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  • VFL (Australian rules football organization)
    The depression of 1893–95 caused attendance at games to decline, and the VFA proposed a revenue-sharing scheme to assist struggling clubs. Leading clubs, which wanted more control over the game, opposed the scheme. In 1896 those eight leading clubs—Melbourne, Essendon, Geelong, Collingwood, South Melbourne, Fitzroy, Carlton, and St Kilda—came together to form the Victorian......
  • VFR (aviation)
    The simplest form of flight control is called the visual flight rule, in which pilots fly with visual ground reference and a “see and be seen” flight rule. In congested airspace all pilots must obey the instrument flight rule; that is, they must depend principally on the information provided by the plane’s instruments for their safety. In poor visibility and at night, instrume...
  • VFW (American organization)
    American organization created in 1913–14 by the merger of three national war-veteran societies that were founded in 1899, shortly after the Spanish-American War. The American Veterans of Foreign Service, the Colorado Society of the Army of the Philippines, and another society also known as the American Veterans of Foreign Service merged in a convention in Pittsburgh, Pa., to become the sing...
  • VGIK
    ...parts, 1944 and 1958). Eisenstein also was a student of filmmaker and theorist Lev Kuleshov, who formulated the groundbreaking editing process called montage at the world’s first film school, the All-Union Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. Supported by Lenin, who recognized film’s ability to communicate his revolutionary message to illiterate and non-Russian-speaking audience...
  • VGÖ (political party, Austria)
    The environmentalist parties, including the Green Alternative (Die Grüne Alternative; GA; founded 1986) and the United Greens of Austria (Vereinte Grüne Österreichs; VGÖ; founded 1982), have come to be known collectively as the Greens. The Greens first won seats in the Austrian parliament in 1986....
  • VH1 (television station)
    By the mid-1990s, the majority of MTV’s daily schedule was devoted to programming that was not related to music. Its sister station VH1 had been broadcasting adult-oriented rock videos since 1985, and it soon filled the vacuum, with original content such as Pop Up Video and the documentary series Behind the Music. MTV Networks launched...
  • VHF (communications)
    conventionally defined portion of the electromagnetic spectrum including any radiation with a wavelength between 1 and 10 metres and a frequency between 300 and 30 megahertz. VHF signals are widely employed for television and radio transmissions. In the United States and Canada, television stations that broadcast on channels...
  • VHF omnidirectional radio range (communications)
    Modern very-high-frequency omnidirectional range (VOR) has been developed in various forms since about 1930. It transmits two signals simultaneously in all directions. Operating in the very high frequency (VHF) range, it is less subject than the lower-frequency radio range to disturbances by day-night alternation, weather, and other causes. The two simultaneously emitted signals have a......
  • VHP (political party, Suriname)
    ...Party (Progressieve Suriname Volkspartij; PSV) organized the working-class Creoles. The East Indians and Indonesians were eventually grouped within the United Hindu Party (VHP; later called the Progressive Reform Party) and the Indonesian Peasants’ Party (Kaum-Tani Persuatan Indonesia; KTPI), respectively. Universal suffrage was instituted in 1948....
  • VHS (electronics)
    ...developed in the l960s, but the first relatively convenient and low-cost VCR was introduced by the Sony Corporation in 1969. With the subsequent development of the Betamax format by Sony and the VHS format by the Matsushita Corporation in the 1970s, videocassette recorders became sufficiently inexpensive to be purchased by millions of families for use in the home. Both the VHS and Betamax......
  • “Vi mordere” (play by Kamban)
    ...about the problems of love. In his subsequent plays, Marmor (1918; “Marble”) and Vi mordere (1920; We Murderers), as well as in his first novel, Ragnar Finnsson (1922), all of which are set in America, attention is focused on crime and punishment. Questions about societal......
  • VI Olympic Winter Games (1952)
    With the awarding of the sixth Winter Olympics to Oslo, the Games were held for the first time in a Scandinavian country. Some questioned the country’s ability to stage the competition, but the worries proved unfounded. New facilities were built and existing ones refurbished to meet the high Olympic standard. Oslo saw the Winter Games debut of the Olympic torch, a tradition started in the.....
