ae 
Ampelidee.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 147 
shire. Southward the vine extends as far as 12° of northern latitude; as we learn from 
Dr. Ainslie (Ind, Mat. Med. 1. p. 166) that ‘*the French are particularly successful in 
cultivating the grape at Pondicherry, notwithstanding the great heat of the Carnatic.” 
The illustrious Humboldt, in his Proleg. de distrib. Geograph. Plant. p. 159, where, 
from the examination of a multitude of facts, he has deduced the requisites for the 
successful cultivation of many plants, has observed, that “ the vine in Europe yields a 
generous and excellent wine between the latitudes of 36° and 48°, where the mean 
annual temperature is from 62° to 50°, or even 47°-5, provided that of winter is not | 
below 38°, nor that of summer below 66° or 68°. ‘These conditions are fulfilled on the 
sea-coast as high as lat. 47°, in the interior as high as lat. 50°, and in North America 
only as high as lat. 40°. The vine may therefore be cultivated for wine in a belt of from 
12° to 15° of latitude in breadth on both sides of the Line; though to a much greater ex- 
tent, if required, for its fruit only: but for both purposes, in a narrower space in the 
New than in the Old World. Further north than 48° of latitude, grapes do not generally 
secrete sufficient succharine matter to undergo a proper vinous fermentation, and further 
south than 35° (or 32° in an insular situation like Madeira), though they are both sweet 
and high-flavoured, the temperature is so great that the juice passes rapidly into the 
acetous fermentation; and therefore the grapes of the most southern parts of Europe are 
more frequently dried as raisins than converted into wine. The climate of India is such 
as to exclude it from benefiting either by preserving the grape, or converting it into 
wine; though: e north-western provinces, the vines thrive well and bear abundantly. 
They flower ary, and ripen the fruit (which is well, though perhaps not so deli- 
cately flavoured as in more temperate climates) about the middle of June, or about the 
time the vine is said to flower in Caucasus: at this time the mean temperature being about 
90°, is evidently much too. great to allow of a slow and gradual vinous fermentation; 
while the accession of the rainy season immediately afterwards produces so great a 
degree of moisture, as to render it impossible to dry the grapes as raisins, unless this 
could be effected in ovens, after being plunged in boiling water, as is done in some parts 
of Europe. It might, perhaps, be practicable even to make wine by growing the grapes 
at i foot of the mountains, where free from jungles, as in the country beyond the 
Jumna, and conveying them to a moderate temperature on the mountain side. A 
brewery has been established in a situation where the mean temperature in the houses 
hardly ever varied from 60° in the warm weather, and the distance was so inconsiderable, 
that it was thought preferable to bring the barley from the plains, rather than use that 
which was grown on the spot. The Deyra Doon would be a particularly favourable 
situation; but at present there is too much uncleared jungle, and the climate too 
moist, to ripen the grape praperly in the short season, from the middle of March to 
‘the middle of June; the greatest pains were taken in their cultivation, but without 
suecess, by the Hon. Mr. Shore while resident there. 
But it is observed, that when the warmth of a low latitude is compensated for by 
elevation, or a barrier is opposed to the inundating influence of the rainy season, 
. CZ grapes 
