Vargunteius
A senator, and one of Catiline's conspirators, who undertook, in conjunction with C. Cornelius, to murder Cicero in B. c. 63, but their plan was frustrated by information conveyed to Cicero through Fulvia . Varius Rufus, L. One of the most distinguished poets of the Augustan age, the companion and friend of Vergil and Horace. By the latter he is placed in the foremost rank among the epic bards, and Quintilian has pronounced that his tragedy of Thyestes might stand a comparison with any production of the Grecian stage.
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Variation
in astronomy, any deviation from the mean orbit or mean motion of a heavenly body produced by the perturbation of another body or bodies. Thus the planets are considered to move mathematically in elliptic orbits, which would be the case if they were subject to the attraction of the sun only, but being acted on by each other, there is supposed to be a minute and slow but constant variation in the elements of the ellipse. Variations which are compensated in short intervals are called periodic, and those which require for their compensation a long period are called secular. In biology: (1) A tendency in all organisms to vary slightly from other organisms produced by the same parents. (2) Hereditary modification. (3) A modification directly due to the physical conditions of life; such as the dwarfed condition of shells in the Baltic, or of stunted plants on Alpine summits. (4) An organism, or a group of organisms, exhibiting modification due to external conditions.
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Varley, Cromwell
A distinguished electrician and fellow of the Royal Society, who on several occasions turned his Vaulderie knowledge of electricity to account in devising tests for spiritualistic mediums. In March, 1874 he applied such a test to Miss Florence Cook, during a materialisation séance. The experiment, in common with many of these earlier tests, has since been proved inadequate. (See Spiritualism .)
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Varna
a fortified town of Bulgaria (of which it is the chief port), on the Black Sea, and the capital of a district of the same name (area, 2,554 square miles; pop. about 350,000). It has a good harbor, and a large trade in grain. It is the see of a Greek archbishop. It was taken by the Russians in 1828, but restored to Turkey a year later by the peace of Adrianople. The Crimean expedition sailed from Varna in 1854. It was bombarded by the Russian fleet in 1915. Pop. about 45,000.
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Varnhagen Von Ense
MA- DAME (RACHEL ANTONIE FRIEDERIKE LEVIN), the wife of Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, a woman of great intellectual abilities and wide intellectual sympathies, who might almost be called the foster mother of German genius, a Jewess by birth, sister of the poet Ludwig Levin (afterward Robert-Tarnow); born in Berlin, Prussia, May 19, 1771. The first half of her life was spent in various towns of Germany, in Paris, and in Prague. Her first love having been killed in battle against Napoleon's army, Rahel became a Christian and married (in 1814) Varnhagen von Ense. Her house in Berlin was a gathering place for men of genius-philosophers, poets, artists, and writers. Her husband published a collection of her writings and letters as "Rahel" (1833), and three years later another collection; still later her correspondence with Veit (1861) and with Varnhagen (1875). She died in Berlin, March 7, 1833.
KARL AUGUST (värn-hä'gen fon en'se), en's a distinguished Prussian diplomatist, regarded as one of the best of German prose writers; born in Düsseldorf, Feb. 21, 1785. In 1814 he married Rahel Levin, an accomplished Jewess, and became conspicuous in Berlin society. His numerous works consist mainly of biographical studies including two memorials of his wife, who died in 1833-tales, criticisms, and poems. Of his "Diaries" several volumes have appeared. He died in Berlin, Oct. 10, 1858.
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Varnish Tree
the name given to various trees which furnish varnish. They are chiefly natives of the hotter parts of the Eastern Hemisphere and the varnish tree of each country or large province is, as a rule, different from that of others. In Tenasserim, Pegu, etc., the varnish tree is Melanorrhea usitatissima, sometimes specifically called the Black, or Martabam varnish; that of Japan is Rhus vernicifera and Stagmaria verniciflua; that of Sylhet, Semecarpus The varnish tree of the anacardium. the Meditercountries bordering on ranean is Rhus coriaria. It is a tree the leaves of which are divided into five to seven pairs of hairy leaflets with a terminal one. It is 15 to 20 feet high.
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Vasari
GIORGIO (vä-sä'rē), an Italian painter and architect, but most distinguished as the biographer of artists; born in Arezzo, Tuscany, July 30, 1512. He studied under Luca Signorelli, Michael Angelo, and Andrea del Sarto. As an architect he showed great ability, as exemplified in his designs of the Palazzo degli Uffizi at Florence, and the church of Abbadia at Arezzo. As a painter he was less successful. His principal paintings are a "Lord's Supper," in the cathedral of Arezzo, several works in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and in the Vatican in Rome. His "Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects" is of great interest, but it exhibits many errors respecting the earlier masters; and it is also guilty of partiality toward the Tuscan artists. It was first printed in 1550, and an enlarged and improved edition appeared in 1568. It has been translated into English. Vasari died in Florence, June 27, 1574.
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Vascular System
that portion of the interior of a plant in which spiral vessels or their modifications exist. In an exogenous stem, the vascular system is confined to the space between the pith and the bark. It chiefly consists of ducts and pitted or woody tissue collected into compact, wedge-shaped, vertical plates, the edges of which rest on the pith and the bark, while the sides are in contact with the medullary rays. It comprises the medullary sheath, which consists of spiral vessels and woody tissue intermixed. In an endogenous stem, the vascular system exists in the form of fibrous bundles, consisting of woody tissue containing spiral or other vessels, the whole imbedded in the cellular system. In comparative anatomy, the circulatory system. A term applied to the whole series of vessels arteries, veins, lymphatics, and lacteals-directly or indirectly connected with the circulation CHELSEA VASE of the blood. The vessels of which it is composed are of two leading types-those which carry blood, and those carrying lymph or chyle. The first constitute the sanguiferous system, and include the heart, the arteries, the capillaries, and the veins. The second or absorbent system includes the smaller and larger lymphatic and lacteal vessels, with the lymphatic and mesenteric glands.
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