60 THE BOTANY OF BERMUDA. 



XXXIV.— Rhamne^ 

 ColubHna Asiatica, Brongn. 



Found growing on St. David's Island by Dr. Greenwood, R. A. 



Phylica odorata, Cass. 



Identified in 1873; no note of its place of growth. 



XXXV. — Ampelideje. 

 Vifis viuifera, Linu. Grajie-vine. 



"Vyues and vyne cuttiuges'' were furnished to the first settlers in 

 Bermuda in 1616. Probably white grapes from Spain ; at least such are 

 the oldest vines extant, and from the general resemblance which the 

 climate of Bermuda bears to that of Madeira, which is especially close 

 from November to May, the founders of the colony doubtless anticipated 

 a similar success in their cultivation; in this, as in so many other ex- 

 pectations, they were disappointed. Very fine grapes hare been grown 

 in Bermuda, but not in great abundance, and the climate is too near 

 that of the West Indies, where the vine does 7wt succeed, to be con- 

 sidered favorable to it. The soil is also generally too poor. 



The vine loses its leaves in November, and begins to recover them 

 in February. The interval of rest has not been observed with much 

 accuracy, but does not appear to exceed 120 days. It is given by 

 DeCandolle as 157 days at Medeira.* 



The writer imported and distributed a great number of the best English 

 hot-house varieties, especially Black Hamburgs and Muscats of various 

 denominations, and they bore in Mount Langton Garden, when only 

 3 years old, fruit which as to flavor left nothing to be wished; the best 

 bearing vme, however, was one transplanted out of an old garden where 

 it grew in a marsh. It was layered in marshy ground, where the water 

 habituall,y stood, in a ditch close alongside the trellis, at 6 to 12 inches 

 only below the level of the soil, having a mean temperature of about 

 21° C. (7(P Fahr.). Under these singular circumstances it produced 

 very fine and highly-flavored fruit, akin to Black Hambro', but redder 

 iij color. The bunches, however, rarely reached 1 pound, but single 

 berries were often an inch in diameter. 



These vines were skillfully pruned, the bunches thinned, and the 

 berries also thinned, by an English gardener. In general, vines in Ber- 

 muda are left entirely to nature. It is customary to let them run over 

 a horizontal trellis for shade, but they are scarcely ever touched with 



Geographic Botani<iue, IHS.'j, I., p. 47. 



