declares of himself, that to the 78th year of his life he had 
composed 490 books, and he continued to write to his 90th 
year. The subjects on which he wrote, as we learn from 
Fabricius, were grammar, eloquence, poetry, the drama, 
history, antiquities, philosophy, politics, agriculture, nautical 
affairs, architecture, and religion. He was also the first 
Latin author of that species of satire called the Menippean, 
from Menippus, a Greek, its inventor, which was written in 
prose, with a mixture of verse in different measures. 
VARRONIA [so named by Browne, from Marcus Te¬ 
rentius Varro], in Botany, a genus of the class pentandria, 
order monogynia, natural order of asperifolise, borragineae 
(Juss.) —Generic Character. Calyx : perianth one-leafed, 
tubular, five-toothed, with recurved teeth, permanent. Co¬ 
rolla one-petalled, tubular, cylindric; border five-parted, 
spreading. Stamina: filaments five, awl-shaped, length of 
the corolla ; anthers incumbent, oblong. Pistil: germ ovate; 
style filiform, length of the corolla; stigmas four, bristle¬ 
shaped. Pericarp: drupe ovate, one-celled, inclosed by the 
calyx, free. Seed : nut four-celled, roundish.— Essential 
Character. Corolla five-cleft; drupe with a four-celled nut. 
1. Varronia lineata.—Leaves lanceolate, marked with 
lines; peduncles lateral, growing to the petiole ; spikes glo¬ 
bular.—Native of the West Indies. 
2. Varronia buliata.—Leaves ovate, veined and wrinkled; 
spikes globose. This is a shrub a fathom in height, warted, 
with rough-haired branches.—Native of Jamaica, in dry 
coppices near the sea. 
3. Varronia mirabiloides.—Leaves ovate, wrinkled, serrate; 
flowers racemed, directed one way; corolla salver-shaped. 
Stem from two to three feet high, frutesceut, branched, erect, 
rough-haired.—Native of St. Domingo, where the French 
call it Dent de Cliien blanc. 
4. Varronia Martinicensis —Leaves ovate, acuminate; 
spikes oblong. This shrub is the height of a man.—Native 
of Martinico, on the borders of woods. 
5. Varronia globosa, or globular-spiked varronia.— 
Leaves lanceolate-oblong; stem dichotomous; peduncles 
axillary, elongated, naked; spikes globular.—Native of the 
West Indies, on the coast. 
6. Varronia Curassavica, or long-spiked varronia.—Leaves 
lanceolate; spikes oblong. Stem shrubby, a fathom in 
height.—It grows in Curagao. 
7. Varronia angustifolia, or narrow-leaved varronia.— 
Leaves linear, rugged, somewhat toothed; spikes linear-ob¬ 
long.—Native of the island of Santa Cruz. 
8. Varronia alba, or white-fruited varronia. — Leaves 
cordate; flowers cymed. This is a tree, often thirty feet in 
height, with a large head, and a trunk half a foot in dia¬ 
meter.—Native of Carthagena and Curacao, where the nut 
is eaten. 
9. Varronia 
