102 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. 



the Yine is cultivated, having been only recently introduced 

 there. On the shores of the Black Sea, under the shelter 

 of rocks, which enhance its beauty by contrast, the Empress's 

 residence is situated; the roads in its neighbourhood are 

 bordered by hedges of Cypress and Olive, Pomegranate and 

 Laurel, and sparkling fountains are overshadowed by the 

 spreading arms of patriarchal Walnuts."* 



In the Crimea we find the Yine growing in a cultivated 

 state as an introduced plant; but to see it in its native 

 beauty, we must cross the Caucasus chain of mountains with 

 its steep walls of rock, and frightful abysses, and look down 

 on the gently sloping green hills of the blooming land of 

 Georgia, where it grows to a great thickness and height. 

 In all the countries between the Black Sea and the Caspian 

 it is not only cultivated, but is considered as native ; it is 

 however on the Asiatic side of the Black Sea that it grows 

 in the greatest perfection. " In the forests of Mingrelia and 

 Imereti the Yine is the queen of the trees. The stem is 

 sometimes six inches in diameter, and mounts to the tops 

 of the highest trees, festooning and binding them together ;" 

 and though it is not regularly cultivated in those countries, 

 it yet produces "such an abundance of excellent grapes, 



* Gleaned from Oliphant's c Russian Shores of the Black Sea.' 



