1 1 2 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



diameter of the trunk at the base was eighteen inches, 

 and at a yard above the ground fourteen inches. The 

 branches, which by training spread themselves in all 

 directions to the number of about twenty, covered over 

 four thousand square yards of ground. The yearly 

 produce varied from seven thousand five hundred to ten 

 thousand bunches, the aggregate weight running from 

 five to six tons. The entire plant, sawn into pieces, 

 and reconstructed, complete in everything save life, was 

 sent to the great Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. 

 On the close of this, the trunk was returned to San 

 Francisco and deposited in the museum at Woodward's 

 (a sort of miniature "Crystal Palace"), where it will 

 probably be preserved after the manner of an ancient 

 Greek statue. The largest and most celebrated vine 

 in England is the famous old Black Hamburgh at 

 Hampton Court, planted in 1768, a slip from one at 

 Valentines, Ilford, Essex. Originally it was intended 

 simply to cover a piece of bare wall. The protecting 

 with glass was an afterthought, by no means immediate. 

 In ordinary years the produce has been from twelve or 

 thirteen hundred up to eighteen hundred bunches. In 

 very favourable ones it has ripened no fewer than two 

 thousand two hundred, every bunch well coloured, and fit 

 for table. This grand old plant is now somewhat on the 

 wane. When all is over, it will be said truthfully that 

 more human beings, from first to last, have stood under 

 its shadow than under any other vine in the world. 

 Possessed of features and qualities so glorious, it seems 