  • via affirmativa (mysticism)
    Mystical experience permits complementary and apparently contradictory methods of expression: via affirmativa (“affirmative way,” or fullness) as well as via negativa (“negative way,” or emptiness). For fullness and freedom both are needed. This is because the reality affirmed contains its own opposite. In fact, the apparent......
  • Via Dolorosa (street, Jerusalem)
    ...Jerusalem, and the city has an extensive modern sewerage system. Drainage repairs in the Christian quarter have uncovered Byzantine pavements, which have been restored. Additionally, parts of the Via Dolorosa, said to follow the path along which Jesus carried the cross to Golgotha, have been repaved to facilitate the Christian Holy Week pilgrimage....
  • Via Lucis (religion)
    ...the practice, and in the 18th century they bowed to Western Christian devotional feeling and provided 14 stations in Jerusalem. The traditional stations have been recently supplemented with the Via Lucis (the Way of Light), in which the meditations focus on the resurrected Christ....
  • via militare (Roman road)
    ...by the peak of the empire had built nearly 53,000 miles of road connecting their capital with the frontiers of their far-flung empire. Twenty-nine great military roads, the viae militares, radiated from Rome. The most famous of these was the Appian Way. Begun in 312 bc, this road eventually followed the Mediterranean coast south to Capua and t...
  • via negativa (mysticism)
    ...Theology and On the Divine Names, the main emphasis was on the ineffability of God (“the Divine Dark”) and hence on the “apophatic” or “negative” approach to God. Through a gradual process of ascension from material things to spiritual realities and an eventual stripping away of all created beings in “unknowi...
  • VIA Rail Canada, Inc. (Canadian railway system)
    Canadian state-owned passenger-railway system. Incorporated in 1977 and established in 1978 as a crown corporation independent of the Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) railroads, VIA gradually assumed full responsibility for managing all the country’s rail-passenger services except commuter lines and some small local lines. Headquarters a...
  • Via Sacra (ancient road, Italy)
    Canadian state-owned passenger-railway system. Incorporated in 1977 and established in 1978 as a crown corporation independent of the Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) railroads, VIA gradually assumed full responsibility for managing all the country’s rail-passenger services except commuter lines and some small local lines. Headquarters a...
  • Viaçao Aérea São Paulo (Brazilian airline)
    ...consolidated into three major companies that compete nationwide: VARIG, which since the late 1920s has been a largely employee-owned airline; the now privately owned São Paulo State Airline (VASP), which handles mainly domestic flights; and Transbrasil....
  • Viacom Inc. (American company)
    one of the largest and foremost communications and media conglomerates in the United States. The present form of the corporation dates from 1994 when Viacom Inc., which owned radio and television stations and cable television programming services and systems, acquired the entertainment and publishing giant Paramount Communications Inc. and then merged with the video and music retailer Blockbuster...
  • Viadana, Lodovico da (Italian composer)
    ...first chorus only—a partial score enabling the keyboard player to orient himself. Unlike the Gabrieli collection of concerti, Banchieri’s is composed exclusively of sacred texts. By contrast, Lodovico da Viadana’s popular and influential Cento concerti ecclesiastici a 1, a 2, a 3, e a 4 voci, con il basso continuo per sonar nell’organo (100 Ecclesiastical C...
  • Viadua (river, Europe)
    river of east-central Europe. It is one of the most significant rivers in the catchment basin of the Baltic Sea, second only to the Vistula in discharge and length. For the first 70 miles (112 kilometres) from its source, it passes through the Czech Republic. For a distance of 116 miles in its middle reach, it constitutes the boundary between Poland and ...
  • viaduct (bridge)
    type of long bridge or series of bridges, usually supported by a series of arches or on spans between tall towers. The purpose of a viaduct is to carry a road or railway over water, a valley, or another road. The viaduct is both functionally and etymologically related to the aqueduct, which carries water; both were developed by Roman engineers....
