SIZK OF THE BUNCHES AJSD BERRIES. 2 



bunches of grapes of from ten to forty pounds weight each. 

 Chios, now Scio, which has been often brought to mind during 

 the recent struggle of Greece, has long been celebrated for 

 its vineyards, and its wines have been immortalized by the pen 

 of Virgil. Pliny gives us an account of Rhemnius Palaemon, 

 a renowned Roman grammarian, who bought a farm within 

 ten miles of the city of Rome, for which he paid six hundred 

 thousand sesterces, and that he so improved it by cultivation, 

 that the produce of his vines in a single year sold for four hun- 

 dred thousand sesterces. His vines produced " such huge 

 and mighty clusters of grapes," that the people went from all 

 quarters to see them. The great success which attended his 

 effort was attributed by some to his deep learning, while others 

 accused him of using magic and the black art. The bunch 

 of grapes which was borne on a girdle by two of the spies on 

 their return from the land of Canaan has been already referred 

 to ; and the grapes of Damascus at the present day are often 

 found to weigh upwards of twenty-five pounds the bunch. 



We find in the publications by John Heyman, professor of 

 oriental literature in the university of Ley den, and in those of 

 Egidius Van Egmont, envoy from the states to the king of 

 Naples, who have given their observations on the present con- 

 dition of ^Asia Minor, that in the town of Sidonijah, which is 

 situated at four hours' journey from Damascus, some of the 

 grapes were as large as a pigeon's egg, and of most exquisite 

 taste. These circumstances corroborate the opinion already 

 advanced and generally entertained, that the species of grape 

 now so widely disseminated, and which has been so long cul- 

 tivated throughout Europe and elsewhere, is a native of Asia. 

 The cause of our not hearing more at the present period, of enor- 

 mous clusters of grapes growing in the eastern parts of Syria, 

 is to be attributed to the circumstance of that portion of coun- 

 try having been for eleven centuries, since Abubeker overran 

 it, under the dominion of the Saracens, and they being of 

 the Mahommedan faith, and the use of wine consequently pro- 

 hibited, it may be very reasonably supposed that the culture 

 of the vine has been almost totally neglected. 



