402 VIS VIS 
near the east coast of Morty. Lat. 2. 21. N. long. 128. 
39. E. 
VISCHNEI-VOLOTSCHOK, a town of European Russia, 
government of Tver; 217 miles south-south-east of Peters¬ 
burg. Population 4000. 
VI'SCID, adj. [viscidus, Lat.] Glutinous; tenacious. 
VISCI'DITY, s. Glutinousness; tenacity; ropiness.— 
This motion in some human creatures may be weak, in 
respect to the viscidity of what is taken, so as not to be able 
to propel it. Arbuthnot. —Glutinous concretion.—Cathar¬ 
tics of mercurials precipitate the viscidities by their styp- 
ticity. Flayer. 
VISCO'SITY, s. [viscosite, Fr.] Glutinousness; tenacity. 
-—The air being mixed with the animal fluids, determines 
their condition as to rarity, density, viscosity, tenuity. 
Arbuthnot. —A glutinous substance.—A tenuous emanation, 
or continued effluvium, after some distance, retracteth unto 
itself, as is observable in drops of syrups, and seminal 
viscosities. Brown. 
VI'SCO.UNT, s. [vicecomes, Lat.] Viscount signifies as 
much as sheriff - ; between which two words there is no other 
difference, but that the one comes from our conquerors the 
Normans, and the other from our ancestors the Saxons. Vis¬ 
count also signifies a degree of nobility next to an earl, which 
is an old name of office, but a new one of dignity, never 
heard of amongst us, till Henry VI. his days. Cowel. 
This rich marble doth inter 
The honour’d wife of Winchester, 
A viscount's daughter, an earl’s heir. Milton. 
VISCOU'NTESS, s. [Viscount and viscountess are pro¬ 
nounced vicount and vicountess. The word is indifferently 
accented on the first and second syllables.] The lady of 
a viscount ; a peeress of the fourth order.—To make my 
dainty charge a vicountess. B. Jonson. 
VI'SCOUNTSHIP, or Vi'scounty, s. The quality and 
office of a viscount.—A creation passed, of late, of a vice¬ 
count ship of Maidenhead. Ld. Keeper Williams. 
VI'SCOUS, adj. Lat.] Glutinous; sticky; 
tenacious.—Holly is of so viscous a juice as they make bird¬ 
lime of the bark. Bacon. 
VISCUM [or Viscus of the Latin writers, from the JEolic 
/3ktko$ for ifo? (VossiusJ~], in Botany, a genus of the class 
dioecia, order tetrandria, natural order of aggregatse, capri- 
folia (Juss.) —Generic Character. Male—Calyx : perianth 
four-parted; leaflets ovate, equal. Corolla none. Sta¬ 
mina four; filaments none. Anthers oblong, acuminate, one 
growing to each calyx-leaf.—Female commonly opposite to 
the male. Calyx: perianth four-leaved; leaflets ovate, small, 
sessile, deciduous, placed on the germ. Corolla none. 
Pistil: germ oblong, three-cornered, indistinctly crowned 
with a four-cleft margin, inferior. Style none. Stigma 
obtuse, scarcely emarginate. Pericarp: berr.y globular, one- 
celled, even. Seed one, cordate, compressed, obtuse, fleshy. 
—Essential Character. Male—Calyx four-parted. Co¬ 
rolla none. Filaments none. Anthers fastened to the calyx. 
Female—Calyx four-leaved, superior. Corolla none. Style 
none. Berry one-seeded. Seed cordate. 
1 . Viscum album, common or white misseltoe.—Leaves 
lanceolate, obtuse; stem dichotomous; spikesaxillary. This 
plant, instead of rooting and growing in the earth, fixes itself 
into the branches of trees, where it spreads and forms a large 
bush. The branches are woody, and are covered with a 
-pale or yellowish green bark ; the largest is about the thick¬ 
ness of a man’s finger, and the rest gradually smaller; they 
have many joints, which easily part asunder; and at each of 
these are two thick fleshy leaves, which are broad and 
rounded at their points, and narrow at their base. The 
flowers come out from the axils in short spikes, and are 
composed of four greenish-yellow calyx-leaves. The female 
flowers are succeeded by round white berries, which are 
almost pellucid, about the size of currants, full of a tough 
viscid juice, in the middle of which lies one heart-shaped 
.flat seed.—Native of Europe and Japan, on various trees: 
flowering in May. The misseltoe of the oak has been cele¬ 
brated from the time of the Druids both as a sacred plant, 
and as a medicine. 
