406 AMPELIDILE, OR GRAPE TRIBE. 



In Switzerland, and in the German provinces, the vineyards are 

 as formal as those of France. But in Italy is found the true 

 vine of poetry, ' surrounding the stone cottage with its girdle, 

 flinging its pliant and luxuriant branches over the rustic verandah, 

 and twining its long garland from tree to tree.' It was the 

 luxuriance and the beauty of her vines and olives, that tempted 

 the rude people of the North to pour down upon her fertile fields. 

 In Greece, too, as well as Italy, the shoots of the vines are 

 either trained upon trees, or supported, so as to display all their 

 luxuriance, upon a series of props. This was the custom of the 

 ancient vine-growers; and their descendants have preserved it 

 in all its picturesque originality. The vine-dressers of Persia 

 train their vines to run up a wall, and curl over on the top. But 

 the most luxurious cultivation of the vine in hot countries, is 

 where it covers the trellis- work which surrounds a well, inviting 

 the owner and his family to gather beneath its shade. 4 The 

 fruitful bough by a well ' (Genesis xlix. 22) is of the highest 

 antiquity." 



571. The vine lasts to a considerable age; it spreads also to 

 a large extent, or when supported, rises to a great height. 

 Although it bears plentifully at three or four years, it is said 

 that vineyards improve in quality till they are fifty years old. 

 In France and Italy, there are entire vineyards still in existence, 

 and in full bearing, which were in the same condition at least 

 three centuries -ago. Many vines in this country are above 100 

 years old. A vine existed at Northallerton, in 1785, which 

 covered a surface of 137 square yards, and the principal stem of 

 which was about 15 inches in diameter; it was then about 100 

 years old, and it increased in size afterwards, but it is now dead. 

 There is at present a vine grown under glass at Hampton Court, 

 which covers a surface of 22 feet by 72, or 1 694 square feet ; 

 this bears seldom less than 2000 clusters every season ; and in 

 1816 there were at least 2240, each weighing on the average a 

 pound. Vine-growers enumerate nearly 300 different kinds of 

 grapes, which are all, whether black, white, blue, or varied in 

 colour, but varieties of the same species. The quantity of 

 foreign wine of various descriptions imported into Great Britain 



