in church-history, a sect of Christian heretics, who sprung up in the 11th century, and were so called from their leader Valentinus.

The Valentinians were only a branch of the Gnostics, who realized or personified the platonic ideas concerning the deity, whom they called Pleroma, or plenitude. Their system was this: the first principle is Bythos, i.e. depth, which remained many ages unknown, having with it Enone or thought, and Sige or silence; from these sprung the Nous, or intelligence, which is the only Ion, equal to, and alone capable of comprehending, the Bythos; the filter of Nous they called Alethia, or truth; and these constituted the first quaternity of aeons, which were the source and original of all the rest: for Nous and Alethia produced the world and life; and from these two proceeded man and the church. But besides these eight principal aeons, there were twenty-two more; the last of which, called Sophia, being desirous to arrive at the knowledge of Bythos, gave herself a great deal of uneasiness, which created in her Anger and Fear, of which was born Matter. But the Horos, or bounder, stopped her, preserved her in the Pleroma, and restored her to her perfection. Sophia then produced the Christ and the Holy Spirit, which brought the aeons to their last perfection, and made every one of them contribute their utmost to form the Saviour. Here Enthymese, or thought, dwelling near the Pleroma, perfected by the Christ, produced every thing that is in the world, by its divers passions. The Christ sent into it the Saviour, accompanied with angels, who delivered it from its passions, without annihilating it: from thence was formed corporeal matter. And in this manner did they romance, concerning God, nature, and the mysteries of the Christian religion.

**Valeriana**, in botany, a genus of the triandra monogynia class. It has no calyx; the corolla consists of one petal, gibbous at the base, and situate above the fruit. There are 20 species, three of them natives of Europe, viz. the officinalis, or great wild valerian, whose root is alexipharmic, sedative, and diuretic; the dioica, or marsh valerian; and the locusta, or lambs-lettuce.

**Valet**, a French term, used as a common name for all domestic men servants, employed in the more servile offices, as grooms, footmen, coachmen, &c.

**Valetudinary**, among medical writers, denotes a person of a weak and sickly constitution, and frequently out of order.

**Valid**, in law, an appellation given to acts, deeds, transactions, &c. which are clothed with all the formalities requisite to their being put into execution.

**Valladolid**, a city of Old Castile, in Spain, eighty-six miles north-west of Madrid: W. long. 4° 50', and N. lat. 41° 26'.

**Vallengin**, the capital of a county of the same name, in Switzerland, situated near the lake of Neufchâtel, twenty-five miles north-west of Bern.

**Vallisneria**, in botany, a genus of the dioecia diandra clas. The spathe both of male and female consists of two segments, and the corolla of three petals; the spadix of the male is covered with florets; the capsule has one cell, containing many seeds; and there are three styli. There is but one species, a native of Italy.

**Valois**, a duchy of France, situated on the three great rivers, the Seine, the Marne, and the Oyle.

**Value**, in commerce, denotes the price or worth of any thing.

**Valued rent**, in Scots law. See Law, Tit. xii. 6.

**Valve**, in hydraulics, pneumatics, &c. is a kind of lid, or cover, of a tube or vessel, so contrived as to open one way; but which, the more forcibly it is pressed the other way, the closer it shuts the aperture; so that it either admits the entrance of a fluid into the tube or vessel, and prevents its return; or admits its escape, and prevents its re-entrance.

**Valve**, in anatomy, a thin membrane applied on several cavities and vessels of the body, to afford a passage to certain humours going one way, and prevent their reflux towards the place from whence they came.

**Van**, a term derived from the French avant, or avantant, signifying before, or foremost of any thing: thus we say, the van-guard of an army, &c.

**Vandalia**, the ancient name of the countries of Mecklenburg and Pomerania, in Germany.

**Vanellus**, in entomology. See Tringa.

**Vapour**, in philosophy, the moist and most volatile particles of bodies, separated by heat, and raised into the atmosphere. See Rain.

**Vapours**, in medicine, a disease properly called hypo, or the hypochondriacal disease, and in men particularly the spleen. See Medicine, p. 148.

**Vari**, in medicine, little hard and ruddy tumours, which frequently infect the faces of young persons of a hot temperament of body.

**Variation**, in geography and navigation, is the deviation of the magnetic needle, in the mariner's compass, from the true north point, towards either the east or west; or it is an arch of the horizon, intercepted between the meridian of the place of observation and the magnetic meridian. See Navigation.

**Variegation**, among botanists and florists, the act of streaking or diversifying the leaves, &c. of plants and flowers with several colours.

Variegation is either natural or artificial. Of natural variegation there are four kinds; the first shewing itself in yellow spots here and there in the leaves of plants called by gardeners the yellow bloach. The second kind, called the white bloach, marks the leaves with a great number of white spots or stripes; the white lying next the surface of the leaves, usually accompanied with other marks of a greenish white, that lie deeper in the body of the leaves. The third, and most beautiful, is where the leaves are edged with white, being owing to some disorder or infection in the juices, which stains the natural complection or verdure of the plant. The fourth kind is that called the yellow edge.

Artificial variegation is performed by inarching or inoculating a striped or variegated plant into a plain one of the same sort; as a variegated common jessamin into a plain, common, Spanish, Brazil, or Indian jessamin.

A single bud or eye, Mr Bradly observed, being placed in the escutcheon of a distempered tree, where it can only receive nourishment from the vitiated juices, will become variegated proportionably to the nourishment it draws; and will partake more of the white and yellow juice, than if a branch shall be inarched, the bud having nothing to nourish it but the juices of the plant it is inoculated on; whereas a cyon inarched is fed by the striped plant, and the healthful one.

As to the natural stripes and variegations, there are some particular circumstances to be observed: 1. That some plants only appear variegated or bloached in the spring and autumn, the stains disappearing as they gather strength; of this kind are rue, thyme, and marjoram. 2. Some plants are continually bloached in the spongy part of their their leaves, the sap-vessels all the time remaining of a healthful green; which, being strengthened by rich manure, or being inarched in healthful plants, throw off the distemper. In other plants, the disease is so rooted and inveterate, that it is propagated with the seed; such are the arch-angel, water-beton, bar-k-crefs, borage, striped cellary, and sycamore; the sides of which produce striped plants.

**VARIOLÆ**, the small-fox. See Medicine, p. 75.