OF HORTICULTURE. 161 
Vincetoxicum —continued. 
rounded and mucronulate at apex, rounded or sub-cordate af 
base, Cape of Good Hope, 1726. Greenhouse, twining sub-shrub. 
SYN. Cynanchum pilosum (B. R. 111). 
v. urascens (purplish). Z. dull purple, on slender pedi- 
cels; cymes long.stalked, many-flowered, proceeding from the 
axils of the upper leaves. J. narrow-oblong, mucronate, becoming 
smaller near the ends of the shoots where the flowers appear, 
WUA 
FIG. 175. LEAVES AND FRUITS OF THE WILD VINE (VITIS VINIFERA). 
Stems and all the green parts slightly downy; when in flower, 
g weaker, with a tendency to twine. Japan, 1850. Half- 
hardy or hardy perennial. 
VINE (Vitis vinifera). The Grape Vine is found 
growing wild in the temperate regions of Western Asia, 
Southern Europe, and parts of Northern Africa, and 
is generally believed to be a native of that part of 
Asia Minor to the south of the Caucasus and of ‘the 
Vol. IV. 
D 
AN ENCYCLOPADIA 
| 
Vine—continued. 
Caspian Sea. According to De Candolle, in * L'Origine 
des Plantes Cultivées,’ it grows there “ with the luxu- 
' riant wildness of a tropical creeper, clinging to tall 
trees, and producing abundant fruit without pruning or 
cultivation (see Fig. 175). . . Its dissemination by birds 
and other agencies must have begun very early—perhaps 
before the existence of man 
in Europe, or even in Asia. 
. . . Seeds of the Grape Vine 
have been found in the lake 
dwellings of Castione, near 
Parma, which date from the 
age of bronze... and Vine 
leaves have been found in 
the tufa round Montpellier — 
probably deposited before the 
historieal epoch." Records of 
the cultivation of the Grape, 
and of the making of wine, 
in Egypt, go back 5,000 to 
6,000 years. 
. The introduction of the Vine 
into this country is generally 
credited to the Romans, in the 
reign of the Emperor Augustus, 
about A.D. 10. Vineyards 
existed in England at a very 
early period of our history. 
They are mentioned in the 
“Domesday Book," and also 
by Bede, who wrote in A.D. 731. 
The Isle of Ely was called the 
Isle of Vines by the Normans, 
the Bishop of Ely, shortly after 
the Conquest, receiving as 
tithes wine made from the 
Vines grown in his diocese. In 
the reign of Henry III. we read 
of vineyards. Malmesbury 
mentions the county of Glou- 
cester as being, in his time, 
very rich in vineyards; and 
there still remain traces of 
them at Tortworth. The first 
Earl of Salisbury planted a 
vineyard at Hatfield, which is 
noted as being in existence 
when Charles I. was taken 
"there asa prisoner. There are 
records of vineyards existing in 
various parts of Surrey, and a 
notable one, which is still partly 
in existence, once flourished at 
Bury St. Edmunds. Vineyards 
seem to have been common to 
all monastic establishments ; 
but the suppression of the 
latter, and, subsequently, the 
fact of cheap foreign wines 
becoming more easily accessi- 
ble, led, no doubt, to neglect 
in Grape cultivation. 
Of noteworthy Grape Vines, 
Speechly, who wrote on the 
Vine at the end of the last 
century, mentions one that was growing in the open air 
at Northallerton, in Yorkshire, in 1789, that had covered 
a space of 132 square yards, and was supposed to have 
been planted 150 years. During the last century, the 
cultivation of Grapes seems to have become pretty 
general; several notable examples being still in existence 
—as that of the Black Hamburgh Vine at Valentines, 
. Ilford, in Essex, which Gilpin, in his “ Forest Scenery," 
: Y 
