V I T 
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VI'TALS, s. [Without the singular.] Parts essential to life. 
By fits my swelling grief appears, 
in rising sighs, and falling tears. 
That show too well the warm desires, 
The silent, slow, consuming fires, 
Which on my inmost vita/s prey. 
And melt my very soul away. Philips. 
VI'TELLARY, 5. [from vitellus, Lat.] The place where 
the yolk of the egg swims in the white.—A greater difficulty 
in the doctrine of eggs is, how the sperm of the cock attaineth 
into every egg; since the viteltary, or place of the yolk, is 
very high. Brown. 
VITELLIUS (Aulus), a Roman emperor, was born A.D. 
16. See Rome. 
VITENZ, or Chtelnitza, a small town of Hungary; 35 
miles north-north-east of Presburg. 
VITEPSK, a government of the north-west of European 
Russia, lying to the east of Courland, and south of Livonia, 
between 26. 30. and 31. 50. of east long, and 55. 3. and 57. 
of north lat. Its territorial extent is about 20,000 square 
miles, and its population nearly 750,000, partly Poles, 
Lithuanians, and Lettonians; partly also Russians, Germans, 
and Jews. Its chief rivers are the Dwina, the Ula, and the 
Viteba. 
VITEPSK, a city of European Russia, and the capital of 
the government of the same name, stands on the Dwina, at 
the influx of the Viteba, which divides it into two parts. 
Among its inhabitants is a considerable proportion of Jews; 
322 miles south of Petersburg, and 297 west of Moscow. 
Population 13,000. 
VITERBO, a considerable town of Italy, in the States of 
the Church, the capital of the delegation of the same name, 
situated at the foot of a high mountain; 27 miles north- 
north-east of Civita Vecchia, and 38 north-north-west of 
Rome. Population 10,000. 
VITERSEN, a small town of Denmark, in the duchy of 
Holstein; 5 miles west of Pinneberg. 
VITEX [a vinciendo s. viendo; from the great flexibility 
of the twigs, which makes them fit to bind or tie any thing], 
in Botany, a genus of the class didynamia, order angios- 
permia, natural order of personatae, vitices (Juss.) —Generic 
Character. Calyx: perianth one-leafed, tubular, cvlindric, 
very short, five-toothed. Corolla one-petalled, ringent; tube 
cylindric, slender; border flat, two-lipped ; upper lip trifid, 
with the middle segment wider; lower lip trifid, with the 
middle segment-bigger. Stamina: filaments four, capillary, 
a little longer than the tube, two of which are shorter than 
the others. Anthers versatile. Pistil: germ roundish. Style 
filiform, length of the tube. Stigmas two, awl-shaped, 
spreading. Pericarp: berry or drupe globular, four-celled. 
Seeds solitary, ovate.— Essential Character. Calyx five¬ 
toothed. Corolla: border six-cleft. Drupe one-seeded • a 
four-celled nut. 
1. Vitexovata, or ovate-leaved chaste-tree.—Leaves sim¬ 
ple, ovate. This is a tree, in appearance and colour, like 
vitex agnus castus, except in the leaves, which are nearly 
roundish, and two inches long. — Native of China and 
Japan. 
2. Vitex triflora, or three-flowered chaste-tree. — Leaves 
ternate, smooth; peduncles axillary and terminating, three- 
flowered.—Native of Cayenne. 
3. Vitex divaricata.—Leaves ternate, quite entire, smooth 
on both sides; the end one very large; with a dichotomous, 
divaricating panicle.—Frequent in the islands of Martinico, 
St. Lucia, and Santa Cruz. 
4. Vitex pubescens, or downy chaste-tree.—Leaves ter¬ 
nate, pubescent; panicles trichotomous; bractes length of 
the calyx.—Native of the East Indies. 
5. Vitex altissima, or tall chaste-tree.-—Leaves ternate; 
quite entire; panicle whorled; spikes whorled ; berry three- 
seeded.—-Found in the vast woods of Ceylon. 