  • Viage del Parnaso (work by Cervantes)
    In 1614 Cervantes published Viage del Parnaso, a long allegorical poem in mock-mythological and satirical vein, with a postscript in prose. It was devoted to celebrating a host of contemporary poets and satirizing a few others. The author there admitted that writing poetry did not come easily to him. But he held poetry in the highest esteem as a pure art that should never be......
  • viagem maravilhosa, A (work by Graça Aranha)
    ...in his own work with avant-garde literary techniques, he adopted the Modernist idiom, employing elliptical sentences and inventing new words in a novel published the year before his death, A viagem maravilhosa (1929; “The Marvelous Journey”). His aesthetic views were further publicized in his essays A estética da vida (1925; “The Aesthetics of......
  • “Viagens na minha terra” (novel by Garrett)
    ...Lendas e narrativas (1851; “Legends and Narratives”). Garrett himself also attempted to modernize the Portuguese novel; in Viagens na minha terra (1846; Travels in My Homeland) he used the models provided by Irish-born English novelist Laurence Sterne and French author Xavier de Maistre. Many, however, preferred to follow the lead of......
  • Viaggi di Enrico Wanton (work by Seriman)
    ...learned much through a lengthy sojourn in England, where his friendship with Samuel Johnson helped to give independence and vigour, if not always accuracy, to his judgments. The Viaggi di Enrico Wanton (1749–64; “Travels of Enrico Wanton”), a philosophical novel by the Venetian Zaccaria Seriman, which tells of an imaginary voyage in the manner of......
  • viaggio a Reims, Il (cantata by Rossini)
    ...Crescendo,” the young very quickly paraded their admiration for him. Paris was then the centre of the world and Rossini knew it. After some of his works had been staged, he composed Il viaggio a Reims (“The Journey to Reims”), a cantata improvised for the coronation of Charles X....
  • Viagra (drug)
    trade name of the first oral drug for male impotence, introduced by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Inc., in 1998. Also known by the chemical name sildenafil citrate, it is one of a category of drugs known as phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors. See also PDE-5 inhibitor....
  • “Viaje a la Semilla” (work by Carpentier)
    ...instances of the fantastic. This combination became the hallmark of his work and the formula for “magic realism.” Viaje a la semilla (1944; Journey Back to the Source), for instance, set in 19th-century Cuba, is told in reverse, from the protagonist’s death to his return to the womb. This and other stories would be collect...
  • viaje entretenido, El (work by Rojas Villandrando)
    Spanish actor and author whose most important work, El viaje entretenido (“The Pleasant Voyage”), a picaresque novel in dialogue form, provides a valuable account of the Spanish theatre in the 16th century and of the life of the actors. He is also considered the cleverest writer of loas (laudatory dramatic prologues) of his era....
  • Vian, Boris (French author)
    ...cafés and cellar clubs of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The myth of this disillusioned youth, its district of Paris, its innocence, its jazz clubs, and its worship of Sartre were captured in Boris Vian’s L’Écume des jours (1947; Froth on the Daydream). Sartre’s patronage of Jean Genet, Cocteau’s discove...
  • Viana, Carlos de Aragon, príncipe de (Spanish prince)
    heir apparent to the throne of Navarre (from 1428), who intrigued for both the Navarrese and Aragonese crowns....
  • Vianen (The Netherlands)
    The scion of an ancient Dutch family, which from 1418 had held the lordship of Vianen south of Utrecht, Brederode became known as a spirited soldier and succeeded to the family titles in 1556. In 1564 he joined the league of great nobles that successfully petitioned Philip II of Spain to remove Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, virtual head of the government, from the Netherlands....
  • Vianen, Adam van (Dutch silversmith)
    a 17th-century ornamental style based on parts of the human anatomy. It was invented in the early 17th century by Dutch silversmiths and brothers Paulus and Adam van Vianen. Paulus was inspired by anatomy lectures he attended in Prague, and both he and Adam became known for the style. The auricular style was adopted by other cabinetmakers and carvers in the Low Countries and Germany....
