146 . ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [Ampelidee. 
linguam manusque urente dolore afficit. Sectio caulis, aquam copiose emittit. Solent 
Arabes dorsi dolore laborantes, hujus caules nocte sibi substernere.” (Descr. p. 34:) 
But the, grape-vine is alone of any importance for the utility of its products. The 
sap was at one time used in médicine, and the juice of the leaves, particularly of a 
variety in which they are red, considered astringent. Verjuice, expressed from unripé 
7 grapes, is well known for its acidity, and use in making syrups, &e. Lieut. Burnes 
mentions, that in Caubul they use grape powder, obtained by drying and powdering 
the unripe fruit, as a pleasant acid. When ripe it is every where valued as a fruit, 
either fresh, or in the state of raisins, and of one variety, as currants. The juice of the 
ripe fruit, called must, is useful as an agreeable beverage, froni containing sugar. By 
fermentation, other valuable products are procured, 48 wine, alcohol, and vinegar ; 
while the lees yield tartar or impure cream of tartar, from whieh tartaric acid may 
be obtained : an oil is sometimes extracted from the seeds, and even the ashes are con- 
sidered useful in medicine, from containing, like that of so many other woods, salts of 
potass. 
The grape-vine being a plant of so much value and importance, its distribution is an 
_ interesting subject of inquiry, though there is little prospect of its becoming in India of 
greater value than as affording an agreeable fruit; though this is of sufficient importance 
to render highly desirable the introduction and trial of different and superior kinds from 
Europe. The native country of the vine seems now to be better ascertained than 
that of niany othér as extensively cultivated plants. Bieberstein, in his Flora Tauro- 
Caucasica (1. p. 174) states, “ Nusquam non preter alpestria, per omnem de qua 
sermonem facimus regionem sponte in sylvis atque dumetis nascitur, et altissimas quan- 
doque arbores ascendens, totas quantas occupat.” The author of the “ Mukhzun- | 
ool-udwieh,”? who was an inhabitant of the district, describes the vine, as found both 
wild and in gardens at Tinkaboon, in Deilim, about lat. 37°, on the southern shores of 
the Caspian, and that it is there called dewaz. Humboldt, also, in his “ Geographie 
des Plantes,” p. 26, mentions that the vine “‘ grows wild on the coasts of the Caspian 
Sea, in Armenia, and in Caramania. The species of Vitis, which are found wild in 
North America, and which gave the name of Winenland to the first part of the New 
Continent which Europeans discovered, are very different from our Vitis vinifera.” 
These, as we learn from Pursh, are Vitis labrusca, called fox-grape; V. estivalis, summer- 
grape; and V. cordifolia, winter-grape. From the sacred writings we know that the 
grape was cultivated in Asia in the earliest periods. M.Bové, the latest scientific 
traveller, informs us (Ann. des Sc. Nat. 1834, p. 172) that it is still cultivated, and a 
good wine made in the vicinity of Jerusalem; but that in Egypt he found wine made 
only at Medinet-el-Fayoum (1. c. p. 76) which is in lat. 29°20’. “ From Asia,” Humboldt 
continues, ‘‘ it passed into Greece, and thence into Sicily. The Phoceeans carried it 
into the south of France, the Romans planted it on the banks of the Rhine ;” and we 
have it now extending to 51°, or even 52°, in England, where it ripens well, as 
in the present fine season, in the open air ; and wine is made in a few places in Devon- 
shire. 
