180 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



the provinces to be cut down. Tt therefore appears highly 

 improbable that the vine should not have been planted in 

 Britain previous to the year 280, when in 85 all the other 

 Roman provinces were overrun with vineyards. 



That we are indebted to the Romans for the first intro- 

 duction of the vine, is generally allowed ; although it is 

 possible it might have been introduced at a much earlier 

 period than we have stated, as the Phoenicians are said 

 to have planted the vine in the isles of the Mediterra- 

 nean sea, as well as in several parts of Europe and 

 Africa ; and as we have accounts of their trading to Bri- 

 tain for tin, they might have planted it on the English 

 coast also : but this must remain a matter of conjecture, 

 any farther than as it confirms the vine to have been ori- 

 ginally brought from Palestine. In the Book of Numbers 

 we find that the men whom Moses had sent to spy the 

 land of Canaan, returned with a bunch of grapes, which 

 they bare between two, upon a staff. The Damascus 

 grapes, at the present time, are often found to weigh 

 upwards of twenty-five pounds the bunch. In the ac- 

 counts of ^Egidius Van Egmont, envoy from the States to 

 the king of Naples, and John Heyman, professor of the 

 oriental languages in the university of Leyden, who have 

 published their observations on the present state of Asia 

 Minor, it is mentioned that, in the town called Sidonijah, 

 which is four hours journey from Damascus, some of the 

 grapes were as large as pigeons' eggs, and of a very ex- 

 quisite taste. From these circumstances we may fairly 

 conclude, that the vine is a native of Syria. That we do 

 not hear more of the enormous clusters of grapes growing 

 in the eastern parts, is owing to that country having been 

 in the hands of the Saracens since the seventh century, 

 when Abubeker overran it ; and these people being Ma- 

 homedans, and prohibited the use of wine, it is natural 

 to suppose that the management and culture of the vine 

 would be greatly neglected by them. 