  • Vianen, Paulus van (Dutch silversmith)
    a 17th-century ornamental style based on parts of the human anatomy. It was invented in the early 17th century by Dutch silversmiths and brothers Paulus and Adam van Vianen. Paulus was inspired by anatomy lectures he attended in Prague, and both he and Adam became known for the style. The auricular style was adopted by other cabinetmakers and carvers in the Low Countries and Germany....
  • Viangchan (Laos)
    largest city and capital of Laos, situated on a plain just northeast of the Mekong River. The city’s central river port location in a country relying heavily on its rivers for transportation and its surrounding hinterland of intensive rice cultivation have made Vientiane the major economic centre of Laos. The city has a tropical monsoon climate, every month having an average daytime tempera...
  • Viani, Alberto (Italian sculptor)
    The segmented torso, popular with Arp, Laurens, and Picasso earlier, continued to be reinterpreted by Alberto Viani, Bernard Heiliger, Karl Hartung, and Raoul Hague. The emphasis of these sculptors was upon more subtle, sensuous joinings that created self-enclosing surfaces. Viani’s work, for example, does not glorify body culture or suggest macrocosmic affinities as does an ideally......
  • Vianney, Saint Jean-Baptiste-Marie (French priest)
    French priest, the patron saint of parish priests, who was renowned as a confessor and for his supernatural powers....
  • Vianu, Tudor (Romanian author)
    ...Camilar, in his novel Mist, bitterly indicted fascism. Essays and criticism were written by Mihai Ralea, who also published travel books and philosophical and psychological works, and by Tudor Vianu, who revealed in his writings a materialistic and methodological approach after first having adhered to the aesthetic school....
  • Viardot, Michelle Ferdinande Pauline (French singer)
    French mezzo-soprano, best known for highly dramatic operatic roles....
  • Viardot, Pauline (French singer)
    French mezzo-soprano, best known for highly dramatic operatic roles....
  • Viareggio (Italy)
    town, Toscana (Tuscany) regione, central Italy. It lies along the Ligurian Sea, south of the Apuan Alps, just northwest of Pisa. Sheltered by dense pine woods and possessing a famous 5.5-mile (9-kilometre) beach of fine sand, it is one of Italy’s most popular seaside resorts and has a small harbour for yachts and a fishing port....
  • Viassolo, Giovanni Battista (Italian actor)
    Italian dramatist and actor, whose comedies were highly popular in the late 18th century....
  • Viaţa şi petrecerea sfinţilor (work by Dosoftei)
    ...the first poetry to be written in Romanian. He returned to Moldavia in 1675 and in 1679 translated the liturgy from the Greek. His other outstanding contribution to Romanian literature was his Viaţa şi petrecerea sfinţilor (1682–86; “Lives of the Saints”), in which he introduced popular idioms and encouraged the development of a more flexible......
  • Viatka (Russia)
    city and administrative centre of Kirov oblast (province), western Russia, on the Vyatka River. The city was founded as Khlynov in 1181 by traders from Novgorod and became the centre of the “Vyatka Lands,” settled by Russians in the 14th to the 15th century. In 1489 it was captured by Moscow. Renamed Vyatka in 1780, it became a provincial seat, but development was slow, and it...
  • Viau, Théophile de (French author)
    French poet and dramatist of the pre-Neoclassical period....
  • Viaud, Louis-Marie-Julien (French author)
    novelist whose exoticism made him popular in his time and whose themes anticipated some of the central preoccupations of French literature between World Wars....
  • Viaud, Théophile de (French author)
    French poet and dramatist of the pre-Neoclassical period....
  • vibes (musical instrument)
    percussion instrument that has tuned metal bars and is similar in shape to a xylophone. Felt or wool beaters are used to strike the bars, giving a soft, mellow tone quality. Suspended vertically below each aluminum bar is a tubular, tuned resonator that sustains the tone when the bar is struck....
  • Vibhanga (Buddhist text)
    ...(1) Dhammasangani (“Summary of Dharma”), a psychologically oriented manual of ethics for advanced monks but long popular in Sri Lanka, (2) Vibhanga (“Division” or “Classification”—not to be confused with a Vinaya work or with several suttas bearing......
