CLASS PENTANDRIA. 143 



of 50® on the northern border, and 59° on the southern. Lines of temperature 

 have been fixed by Humboldt by remarking the peculiar vegetables in difYerent 

 latitudes. He has traced the northern limit of the wine-grape, where the mean 

 annual temperature is about 50°, across the United States to the Pacific Ocean ; 

 not, however, in a straight line, for cHmate, although chiefly dependent on latitude, 

 is }et much modified by other circumstances ; and on the western coast of America 

 we find in latitude 50° a similar climate to the 43d degree of latitude on the east- 

 ern coast. Thus, the wine-grape may grow in 50° of latitude near the lakes, the 

 Mississippi, and Pacific Ocean ; while in the eastern part of NeAV York and New 

 England, it would not thrive beyond the 43d degree of latitude. We find on the 

 eastern side of the Atlantic, the region of the wine-grape, including France and the 

 southern countries of Europe, extending as high as latitude 50°. The southern 

 limit of the wine-grape is traced from Raleigh, in the United States, in latitude 

 35°, to Europe, where it passes between Rome and Florence, in latitude 44° ; this 

 line is the boundary between the grape region and that of the olive and fig, which 

 require a warmer climate. The banks of the Rhine produce excellent grapes, 

 which are brought down the river in great quantities to the seaports. The festival 

 of the Vintage, or the gathering of the grapes, which, like our Thanksgiving season, 

 is intended as a manifestation of gratitude for the fruits of the earth, was cele 

 brated with much joy by the ancient Romans, and is still observed by the people 

 of Italy ; it occurs with them about the beginning of September ; in France and the 

 south of Germany it is later. The vines of Italy are often trained upon trees, par- 

 ticularly upon the lofty elm. In France the vine is supported by short sapUngs, 

 about the length of bean-poles. 



It is said the Persian vine-dressers conduct the vines uj) the walls of their vine- 

 yards, and curl them over on the other side ; this they do by tying small stones to 

 the extremity of the tendrils. This practice may illustrate a passage in Genesis : 

 " Jos^eph is a fruitful bough; even a fruitful bough by a well ; lohose branches run 

 over the wall." " The vine, particularly in Turkey and Greece, is frequently made 

 to intwine on trellises around a well, where, in the heat of the day, families collect 

 and sit under their shade." 



188. The violet^ genus Yiola, contains many native species. 

 The garden-violet, Viola ^ tri-color^ has a variety of common 

 names, as pansy, heart's-ease, &c. Pansy is a corruption of the 

 French p<?/i5e6, a thought; thus Shaks^Deare, in the character of 

 Ophelia, says : 



"There's rosemary — that's for remembraficc ; 

 And these are pansies — 

 That's for thought." 



Shakspeare also calls the same flower, " Love in idleness" The blue violet 

 ( Viola ccerulia) is found among the first flowers of spring. Our meadows present 

 a great variety of beautiful and fragrant violets. The genus Capsicum aftbrds the 

 Cayenne pepper, a South American plant, and the red pepper of our gardens. 

 The pericarps, when ripe, are of a bright red ; the seeds are attached to a central 

 column ; they are heating and stimulating ; valuable in decoction as an antidote to 

 sore throat. The natural order Convolvulaccce is composed of pentandrious plants; 

 here we find the morning-glory, jalap plant — whose root-stock furnishes the medi- 

 cinal part — the cypress- vine, and the sweet potato, or convolvulus batatas; and yet 

 modern botanists say the natural orders bring together plants of similar properties. 



climate where the thermometer in summer would rise to 100 degrees, and in winter sink to zero, or 0, 

 the medium would be 50 degrees: this is probably not far from the mean annual temperature of our 

 climate. The mean annual temperature at the equator is reckoned to be about 84 degrees. 



Temperature of the regions which produce the wine-grape— Mean annual temperature {see note)— 

 a. What is the natural limit of the wine-grape ? — How does the climate of the western coast of Ameri 

 ca corrcsi)ond to that of the eastern coast ? — Crossing the Atlantic, where do we find the northern and 

 southern limits of the wine-grape 1— Vintage— Wines— Vineyards.— 188. Violet— Capsicum.— Con voU 

 vulaceJB. 