“ Ad viscum Druidae, Druidae cantare solebant.” 
And the oak itself on which it grew was also held sacred. 
The Druids sent round their attendant youths with branches 
of the misseltoe to announce the entrance of the new year ; 
and this custom has continued down to modern times, for in 
some parts of France the children run about from house to 
house asking for misseltoe in rude rhymes, and calling out 
Aguilaneuf, that is, A gui Van neuf, or to the misseltoe, 
'tis the new year. And in England, branches of this plant 
are hung up in most houses at Christmas, among other ever¬ 
greens; besides the oak, it grows on apple-trees, limes, 
thorns, and many others. 
2. Viscum rubrum, or red-berried misseltoe.—Leaves lan¬ 
ceolate, obtuse; spikes lateral. This misseltoe, says Catesby, 
lias long, smooth, shining green leaves, growing by pairs; 
the berries are round, red, and somewhat smaller than those 
of the common misseltoe. 
3. Viscum purpureum, or purple-berried misseltoe.— 
Leaves obovate; racemes lateral.—It is a native of America 
and the West Indian islands, and is said to grow principally 
on the Mancineel-tree. 
There are also Viscum opuntioides. Viscum Japonicum. 
Viscum Capense. Viscum verticillatum, Viscum flavens. 
Viscum pauciflorum. Viscum terrestre. Viscum rotundi- 
folium. Viscum antarcticum. 
Propagation and Culture. —Misseltoe is always pro¬ 
duced from seed, and cannot be cultivated in the earth like 
most other plants, but will always grow upon trees : hence 
the ancients thought it was an excrescence of the tree, with¬ 
out any seed being previously lodged there; which opinion 
has been confuted by repeated experiments. 
The manner of its propagation is this. The misseltoe 
thrush, which feeds upon the berries of this plant in winter, 
when they are ripe, often carries them from tree to tree; for 
the viscous part of the berry, which immediately surrounds 
the seed, sometimes fastens it to the outer part of the bird’s 
beak, and to disengage it, he strikes his beak against the 
branch of the tree on which he alights, and leaves the seed 
sticking to the bark ; if this should chance to be a smooth 
part, the seed will adhere to it, and the following year will 
put out and grow. In the same manner it may be propa¬ 
gated by art. The trees on which it most readily takes are the 
apple, ash, white-thorn, and others which have a smooth rind. 
VISE, or Wesf.t, an inland town of the Netherlands, 
province of Liege, situated on the Maese ; 6 miles south of 
Maestricht. Population 1900. 
VISEU, an inland town of Portugal, province of Beira, 
between the rivers Mondego and Vouga; 42 miles west- 
south-west of Oporto, and 52 north-east of Coimbra. Popu¬ 
lation 5000. 
VISHNU, is one of the chief deities of the Hindoo 
trimurti or triad. He is reckoned the second person of this 
mysterious unity, being a personification of the preserving 
power of the deity. On the whole, Vishnu may be called 
the chief of the Hindoo gods; as either in himself, or 
through his consort, or active energy, Lakshmi, or in his 
various incarnations, he is, perhaps, the god most extensively 
worshipped: if the numerous sects that indirectly adore 
him be included, he certainly is. Like the gods and god¬ 
desses of other polytheistic people, all the deities of the 
Hindoo Pantheon are resolvable ultimately into one; that 
one is the sun, and he, the Hindoo theologians affirm, is 
merely a symbol of that “ infinitely greater light which alone 
can irradiate our intellects.” This esoteric doctrine is of 
course unknown to the multitude who address and adore 
Vishnu, as well as the other deities, in the grossness of 
idolatrous superstition. 
VISIBILITY, s. [visibility, Fr.] The state or quality 
of being perceptible by the eye.—The colours of outward 
objects brought into a darkened room, do much depend 
for 