  • Vibia Perpetua (Christian martyr)
    Christian martyr who wrote The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, a journal recounting her trial and imprisonment that was continued by a contemporary who described Perpetua’s death in the arena. Both her martyrdom and its account have been highly revered by ancient and modern Christians. Her text is one of the rare surviving documents written by a w...
  • Vibo Valentia (Italy)
    town, Calabria regione, southern Italy. It lies near the Gulf of Sant’Eufemia. It originated as the ancient Greek town of Hipponion and was praised in the 1st century bc by the Roman statesman and author Cicero. There is a museum of Greek antiquities, and ruined Greek walls can be seen outside the town. Rebuilt in the 13th century after destruction by...
  • Viborg (county, Denmark)
    Viborg amtskommune, created in 1970 from the former amtskommuner of Viborg and Thisted, lies west of the Djursland peninsula and includes the Salling peninsula, Fur Island, and Mors Island in Lim Fjord, and the Thy peninsula between Lim Fjord and the Skagerrak. The Thy peninsula is a low, wooded region with a smooth dune coast and chalk and limestone quarries. The rest of the......
  • Viborg (Denmark)
    city, seat of Viborg amtskommune (county commune), north-central Jutland, Denmark. It lies northwest of Århus. Originally a centre of pagan worship, Viborg (English: “sacred hill”) was a royal town and the early capital of Jutland. According to legend, it was from Viborg that King Canute set out to conquer England. The kings of Denmark were consecrated in Viborg from 1...
  • vibraculum (anatomy)
    ...In the gymnolaemate Bugula the avicularia are movable on short stalks and closely resemble miniature birds’ heads—hence the name avicularium. Another specialized form of zooid is the vibraculum, in which the operculum has become a whiplike seta (i.e., hairlike projection). The functions of avicularia and vibracula are not clearly known, but both types of zooids may h...
  • vibraharp (musical instrument)
    percussion instrument that has tuned metal bars and is similar in shape to a xylophone. Felt or wool beaters are used to strike the bars, giving a soft, mellow tone quality. Suspended vertically below each aluminum bar is a tubular, tuned resonator that sustains the tone when the bar is struck....
  • vibraphone (musical instrument)
    percussion instrument that has tuned metal bars and is similar in shape to a xylophone. Felt or wool beaters are used to strike the bars, giving a soft, mellow tone quality. Suspended vertically below each aluminum bar is a tubular, tuned resonator that sustains the tone when the bar is struck....
  • vibrating conveyor (mechanical device)
    Vibrating conveyors consist of troughs or tubes flexibly supported and vibrated by mechanical or electrical means to convey objects or bulk materials; vibration takes place in an inclined, elliptical pattern to cause directional as well as upward movement of the material....
  • vibrating string gravimeter (measurement instrument)
    ...means. If a thin wire is stretched by a mass hung from it, the tension in the wire, and therefore the frequency of transverse oscillations, will vary with the force of gravity upon the mass. Such vibrating string gravimeters were originally developed for use in submarines and were later employed by the Apollo 17 astronauts on the Moon to conduct a gravity survey of their landing site. Another.....
  • vibrating-reed electrometer (measurement instrument)
    The vibrating-reed electrometer uses a capacitor that has a vibrating reed as one of its plates. Movement of the reed changes the voltage across the capacitor. The output of the electrometer (which is easily amplified without drift) is the current necessary to keep the meter’s capacitance constant....
  • vibrating-reed tachometer (instrument)
    Mechanical tachometers utilize the fact that the centrifugal force on a rotating mass depends on the speed of rotation and can be used to stretch or compress a mechanical spring. A resonance, or vibrating-reed, tachometer uses a series of consecutively tuned reeds to determine engine speed by indicating the vibration frequency of the machine....
  • vibration (physics)
    periodic back-and-forth motion of the particles of an elastic body or medium, commonly resulting when almost any physical system is displaced from its equilibrium condition and allowed to respond to the forces that tend to restore equilibrium....
