120 OUR COMMON FBUITS. 



chosen to shadow forth Him in whom, as the representa- 

 tive of perfect humanity, the woman was blended with 

 the man, and who, appropriating it as His own special 

 symbol, declared, in words that have left an aureole of 

 glory around it for ever, " I am the true Vine." 



But to dissect our plant botanically will be an easier 

 task than to attempt to analyze it aesthetically. The grape 

 is a true berry, a mass of juicy pulp enclosed in a skin, 

 and containing loosely floating seeds, which, according to 

 the most correct principles of vegetation, should be five 

 in number, one for each stamen of the flower ; but aa 

 vegetables, like more highly organized beings, do not 

 always act up to their principles, one or two at least usually 

 remain abortive: an arrangement of Dame Nature's, 

 which, however, is rather satisfactory than otherwise, 

 especially at Christmastide, when the three or four which 

 she does mature are found quite sufficiently troublesome 

 to those whose department it is to " stone " the raisins. 

 In pity perhaps to busy plum pudding preparers, a few 

 varieties are left quite seedless, as is seen in the Ascalon 

 or Sultana raisin; and Theophrastus in his antique wisdom 

 sagely informs us how we might secure any sort becoming 

 so by simply extracting the pith, with a proper instru- 

 ment of horn or bone, from a twig, as far as it is to be 

 set in the ground, then lightly binding it round, and 

 setting it in moist earth to grow and bring forth a pipless 

 progeny ; " for," saith he, " if you rob the vine-branch of 

 the pith, whereof the stones are gendered, you may secure 

 grapes without stones." The vine in Italy furnishes oil 

 as well as wine, a kind being extracted from the pips 

 which is reckoned superior to any other sort either for 

 eating or burning, as it has no odour and burns without 

 smoke. The dried fruit furnishes no unimportant item 

 of commerce, our imports in 1862 amounting to 278,750 

 cwts. of raisins and 873,529 cwts. of currants (the dried 

 miniature grapes of the Greek islands), valued together at 

 1,227,538.* The Valentia raisins, according to Laborde, 



* Our imports of fresh grapes were calculated, some years ago, to amount 

 to l-- million Ibs. annually. 



