170 Shriveling qf Grapes. 



duces the same effect, and by the same means, upon animal 

 bodies. Exposed to it, under certain circumstances, these soon 

 become black and blue. This appearance, caused by the stag- 

 nation of a coloured fluid under a semi-transparent surface, is 

 easily accounted for ; that the discolouration of plants pro- 

 ceeds in like manner from a stagnation of fluids is evident : 

 but why the stagnation of a colourless fluid should become so 

 apparent, I cannot easily imagine. 

 Folkstone, Jan. 19. 1841. 



Art. X. On the Shriveling of Grapes. By Robert Errington. 



I HAVE just been reading Mr. Duncan's paper on the vine, p. 21. 

 of your January Number. It is in my opinion replete with good 

 sound information, and I must say, for one, I have derived both 

 amusement and instruction from it. There are also several 

 papers on the shriveling or shanking of grapes, by various 

 persons, anonymous and otherwise, in which the opinions are at 

 once so various and conflicting, that horticulture as a science 

 must appear in the eyes of learners a complete chaos. 



This subject has now been discussed in the Gardener^ s Maga- 

 zine^ I should think, a hundred times, and appears as far from 

 settlement as ever; therefore I trust I also may be allowed to 

 make a few remarks. It is said by one of your correspondents, 

 that Dr. Lindley was of opinion that it arose from the dis- 

 crepancy, in point of temperature, between the border outside 

 and the atmosphere within. Such disagreement, we know, must 

 inevitably have a pernicious influence on any tree, but still this 

 alone will not, in my opinion, account for it ; inasmuch as I 

 have known it occur every year, for a series of years, in houses 

 in which the grapes were started at their natural period. Your 

 correspondent, Mr. R. Wilson, too has had a vinery in which, 

 whilst the atmosphere in the house was West Indian, the roots 

 were at the same time undergoing all the rigours of a Siberian 

 winter. Now this he has done three successive years, and not 

 only with impunit}', but he has (as he states) thereby obtained 

 the medal at the Jedburgh Society. Now, this is most as- 

 tounding, especially if the inference I draw be right, viz. that 

 he must have commenced forcing them in December, which 

 fact he has omitted to state. Your correspondent of Cotswold 

 talks about fermentation in the berries, in consequence of thin- 

 ning too early ; but, unfortunately for liis theory, some of the best 

 grape-growers in Britain produce splendid fruit by this early 

 thinning. 



By the by, I cannot understand what the last-named corre- 

 spondent means by " fermentation" in the berries in consequence 