  • vibration damper (physics)
    in physics, restraining of vibratory motion, such as mechanical oscillations, noise, and alternating electric currents, by dissipation of energy. Unless a child keeps pumping a swing, its motion dies down because of damping. Shock absorbers in automobiles and carpet pads are examples of damping devices....
  • vibration damping (physics)
    in physics, restraining of vibratory motion, such as mechanical oscillations, noise, and alternating electric currents, by dissipation of energy. Unless a child keeps pumping a swing, its motion dies down because of damping. Shock absorbers in automobiles and carpet pads are examples of damping devices....
  • vibrational energy (molecular)
    ...rigid; however, the two nuclei are in a constant vibrational motion relative to one another. For such a nonrigid system, if the vibrational motion is approximated as being harmonic in nature, the vibrational energy, Ev, equals (v + 12)hνにゅー0, where v = 0, 1, 2, . . . is the vibrational quantum number,......
  • vibrational energy level (molecular)
    The rotational motion of a diatomic molecule can adequately be discussed by use of a rigid-rotor model. Real molecules are not rigid; however, the two nuclei are in a constant vibrational motion relative to one another. For such a nonrigid system, if the vibrational motion is approximated as being harmonic in nature, the vibrational energy, Ev, equals (v +......
  • vibrational quantum number (physics)
    ...as being harmonic in nature, the vibrational energy, Ev, equals (v + 12)hνにゅー0, where v = 0, 1, 2, . . . is the vibrational quantum number, νにゅー0 = (12πぱい)(k/μみゅー)1/2, and k is the force constant of the bond, characteristic of the....
  • vibrational spectroscopy (physics)
    This technique covers the region of the electromagnetic spectrum between the visible (wavelength of 800 nanometres) and the short-wavelength microwave (0.3 millimetre). The spectra observed in this region are primarily associated with the internal vibrational motion of molecules, but a few light molecules will have rotational transitions lying in the region. For the infrared region, the......
  • vibrational spectrum (physics)
    The observation of the vibrational Raman spectrum of a molecule depends on a change in the molecules polarizability (ability to be distorted by an electric field) rather than its dipole moment during the vibration of the atoms. As a result, infrared and Raman spectra provide complementary information, and between the two techniques all vibrational transitions can be observed. This combination......
  • vibrational state decay (physics)
    ...ultraviolet region (below 400 nanometres), the lifetime of the excited electronic state is sufficiently long that prior to the emission of radiation the molecule can (1) undergo a series of vibrational state decays, (2) lose energy through interstate transfer (intersystem crossing), or (3) lose vibrational energy via molecular collisions....
  • vibrato (music)
    ...tongued, or a piano key struck, and decay transients, such as the way the sound of a plucked string dies away, are very important in many instruments, particularly those that are struck or plucked. Vibrato (a periodic slow change in pitch) and tremolo (a periodic slow change in amplitude) also aid the analysis of steady-state sounds....
  • vibrio (bacterial shape)
    Individual bacteria can assume one of three basic shapes: spherical (coccus), rodlike (bacillus), or curved (vibrio, spirillum, or spirochete). Considerable variation is seen in the actual shapes of bacteria, and cells can be stretched or compressed in one dimension. Bacteria that do not separate from one another after cell division form characteristic clusters that are helpful in their......
  • vibrio (bacteria)
    (genus Vibrio), any of a group of comma-shaped bacteria in the family Vibrionaceae. Vibrios are aquatic microorganisms, some species of which cause serious diseases in humans and other animals....
  • Vibrio anquillarum (bacterium)
    ...are of significance to humans: V. cholerae is the cause of cholera, and V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus both act as agents of acute enteritis, or bacterial diarrhea. V. anguillarum is found in diseased eels and other fishes....
  • Vibrio cholerae (bacterium)
    ...the meninges, the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord; the diphtheria bacterium (Corynebacterium diphtheriae), which initially infects the throat; and the cholera bacterium (Vibrio cholerae), which reproduces in the intestinal tract, where the toxin that it produces causes the voluminous diarrhea characteristic of this cholera. Other bacteria that can infect humans......
