132 



WINE. OPIUM. 



of the flowers of the vine. Figure 159 is the unexpanded flower 

 magnified. The Common vine Vitis vinifera was originally 

 from Arabia, but is now widely spread through the tropics and 

 temperate zones of both hemispheres. The varieties are very 

 numerous, and there are no less than fourteen hundred said to be 

 cultivated in France alone. The fruit of the vine (the grape, 

 when newly gathered, and the raisin, when dried) is extensively 

 used as an article of dessert, and its juice furnishes wine by fer- 

 mentation. Verjuice, a harsh acid juice, is obtained from the 

 unripe grape. Currants or Corinthian raisins are obtained 

 from a remarkably small variety of black grape, called the 

 Black Corinth. 



95. Wine is the product of the fermentation of the juice of 

 the grape ; its colour, as we know, varies from red to a very 

 pale yellow : red wines are made from black grapes from which 

 the pericarp or envelope of the fruit is not separated from the 

 juice ; white wines are from white grapes or from black grapes, 

 the skins of which are not permitted to remain in the juice while 

 fermenting. During fermentation there is a great quantity of 

 carbonic acid disengaged, and when the wine is put into bottles 



before this process is terminated, 

 this gas remains imprisoned in 

 the liquid, and, escaping the mo- 

 ment the cork is withdrawn, 

 renders the wine sparkling and 

 frothy : Champagne is of this 

 kind. 



96. The FAMILY OF PAPA- 

 VERA'CE^E (Jig. 161) also be- 

 longs to the class of Hypope- 

 ta'Iese ; the type of this family is 

 the poppies, plants from which 

 opium is obtained. The flower 

 of the poppy has a calyx with 

 two concave and very cadu'cous 

 sepals ; a corolla with four large 

 petals, which, before their ex- 

 pansion, are plaited or wrinkled ; 

 a great many stamens, a one- 

 celled ovary, which becomes an 

 oval capsule enclosing a great 

 number of seeds. The red poppy 

 Fig, 1 61. RED POPPY. Papaver rlweas (fig. 161) 



95. What is wine ? What Benders some wine sparkling ? 



96. To what class does the family of Papavera'cea- belong ? What is 

 o'pium ? What is lau'danum ? 