6. Vitex agnus castus, or officinal chaste-tree.—Leaves 
digitate, seven or five-leaved, lanceolate, mostly quite entire; 
spikes whorled, panicled. This has a shrubby stalk eight 
Vol. XXIV. No. 1645. 
or ten feet high, sending out their whole length opposite 
branches, which are angular, pliable, and have a greyish 
bark.—Native of Sicily and the kingdom of Naples, and 
many other parts of Europe and America. 
7. Vitex incisa, or cut-leaved chaste-tree.—Leaves digitate, 
quinate; leaflets gash-pinnatifid; spikes subverticillate.— 
Native of China. 
8 . Vitex leucoxylon, or white-wooded chaste-tree. — 
Leaves digitate, quinate; leaflets petioled, oblong, quite 
entire; panicles dichotomous; berry one-seeded.—Found in 
the vast woods of Ceylon. 
9. Vitex trifolia, or three-leaved chaste-tree.—Leaves ter¬ 
nate and quinate; leaflets ovate, acute, quite entire, hoary 
beneath; panicle with a straight rachis; pedicels dichotom¬ 
ous.—Native of the East Indies; very common on the coast 
of China and Cochinchina, creeping in the sand; also in 
the Friendly islands. 
10. Vitex umbrosa.—Leaves quinate, quite entire, smooth 
on both sides; racemes compound, axillary. — Native of 
Jamaica, in shady places. 
11. Vitex capitata.—Leaves quinate-digitate; leaflets lan¬ 
ceolate, smooth, quite entire; flowerscapitate-subumbelled. 
This is a middle-sized tree.—Native of the island of Tri¬ 
nidad. 
12. Vitex negundo, or five-leaved chaste-tree.—Leaves 
quinate and ternate,- serrate; flowers raceme-panicled. — 
Native of the East Indies, China, and Cochinchina. 
13. Vitex spicata.—Leaves quinate, crenate; spikes linear, 
terminating.—Native of China and Cochinchina. 
14. Vitex pinnata.—Leaves pinnate, quite entire; panicles 
trichotomous.—Native of Ceylon and other islands of the 
East Indies. 
Propagation and Culture. —These plants may be propa¬ 
gated by cuttings or layers, treating them according to the 
climate of which they are natives. 
VITHUISEN, a town of the Netherlands, in the province 
of Groningen; 14 miles north-north-east of Groningen. 
Population 1300. 
To VI'TIATE, v. a. [vitio, Lat.] To deprave; to spoil; 
to make less pure.—The sun in his garden gives him the 
purity of visible objects, and of true nature, before she was 
vitiated by luxury. Evelyn. 
VITIATION, s. Depravation; corruption.—The fore- 
said extenuation of the body is imputed to the blood’s vitia¬ 
tion, by malign putrid vapours smoking throughout the 
vessels. Harvey. 
To VITILI'TIGATE, v. n. [ vitiosus and litigo, Lat.] 
To contend in law litigiously and cavillously. 
VITILITIGATION, s. Contention; cavillation. 
I’ll force you by right ratiocination, 
To leave your vitilitigation. Hudibras. 
VITIO'SITY, s. [from vitiosus, Lat.] Depravity; cor¬ 
ruption.—-He charges it wholly upon the corruption, perverse¬ 
ness, and vitiosity of man’s will, as the only cause that ren¬ 
dered all the arguments his doctrine came cloathed with, 
unsuccessful. South. 
VI'TIOUS, adj. [vitiosus, Lat.] Corrupt; wicked; op¬ 
posite to virtuous. It is rather applied to habitual faults than 
criminal actions. It is used of persons and practices. 
Make known 
It is no vitious blot, murder, or foulness 
That hath depriv’d me of your grace. Shakspeare. 
Corrupt; having physical ill qualities.—When vitious 
language contends to be high, it is full of rock, mountain, 
and pointedness. B. Jonson. 
VI'TIOUSLY, adv. Not virtuously ; corruptly. 
VFTIOUSNESS, s. Corruptness; state of being vitious. 
When we in our vitiousness grow hard. 
The wise gods seal our eyes. Shakspeare. 
Depravation; state of being vitiated.—The historian im- 
puteth this mistake to the vitiousness of the copy. Wharton. 
VITIS [from viere , to tie, or vincire, to bind. The vine], 
in Botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order monogynia, 
41 natural 