  • Vibrio comma (bacterium)
    ...species forming chains; photosynthetic pigment present in certain species; cells usually motile by means of a single flagellum. Species in soil and in fresh water and salt water. Examples of genera: Vibrio (cholera bacteria), Pseudomonas, Nitrosomonas, ......
  • Vibrio parahaemolyticus (bacterium)
    Three species of vibrio are of significance to humans: V. cholerae is the cause of cholera, and V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus both act as agents of acute enteritis, or bacterial diarrhea. V. anguillarum is found in diseased eels and other fishes....
  • vibriosis (animal pathology)
    ...the eyes spread by flies or dust and is most serious in cattle having white pigmentation around one or both eyes. Mastitis, an inflammation of the udder, is caused by rough handling or by infection. Vibriosis, a venereal disease that causes abortion; pneumonia, an inflammation of the lungs; and shipping fever all cause serious losses and are difficult to control except through good management.....
  • vibrissae (hair)
    ...from moisture, and they usually lend a characteristic colour pattern. The thicker underfur is primarily insulative and may differ in colour from the guard hairs. The third common hair type is the vibrissa, or whisker, a stiff, typically elongate hair that functions in tactile sensation. Hairs may be further modified to form rigid quills. The “horn” of the rhinoceros is composed of...
  • viburnum (plant genus)
    (genus Viburnum), any of about 175 shrubs and small trees belonging to the family Adoxaceae, native to temperate and subtropical Eurasia and North America, with about 16 species native to Malaysia. Many species are cultivated for their ornamental foliage, fragrant clusters of usually white flowers, and colourful blue-black fruits....
  • Viburnum alnifolium (plant)
    The American wayfaring tree, or hobblebush (V. alnifolium), native to eastern North America, grows to 3 metres (10 feet) tall; it has roundish leaves, with white flower clusters and red berries that turn purple-black at maturity. The wayfaring tree of Europe, V. lantana, grows to 5 metres (16 feet). The European cranberry, highbush......
  • Viburnum dentatum (plant)
    Other North American species are the southern black haw (V. rufidulum), similar but taller; the sheepberry, or nannyberry (V. lentago), with finely toothed, oval leaves; and the arrowwood (V. dentatum), with roundish to oval, coarsely toothed leaves. Laurustinus (V. tinus), a 3-metre-tall evergreen with oblong leaves, is native to the Mediterranean area. Sweet......
  • Viburnum edule (plant)
    The diversity of habitat found in Dipsacales is illustrated by the species of Viburnum growing naturally in eastern North America. V. edule (red-fruited squashberry) inhabits moist woods from Labrador to Alaska, southward into Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota, and as far west as Colorado and Oregon. V. dentatum (arrowwood) thrives not only in moist woods but also in......
  • Viburnum lantana
    ...(V. alnifolium), native to eastern North America, grows to 3 metres (10 feet) tall; it has roundish leaves, with white flower clusters and red berries that turn purple-black at maturity. The wayfaring tree of Europe, V. lantana, grows to 5 metres (16 feet). The European cranberry, highbush cranberry, or water elder (V. opulus), a small tree reaching 4 metres (13 feet), is.....
  • Viburnum lentago (plant)
    Other North American species are the southern black haw (V. rufidulum), similar but taller; the sheepberry, or nannyberry (V. lentago), with finely toothed, oval leaves; and the arrowwood (V. dentatum), with roundish to oval, coarsely toothed leaves. Laurustinus (V. tinus), a 3-metre-tall evergreen with oblong leaves, is native to the Mediterranean area. Sweet......
  • Viburnum macrocephalum sterile (plant)
    ...hills. Viburnum is also an important horticultural genus; some of its cultivated species include V. opulus (guelder rose), V. dentatum (arrowwood), and V. macrocephalum (Chinese snowball)....
