78 Voyage of the Novara. 



poses, put in at this island, the inferior sorts were so cheap 

 that Captain Steen Bille considered it more profitable to 

 supply the crew with wine mixed with water than beer. Since 

 that time prices have become ten times higher, and the best 

 quality now sells for from £110 to £150 a pipe, and will doubt- 

 less rise in proportion as the older stores are exhausted. 



Though the yield of the vine had been decreasing, year 

 after year, for a considerable time, yet the actual vine disease 

 only made its appearance in 1852, when the leaves and fruit 

 were covered with a kind of fungus ( O'ldium Tuckeri),* like a 

 white dust. The Portuguese Government sent a commission 

 for the purpose of investigating the causes of the calamity. 

 The report t is not decisive on the point, whether the fungus 

 is the real cause or only a symptom of the disease, nor does 

 it offer any advice as to how it may be checked. Dr. 

 Hermann Schacht,t who resided during a period of 18 

 months in the island, and has published a valuable treatise, 

 states that the vine-disease appears there in the same form 

 as in Germany, even as regards the season, which is soon 

 after the blossom disappears. At first the young leaf is 

 covered with a whitish matter, chiefly on its lower side ; 

 it then assumes a crumpled appearance, becomes spotted, 



* Vide Botanical Gazette of 1852, page 9 ; of 1853, page 583 ; and of 1854, 

 page 137 ; — Fulasne, " Sur le Champignon, qui cause la Maladie de la Vigne." — 

 Comptes Rendus, vol. xxvii. 1853 ; — Dr. Schacht on Madeira, pages 52 to 58. 



f Memoria primero sobre a mangi-a e doenza das vinhas nas Uhas da Madeira 

 e Porto Santo, por Joao de Andi-ade Corvo. Lisbon. 1854. 



X Madeira imd Teuerifla mit ihrer Vegetation, &c. Von Dr. H. Schacht. Berlin. 

 185y. 



