74 FRUITS 



satisfactorily. Their number could be multiplied indefinitely 

 wherever artesian wells are available to supply the necessary 

 water for their roots. Not only would their fruit be very 

 valuable, but the shade which they would afford to man and 

 beast out on those wide stretches of sun-scorched land would 

 perhaps be of even greater value. 



GRAPES, the fruit of Vitis vinifera, the wine-yielding vine. 

 In Italy and Greece and Asia Minor and Persia the wild vine 

 is to be seen by the side of streams climbing up over other 

 trees, and in Italian vineyards the cultivated plant is still 

 trained up trees pruned for the purpose, but in France and 

 other wine -producing countries the vines are not allowed to 

 grow higher than three or four feet, and instead of trees 

 there are short poles to support them. 



Grapes will not ripen in countries which have a cool summer ; 

 on the other hand, in the burning hot tropics the vines produce 

 no fruit. In Britain, in sheltered places and in favourable 

 seasons, grapes ripen out of doors, but for the most part we 

 grow them under glass. One of our most famous vines is the 

 one at Hampton Court, which was planted in George Ill's 

 reign and still produces more than a thousand bunches of 

 grapes every year. 



The unfermented juice of ripe grapes is called must, after 

 fermentation it is called wine. Brandy is a spirit distilled 

 from wine. Raisins are grapes which have been dried in the 

 sun. They are of two kinds, muscatel raisins, which are the 

 fruit of the muscatel vine, and Valencia raisins. The former 

 are not separated from their stalks, but dried whole in 

 bunches ; Valencia raisins are dried singly. Currants are the 

 dried stoneless grapes of a vine which grows abundantly 

 in the Greek Islands ; they are round, and small, and very 

 sweet. They were called Corinth raisins, because they were 

 first imported into England from Corinth. 



At present we buy our wine principally from Spain and 

 Portugal and France, our raisins from Spain, and our currants 

 from Greece. 



