Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/265

VINNITZA 227 VIOLIN" 1003 led an expedition along the coast of New England S., but was killed the year following in an encounter with the na- tives. The most famous of the Norse explorers, however, was Thorfinn Karl- sefne, an Icelander, who had married Gudrid, widow of Thorstein, a son of Eric the Red, and who in 1007 sailed from Greenland to Vinland with a crew of 160 men, where he remained for three years, and then returned, after which no further attempts at colonization were made. Rafn, in his "Antiquitates Ameri- canse," published the first full collection of the evidence which proves the pre- Columbian colonization of America. Both he and Finn Magnusen labor to show that Columbus derived his first hints of a new world from the accounts of these old Icelandic expeditions. Finn Magnu- sen is believed to have established the fact that Columbus did visit Iceland in 1477, 15 years before he undertook his expedition across the Atlantic, and so may have heard something of the long- abandoned Vinland. VINNITZA, a town of Russia, in the province of Podolia; on the Bug river; 245 miles N. N. W. of Odessa. It has several churches and synagogues, a Rus- so-Greek monastery, a Capuchin mon- asteiy, several schools, and a military hospital (formerly a Jesuit college). Pop. about 50,000. VIOL, in music, a stringed instru- ment a little larger than the violin; it was furnished with five or six strings, had a fretted finger board, and was played with a bow. The viol is found depicted in MSS. as early as the 11th century. In France, Germany, and Italy the number of the strings varied between three and six. It is supposed that they were tuned in fourths and thirds. A chest of viols consisted of six instruments of various sizes, the smaller ones were called treble, the next mean, and the larger bass viols. The treble viol was somewhat larger than the violin, and the music for it was written in the treble clef; the mean (or tenor) viol was about the same length and breadth as the mod- em tenor violin, but was thicker in the body; its music was written in the c clef. The bass viol was much about the same size as the violoncello, and the mu- sic for it was written in the bass clef. VIOLET, in botany, the typical genus of Violacese. Low herbs, more rarely shrubs, with radical or alternate leaves or flowers ; on one, rarely on two-flowered peduncles; calyx of five sepals, extended at the base; petals five, unequal, the un- der one spurred at the base; anthers connate, two of them spurred behind; capsule of three elastic valves; seeds ovoid or globose. Known species 100; from temperate countries. Five of the most familiar are native in temperate Europe and America: Viola palustris, the marsh; V. odorata, the sweet; V. hirta, the hairy; V. cayyina, Gerard's or the dog violet; and V. tricolor, the pansy violet, pansy, or heart's-ease. The first has a subterranean creeping rootstock, glabrous stems, reniform cordate leaves, and white or lilac scentless flowers. The second has broadly cordate leaves, and fragrant blue, white, or reddish purple flowers; found in woods, pastures, or on banks. The third, with faintly scented flowers, is found chiefly in the E. of England and Scotland, and parts of North America. The fourth, with broadly cordate leaves, ciliate dentate stipules, and blue, lilac, gray, or white flowers, is common in woods, dry pas- tures, clefts of rocks, and banks; and the fifth, having flowers variegated, purple, white, and yellow, is frequent on banks and in fields. The bruised leaves of V. tricolor smell like peach kernels; they were once believed to be efficacious in the cure of skin diseases. The petals of V. odorata are used as a laxative for chil- dren. The seeds have similar qualities, and the root is emetic and purgative. V. ovata is a reputed antidote to the poison of the rattlesnake. V. serpens, a small procumbent, Himalayan herb, jaelds an oil. The flowers are considered diaphoretic and laxative, the seeds diu- retic and emetic. VIOLIN (diminutive from viol), the smallest but most important of the stringed musical instruments jplayed with the bow. Like other bow instruments now in use, it consists of a wooden sonorous chest, formed of two slightly arched surfaces, known as the back and belly, united by sides or ribs, and with a curve or hollow on each side in the middle of the length; a neck or finger- board attached to the chest; and strings fastened at one end to the belly by a tail- piece or projection of wood, and at the other by turning pins at the head or ex- tremity of the neck, by which they can be tightened or loosened at pleasure. The strings thus passing over the belly are raised up from it by a bridge, which is supported in the interior by the sound post; and on the belly there are two sound-holes opposite each other, of a form resembling the letter /, or rather the long /. The sounds are produced by drawing a bow across the strings, the upper surface of the bridge being con- vexly curved, so as to enable the bow to be drawn along each string separately, without coming in contact with the rest.