  • Viburnum macrocephalum variety sterile (plant)
    ...hills. Viburnum is also an important horticultural genus; some of its cultivated species include V. opulus (guelder rose), V. dentatum (arrowwood), and V. macrocephalum (Chinese snowball)....
  • Viburnum nudum (Viburnum nudum)
    ...southward into Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota, and as far west as Colorado and Oregon. V. dentatum (arrowwood) thrives not only in moist woods but also in swamps. V. nudum (possum haw) is largely limited to swamps of the eastern and southern coastal plain of the United States. In contrast, V. rufidulum (southern black haw) and V. molle prefer dry, rocky......
  • Viburnum odoratissimum (plant)
    ...the arrowwood (V. dentatum), with roundish to oval, coarsely toothed leaves. Laurustinus (V. tinus), a 3-metre-tall evergreen with oblong leaves, is native to the Mediterranean area. Sweet viburnum (V. odoratissimum), from India and Japan, bears dark-green, shiny, evergreen leaves and large clusters of fragrant flowers....
  • Viburnum opulus (plant)
    ...feet) tall; it has roundish leaves, with white flower clusters and red berries that turn purple-black at maturity. The wayfaring tree of Europe, V. lantana, grows to 5 metres (16 feet). The European cranberry, highbush cranberry, or water elder (V. opulus), a small tree reaching 4 metres (13 feet), is native to northern Europe and North Africa. It has three- to five-lobed,......
  • Viburnum opulus opulus (Viburnum opulus opulus)
    ...(southern black haw) and V. molle prefer dry, rocky woods or hills. Viburnum is also an important horticultural genus; some of its cultivated species include V. opulus (guelder rose), V. dentatum (arrowwood), and V. macrocephalum (Chinese snowball)....
  • Viburnum opulus roseum (plant)
    A variety of the European cranberry, V. opulus variety roseum, is known as snowball, or guelder rose, for its round, roselike heads of sterile florets. Chinese snowball (V. macrocephalum variety sterile) and Japanese snowball (V. plicatum) are common snowball bushes with large balls of white to greenish white flowers. The 4.5-metre- (15-foot-) high......
  • Viburnum plicatum (plant)
    ...V. opulus variety roseum, is known as snowball, or guelder rose, for its round, roselike heads of sterile florets. Chinese snowball (V. macrocephalum variety sterile) and Japanese snowball (V. plicatum) are common snowball bushes with large balls of white to greenish white flowers. The 4.5-metre- (15-foot-) high black haw (V. prunifolium), of eastern......
  • Viburnum prunifolium (plant)
    ...macrocephalum variety sterile) and Japanese snowball (V. plicatum) are common snowball bushes with large balls of white to greenish white flowers. The 4.5-metre- (15-foot-) high black haw (V. prunifolium), of eastern North America, has plumlike leaves, small white flower clusters, and blue-black berries....
  • Viburnum rufidulum (plant)
    Other North American species are the southern black haw (V. rufidulum), similar but taller; the sheepberry, or nannyberry (V. lentago), with finely toothed, oval leaves; and the arrowwood (V. dentatum), with roundish to oval, coarsely toothed leaves. Laurustinus (V. tinus), a 3-metre-tall evergreen with......
  • Viburnum tinus (plant)
    ...similar but taller; the sheepberry, or nannyberry (V. lentago), with finely toothed, oval leaves; and the arrowwood (V. dentatum), with roundish to oval, coarsely toothed leaves. Laurustinus (V. tinus), a 3-metre-tall evergreen with oblong leaves, is native to the Mediterranean area. Sweet viburnum (V. odoratissimum), from India and Japan, bears dark-green,......
  • Viburnum trilobum (plant)
    ...It has three- to five-lobed, maplelike leaves and round heads of white flowers that are followed by hanging clusters of shiny, bright red, translucent berries. The leaves turn red in autumn. V. trilobum, from northern North America, is similar but has short-stalked flowers and three-lobed leaves....
  • Vic (Spain)
    city, Barcelona provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Catalonia, northeastern Spain. The city is situated on the Vic Plain and lies along the Meder River, which is an affluent of the Ter River. Because it was first inhab...

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