354 SELECT PLANTS FOR INDUSTRIAL CULTURE 



large among American kinds, and are of pleasant taste. Flowers 

 fragrant. It is the only species which thrives well and bears largely 

 in the clime of Brisbane, according to Dr. Bancroft. This and the 

 other hardy North American Vines seem never to be attacked by 

 the Oidium disease. 



Vitis S chimp eriana, Hochstetter. 



From Abyssinia to Guinea. This Vine may become perhaps 

 valuable with many other Central African kinds for tropical culture, 

 and may show itself hardy also in extra-tropical countries. Barter 

 compares the edible berries to clusters of Frontignac grape. 



Vitis vinifera, Linne.* 



The Grape Vine. Turkey, Persia, Tartary ; probably also in the 

 Himalayas and Greece. This is not the place to discuss at length 

 the great industrial questions concerning this highly important 

 plant, even had these not already engaged since many years the 

 attention of a large number of our colonists. The whole territory 

 of New South Wales stretches essentially through the Vine zone, 

 and thus most kinds of Vine can be produced here, either on the 

 lowlands or the less elevated mountains in various climatic regions 

 and in different geologic formations. The best grapes are produced 

 mainly between the 30th and 45th degree of latitude. Cultivation 

 for wine advances on the Rhine to 50 north, on trellis it extends to 

 52 or 53 N. In Italy vines are often trained high up over Maples, 

 Willows and Elms, since Pliny's time ; in the Caucasus they 

 sometimes grow on Pterocarya. Vines attain an age of centuries 

 and stems 3 feet in diameter. The doors of the dome of the Ravenna 

 Cathedral are of vine-wood (Soderim). Tozetti saw vines with 

 branches extending diametrically, as a whole, over 3,000 feet at 

 Montebamboli: Rezier notes a plant bearing about 4,000 bunches 

 of grapes annually at Besangon (Regel). A vine of enormous 

 dimensions at Hampton Court has also gained wide celebrity. In 

 Italy the establishing of Vine plantations on ordinary culture- 

 land is regarded as enhancing the value of the latter four or five 

 fold, and elsewhere often even more (whereas cereal-land is apt to 

 deteriorate), provided that vine diseases can be kept off. 

 The Corinthian variety, producing the Currants of commerce, thrives 

 also well in some districts, where with Raisins its fruit may become 

 a staple article of our exports beyond home consumption. The 

 Sultana variety is not much pruned ; the bunches when gathered 

 are dipped in an alkaline liquid obtained from wood-ashes, to which 

 a little olive oil is added, to expedite drying, which is effected in 

 about a week (G. Maw). The produce of Sultana raisins fluctuates 

 from 7 to 30 cwt. per acre. The plant is best reared in the lime- 

 stone formation. In Greece the average yield of ordinary Raisins 



