VILLOUS. 



VINE. 



appointed professor, with other requisite 

 officers. 



"The anatomical structure of quadrupeds, 

 as horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, &c., the diseases 

 to which they are subject, and the remedies 

 proper to be applied, are investigated and re- 

 gularly taught; by which means enlightened 

 practitioners of liberal education, whose whole 

 study has been devoted to the veterinary art in 

 all its branches, may be gradually dispersed 

 over the kingdom, in whose skill and expe- 

 rience confidence may he securely placed. 



"Subscribers have the privilege of sending 

 their diseased animals to the college, without 

 further expense than that of their daily food, 

 and these in general form a sufficient number 

 of patients for the practice of the professor 

 and pupils. On fixed days, the professor pre- 

 scribes for animals belonging to subscribers 

 who find it inconvenient to spare them from 

 home, provided the necessary medicines be 

 furnished and compounded at the college; 

 subscribers' horses are also there shod at the 

 ordinary prices." 



VI I, LOUS. A term in botany, signifying 

 covered with soft, close, long, loose hairs, re- 

 sembling shag. 



VINE (Vitis, from the Celtic gwiil, signifying 

 the best of trees. Wine is derived from the 

 Celtic word gu'i'/i). A valuable genus of plants. 

 The common grape vine (V. vjm/era), with its 

 vt-i \ numerous garden varieties, is in general 

 cultivation for its much-esteemed fruit. None 

 of the other species are worth cultivating. 

 The acids of grapes are chiefly the tartaric 

 and acetic; but malic acid is also present in 

 them. Mr. London, in his Encyclopaedia of 

 G,in!i',ii,t<:. thus botanically describes the vine: 

 "The grape vine is a trailing, deciduous, 

 hardy shrub, with a twisted irregular stem, and 

 long flexible branches, decumbent, like those 

 of the bramble ; or supporting themselves, 

 when near other trees, by means of tendrils, 

 like the pea. The leaves are large, lobed, en- 

 tire, or serrated and downy, or smooth ; green 

 in summer, but when mature, those varieties 

 in which the predominating colour is red con- 

 stantly change to, or are tinged with, some 

 shade of that colour ; and those of white, green, 

 or yellow grapes as constantly change to a 

 yellow, and are never in the least tinged with 

 purple, red, or scarlet. The breadth of the 

 leaves varies from 5 to 7 or 10 inches, and the 

 length of the footstalks from 4 to 8 inches. 

 The flowers are produced on the shoots of the 

 same year, which shoots generally proceed from 

 those of the year preceding; they are in the 

 form of a raceme, of a greenish-white colour, 

 appearing in the open air in England in June; 

 and the fruit, which is of the berry kind, attains 

 such maturity as the season and situation ad- 

 mit by the middle or end of September. The 

 berry or grape is generally globular, but often 

 ovate, \ val, oblong, or finger-shaped; the colours 

 are green, white, red, yellow, amber, or black, or 

 a variegation of two or more of these colours. 

 The skin is smooth; the pulp and juice of a 

 dulcet, poignant, elevated, generous flavour. 

 Every berry ought to enclose five small heart 

 ;:r pear-shaped stones ; but as they are par- 

 tially abortive, they have seldom more than 



three; and some varieties, as they attain a 

 certain age, as the Ascalon or Sultana raisin, 

 have none. The weight of a berry depends 

 not only on its size, but on the thickness of its 

 skin, and texture of the flesh, the lightest be- 

 ing the thin-skinned and juicy sorts, as the 

 sweet-water or Muscadine." 



Although we presume the excellent treatise 

 of Mr. Clement Hoare on the Culture of the Vine 

 is in the hands of most of our readers, yet, as 

 there is no other standard work of reference 

 on this subject, we must necessarily draw upon 

 this for our extracts. 



Of all the productions of the vegetable world 

 (observes this experienced cultivator) which 

 the skill and ingenuity of man have rendered 

 conducive to his comfort and to the enlarge- 

 ment of the sphere of his enjoyments, and the 

 increase of his pleasurable gratifications, the 

 vine stands forward as the most pre-eminently 

 conspicuous. Its quickness of growth, the 

 great age to which it will live, so great, in- 

 deed, as to be unknown; its almost total ex- 

 emption from all those adverse contingencies 

 which blight and diminish the produce of other 

 fruit-bearing trees; its astonishing vegetative 

 power; its wonderful fertility, and its delicious 

 fruit, applicable to so many purposes, and 

 agreeable to "all palates, in all its varied shapes, 

 combine to mark it out as one of the great- 

 est blessings bestowed by Providence to pro- 

 mote the comfort and enjoyments of the human 

 race. 



From the remotest records of antiquity, the 

 vine has been celebrated in all ages as the type 

 of plenty and the symbol of happiness. The 

 pages of Scripture abound with allusions to 

 the fertility of the vine as emblematic of pros- 

 perity ; and it is emphatically declared, in de- 

 scribing the peaceful and flourishing state of 

 the kingdom of Israel during the reign of So- 

 lomon, that "Judah and Israel dwelt safely, 

 every man under his vine and under his fig 

 tree, from Dan even to Beersheba." The 

 source of enjoyment thus mentioned to record 

 the happy state of the Jewish nation may be, 

 with reference to the vine, literally possessed 

 by the greater portion of the inhabitants of 

 Great Britain. 



The native country of the vine is generally 

 considered to be Persia. The finest grapes in 

 the world are those of Shiraz and of Casvin. 

 The latter city, says M. Morier, is environed 

 by vineyards and orchards, and the former 

 yield a grape which is celebrated throughout 

 Persia. It is along the line of mountains that 

 stretch from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian 

 Sea, that the best vine districts are situated; 

 but the grape vine has been found wild in 

 America, and has now become naturalized in 

 all the temperate regions of the world. In the 

 northern hemisphere it forms an important 

 branch of rural economy, from the 21st to the 

 51st parallel of latitude; and by an improved 

 method of culture very fine grapes may be 

 annually grown on the surface of walls, in the 

 open air, as far north as the 54th parallel, and 

 even beyond that in favourable seasons. The 

 vine is supposed to have been introduced into 

 Britain at the commencement of the Christian 

 era. It certainly did not exist before the 



1091 



