OF THE 



UNIVERSITY 



INTKODUCTION, 



Nullam, Vare, sacra vite prius severis arborem. 



HOR. Ode. xviii. 



THE early history of the vine is involved in obscurity, 

 Many people consider its native country to be Syria ; 

 but this appears exceedingly doubtful. It has been 

 supposed that the vine was trained and reared by the 

 hand of man almost immediately after the subsiding 

 of the great waters of the deluge, as we find recorded 

 in the 9th chapter of Genesis, that "Noah began to 

 be an husbandman, and planted a vineyard." 



The early cultivation of the vine in Egypt is proved 

 by the paintings on the ancient tombs. We have no 

 account of its introduction into Greece, where ifc 

 evidently flourished before the time of Homer; and it 

 is supposed to have been introduced somewhat later 

 into Italy, and spread from thence through the north 

 of Europe, and into Great Britain, as the venerable 

 Bede, writing in 731, makes mention of several vine- 

 yards. At that period they were generally attached 

 to monastic institutions; subsequently, however, the 



