THE VINE, 253 



earliest an^es, herbs, fruits, and j)lants were alone 

 offered up ; tlie first libations were made with water, 

 wine then being unknown ; gradually honey, milk, oil, 

 wine, and corn were added ; and at last, when ani- 

 mals were rendered domestic, and formed the j)rin- 

 cipal notu'ishment of man, the kid and the ox were 

 laid upon the altar*. 



" The vine," says Humboldt, " which we now cul- 

 tivate, does not belong to Europe ; it grows wild on 

 the coasts of the Caspian Sea, in Armenia, and in 

 Caramania. From Asia it passed into Greece, and 

 thence into Sicily. The Phoceans carried it into the 

 south of France ; the Romans planted it on the banks 

 of the Rhine. The species of vites, which are found 

 wild in North America, and which gave the name of 

 the land of the vine (Winenland) to the first part of 

 the New Continent which was discovered by Euro- 

 peans, are very different from our vitis viiiifera-\." It 

 is a popular error that the grape vine was common to 

 both continents. 



It has been said that the vine was introduced into 

 England by the Romans ; but if so, it could not 

 have been till near the close of their influence, for 

 Tacitus mentions that it was not known when Agri- 

 cola commanded in the island. At the invasion of 

 the Anglo-Saxons, however, when the country had 

 been under the Roman dominion four hundred years, 

 and had received, during that long period, all the en- 

 couragement which that people gave to the agricul- 

 ture of their provinces, the vine, without doubt, was 

 extensively cultivated. Vineyards are mentioned in 

 the earliest Saxon charters, as well as gardens and 

 orchards, " and this was before the combating in- 

 vaders had time or ability to make them, if they had 



* See Goguet, Origine des Lois, 

 t Geographic des Plantes; 4to,, p. 26. 



z3 



