Chapter XI. 
ACCLIMATIZATION AND HEREDITY. 
Scientific literature is full of illustrations of the natural and arti- 
ficial acclimatization of plants and the influence ofthe annual varia- 
tions of climate on the crops, all of which exemplify Linsser’s general 
laws. 
GRAPEVINE. 
The following remarks and data relative to the changes of climate 
during the historical period, as given by Fritz (1889, pp. 266-269), 
will be valuable for further study and are referred to in another part 
of this work: 
The northern boundary of vine culture in Europe extends from 
somewhat north of the mouth of the Loire, where the Marne empties 
into the Seine, to the junction of the Aar and the Rhine, north of the 
Erzgebirge, to about the fifty-second degree of latitude, descends 
along the Carpathians to the forty-ninth degree, extends on this 
parallel eastward, and near the Volga turns southward to its mouth, 
on the Caspian Sea. In the middle : ages wine was made in the south 
of England, in Gloucester and W indsor ; in the Netherlands; in 
Namur, Liege, Louvain; in northern Ger many, in the Fifel range of 
hills in Sauerland (a division of Rhenish Prussia), on the slopes of 
the Ruhr Mountains, on the Weser as far as Raddesdorf, in lesser 
Waldeck (or Pyrmont) ; in Hesse as far as Fritzlar; in Thuringia, in 
Brandenburg, and in lower Lusatia; in Berlin, Brandenburg, Oder- 
berg, Guben; in Prussia, at Kulm, Neuenburg g, Thorn, Marienburg, 
even beyond Koénigsberg@; in Kurland (Cour! and), and even in 
Seeland (Zealand) the vine has been cultivated in great quantities. 
Although we have very favorable accounts of many harvests in those 
times, even for the highest of the latitudes mentioned above, still 
one must not generalize too far. The sensation of taste is very vari- 
able and often peculiar. We frequently at the present time obtain 
a very sour beverage from countries reputed to produce good wine, 
and in the north we eat grapes which farther south are considered 
very sour. It must be taken for granted that in those times when 
there was no communication over long distances they were not very 
exacting in regard to wine, particularly as the best wines were 
unknown, as must have been the case in northern Germany, the 
Netherlands, and England. If the wine was harsh and sour, 1t was 
still wine, which in favorable years, and even in those latitudes where 
the crop did excellently well, could be made into a very drinkable 
beverage. In later times, and when better wines became known, when 
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