Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/269

VALLEY VALLOMBROSA 249 1586, died there, April 20, 1652. In June, 1614, he embarked from Venice in the habit of a pilgrim. He went first to Constantinople, remained a year, then visited Egypt and the Holy Land, and at Bagdad married a Nestorian woman. He next journeyed over Mesopota- mia, and finally went to Ispahan and engaged in the war between Persia and Turkey. His wife'having died, he embalmed her body and took it home with him, travelling through India, and reaching Rome in 1626. To Pope Urban VIII., who made him honorary cham- berlain, he presented a short account of Geor- gia, in order to induce him to send mission- aries to that country. Not long afterward he married a Georgian, whom he had brought with him from the East. His travels, written in the form of letters, were published at Rome in 1650-'53 in 4vols. (English translation, fol., London, 1665). Several other works were composed by him, many of which were never published. His narratives, in spite of their prolixity, are very accurate. VALLEY, a central county of Nebraska, in- tersected by Loup fork and its N. branch ; area, 576 sq. m. ; pop. in 1875, 287. The sur- face is rolling, and consists chiefly of produc- tive prairies. VALLIERE, Mile, de La. See LA VALLI^EE. VALLISNERIA, a genus of endogenous aquat- ic plants, named in honor of Antonio Vallis- nieri. It belongs to a small family, the hydro- Vallisneria spiralis Staminate and Pistillate. charidaccm, all water or marsh plants, and consists of but two species, one exclusively Australian, and the other, V. spiralis, found in the fresh waters of most countries, especially the warmer ones, and in nearly all parts of the United States, where it is known as tape grass and eel grass, though quite distinct from the eel grass of salt waters (zoster a). The stem or rootstock lies prostrate in the mud ; from this proceed the tape-like leaves, 1 to 2 ft. long, 2 to 5 lines wide, and minutely serrulate on the edges ; these are dark green and entirely submerged. The flowers are dioecious ; those of the staminate plant are several in a small cluster, surrounded by a three- valved spathe and borne upon a very short scape which rises at the base of the leaves. The fertile flowers are solitary, with a long ovary, at the apex of which are three small petals and three large two-lobed stigmas ; each flower is borne upon a slender spirally coiled scape, which is from 2 to 4 ft. long, according to the depth of the water. At flowering time these female or pistillate flowers rise by means of their long flexible stems to the surface of the water, where they are quite beyond the reach of the staminate or male flowers, which are confined at the bottom upon a stem only about an inch long. The male flowers, as they mature, spon- taneously break away from their short stems and rise to the surface, where they expand and float about, shedding their pollen upon the stigmas of the female flowers; after fer- tilization takes place, the long stem to the pistillate flower shortens its coils and carries the impregnated ovary to the bottom again, where it ripens into a many-seeded berry from half an inch to two inches long. The leaves of Vallisneria afford a most interesting object for the microscope ; the tissues being very thin and transparent, they allow the contents of the cells to be distinctly seen, and these are found to be in constant motion, the contents of each cell moving independently of those of the oth- ers. The plant is very abundant in some wa- ters; there are localities upon the Hudson where at certain seasons it is difficult to force a boat through it. It is also abundant on the waters of Chesapeake bay, where it is called by the singular misnomer of wild celery ; the rootstocks and their buds are the favorite food of the canvas-back duck, a fact recognized in its specific name, fuligula Vallisneria. VALLISNIERI, Antonio, an Italian naturalist, born at Tresilico, Modena, May 3,1661, died in Padua, Jan. 18, 1730. He studied medicine at Bologna, and about 1688 began practice in Reggio. In 1700 he became professor at Pa- dua, where he excited opposition by his at- tempted reforms in medicine. He was inde- fatigable in his efforts to advance the knowl- edge of natural history, and in his researches on generation, and opposed the doctrine of spontaneous generation. His complete works were published at Venice in 1733 (3 vols. fol.). VALLOMBROSA (shady valley), an abbey in a valley of the Apennines about 15 m. E. of Florence. It was founded by St. Giovanni Gualberto about 1038, under the rule of St. Benedict, and the institution was approved by Pope Alexander II. in 1070. The original pur- pose of the founder was to establish separate hermitages, but the cenobitic or community life soon prevailed, and the Vallombrosians are now recognized as a branch of the re- formed Benedictines. In 1500 they exchanged