VINES 



AND 



VINE- CULTURE 



CHAPTEK I. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



'HE Grape Vine Vitis vinifera grows wild in the temperate 

 I regions of Western Asia, Northern Africa, and Southern 

 Europe. It is generally believed to be indigenous to Armenia, 

 to the south of the Caucasus, where it grows with great 

 luxuriance, clinging to tall trees, and producing fruit in great abund- 

 .ance and variety. 



Fig. 1. is an illustration of the common Vine, run wild, as it is 

 found in France, where it grows in hedges or on the borders of woods, 

 from pips disseminated by birds, etc. It is there called Embrunche, 

 Lambrunche, or Lambruche, from the Latin Labrusca a wild Vine. 

 The bunches are generally small, and the berries sour and with little 

 flesh ; and vary considerably in shape and colour, retaining, to some 

 extent, the characteristics of the particular variety of which it may be 

 an accidental seedling. 



The cultivation of the Grape Vine has, from the earliest time, 

 .attracted the attention of man. In nearly every portion of the Holy 

 Scriptures, from the record of the Flood to that of the Crucifixion of 

 the Saviour, the Vine is mentioned. In the Book of Genesis we are 

 informed that " Noah began to be an Husbandman, and he planted a 

 Vineyard ; " and in the Book of Numbers we read that " The men 

 whom Moses had sent to spy the Land of Canaan returned with a 

 bunch of Grapes, which they bare between two upon a staff." 

 Solomon had a Vineyard that let for a thousand pieces of silver. 

 In the Psalms of David, the Vine, evidently from its well-known 

 character, is often referred to in a symbolical sense : " Thy wife 

 shall be as the fruitful Vine upon the walls of thine house." " Thou 

 hast brought a Vine out of Egypt, thou hast cast out the heathen and 

 planted it." 



