ON ASPECT. 41 



thereby retards the growth of the plant, and the ma- 

 turation of its fruit, in a greater or less degree, in pro- 

 portion to its violence and duration. 



In the choice of a good aspect, therefore, shelter from 

 high or often-recurring winds becomes a prime con- 

 sideration ; and those aspects that are the least exposed 

 to their effects, and that receive a full portion of solar 

 rays, may, accordingly, be deemed the best. There 

 are, however, in general, so many local circumstances 

 which affect the warmth and shelter of the surfaces of 

 walls and buildings, that these alone, where they ex- 

 ist, must determine the best aspects for the training 

 of vines. But if there be no such local circumstances 

 to influence the choice of aspect, then, I have no hes- 

 itation in stating, from a careful observation of the 

 qualities and flavor of the fruit of the diflerent vin- 

 tages for many years past, that the best aspects in 

 which grapes can be brought to the highest degree of 

 perfection on open walls that the latitude and climate 

 of the southern parts of England will permit, are 

 those that range from ihe eastern to the south- eastern^ 

 both inclusive, the last of which, indeed, may be con- 

 sidered the very best. 



On walls having any of these aspects the sun shines 

 with full force in the early part of the morning, at 

 which time there is something highly favorable to 

 vegetation in the influence of his rays. These, dart- 

 ing nearly perpendicularly on the foliage of a vine, 

 while the dew yet remains, and its beautiful crystal 

 drops hang suspended, as it were by magic, to the 

 angular extremities of the leaves, seem to stimulate 

 the vital energies of the plant in an extraordinary 

 degree, and to excite them to a vigorous exercise of 

 all the important functions appertaming to vegetable 

 hfe. 



The next best aspects are those which follow in 

 succession from south-east to south. An aspect due 

 south is undoubtedly a very good one, but its expos- 

 ure to those strong winds which so frequently blow 

 from the souih-west forms a great drawback to its 

 4* 



