EUROPEAN GRAPES DESCRIBED. 137 



CULTURAL NOTES. It will succeed admirably in any house suitable for Black 

 Hamburgh. 



BLACK ALICANTE. Alicante. 



BLACK CHAMPION. Mill Hill Hamburgh. 



BLACK CHASSELAS. Black Muscadine. 



BLACK CORINTH (8) Plate V. A round black Sweetwater Grape. 

 Season : early. Merits : second-rate ; an extremely interesting sort. 



SYN. Gorinthe noir, Currant Grape, Patras Currant, Zante, 

 Raisin de Corance of the Romans. 



VINE. Growth moderately robust and vigorous ; matures well, and is very 

 fruitful. 



FRUIT. Bunches from four to six or eight inches long, tapering, with long 

 loose shoulders. Stalks slender. Berries very small, about the size of small peas, 

 round. Skin purplish red. Flesh juicy, sweet and pleasant, and without seeds. 



HISTORY, ETC. This is the Grape producing the Currants of commerce 

 "currant" being here a corruption of "Corinth" from the berries resembling 

 those of our Currants in size, etc. This Grape is very extensively cultivated in 

 the Morea, Greece, and the Ionian Islands ; but more especially in the districts 

 of Zante, Corinth, and near the town of Patras, from whence as much as 75,000 

 tons of dried fruit have been exported in one season. The Vines are grown as 

 low bushes, the crop ripening in succession from the first shoots, and the laterals, 

 which also bear. The fruit, after being gathered, was formerly spread out on a 

 specially smoothed plot of ground to dry, in which process the berries dropped 

 from the stalks which sufficiently accounts for the small stones and grit 

 formerly so often found amongst Currants, and for the necessity of washing them. 

 Now, as we learned from the late Mr. Maw, of Broseley, the better cultivators 

 use flat wooden trays for drying the fruit, so that it is kept quite clean. Currants 

 have long been used in this country, Sir Walter Raleigh, in the reign of Queen 

 Elizabeth, having a monopoly of their importation. The Corinth Grape, although 

 generally seedless, sometimes produces full-sized large berries with seeds- 

 reverting to the " Grape," as it were. Cultivation seems to tend to this, as in 

 many districts notably at Leghorn its cultivation had to be abandoned, on 

 account of that tendency. It is figured in The Transactions of the Horticultural 

 Society, i, 246, 1832. 



CULTURAL NOTES. This Grape is only grown as a curiosity in this country ; 

 it will succeed in a Black Hamburgh-house, grown in a large pot or box. At 

 Chiswick it has fruited frequently. 



BLACK FRONTIGNAN (43) Plate VI. A round black Muscat Grape. 

 Season: early. Merits: in flavour, first-class. 



SYN. Muscat noir ordinaire, Muscat noir. 



VINE. Growth moderately strong and vigorous, very free, always ripening 

 freely ; very fruitful. 



FRUIT. Bunches compact, long and cylindrical in shape, frequently with one 

 large shoulder, and closely set. Berries below medium size, round. Skin thin, 

 of a dull bluish black colour, with a thick bloom. Flesh firm (might be termed 

 thick), of a reddish tinge, with a strong, rich, Muscat flavour. 



HISTORY, ETC. Introduced into this country by Sir William Temple, in 1654, 

 and one of the very oldest Grapes in cultivation. The name, Frontignan, is taken 

 from a town in France, celebrated for its excellent wine generally called Fron- 

 tignac. 



