194 HISTORY OF FRUITS, 



The island of Madeira was planted with the vine from 

 cuttings brought from Cyprus, by Prince Henry, son to 

 John the First of Portugal, in the year 1420, when the 

 island was first discovered ; and it now affords about thirty 

 thousand pipes of wine annually. The Rhenish vine has 

 also been planted in Madeira, and produces a very supe- 

 rior wine, known by the name of Cerciel Madeira : this 

 island also affords us a sweet wine, called Malmsey 

 Madeira; but the genuine Malmsey wine is the produce 

 of Malvisia, and is now very rare. The ancients some- 

 times ripened particular wines, by placing them in. the 

 smoke above a fire, or in an upper part of their houses ; 

 and it is well known to the moderns, who are curious in 

 their Madeira wines, how much they improve by being 

 kept in a garret, instead of a vaulted cellar. Good West- 

 India Madeira, that has been exposed to the frost, as well 

 as the heat of summer, will be found to have ripened as 

 well as by a voyage to the East Indies. 



The Teneriffe wine, when about three years old, can 

 hardly be known from Madeira ; but as it gets older, it 

 becomes sweet and mellow, like Malaga. Formerly 

 there was made at Teneriffe a great quantity of Canary 

 sack, which the French call Vin de Malvesie, and we, 

 corruptly after them, Malmsey, from Malvisia, a town in 

 the Morea, famous for luscious wines. 



The luscious red wine called Lachryma Christi, is pro- 

 duced from vineyards on Mount Vesuvius. 



The Cape of Good Hope has been planted with vines 

 from the Rhine, Persia, and other countries; and they 

 have so increased, that there is scarcely a cottage without 

 a vineyard in all the colony. It is from the Cape that we 

 obtain those rich wines called Constantia, both red and 

 white, which are made on one farm only, and the quan- 

 tity does not exceed sixty pipes of red and 100 of the 

 white per annum. We also receive from thence large 



