No. 244.] 143 



In the pages of Scripture describing the flourishing kingdom of Israel 

 in the reign of Solomon it is stated thaf'Judah and Israel dwell 

 safely every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan 

 even to Beersheba." Persia is its native country as supposed. I 

 believe it to be indigenous to all temperate climates, though the finest 

 grapes are said to be cultivated in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf 

 and Caspian Sea. It was introduced in Britain at the commencement 

 of the christian era. It is a prodigious bearer. Mr. Hoare, has after 

 long experience produced the following scale of the quantity of grapes 

 a vine can mature, in proposition to the circumference of its stem 

 measured just above the ground. 



A vine 3 inches in circumference will yield 5 lbs. 



On the banks of the Ohio there are vines measuring 3 feet in cir- 

 cumference, with branches 250 feet long. In France 500,000,000 

 of imperial gallons of wine have been made in a single year, the 

 vine lives to a great age. Pliny gives an account of one 600 year* 

 old. 



The Mulberry (Morus) is a native of Persia, it is ranked in the 

 fourth order of Llnnaius, 2 1 st class, Monoecla Tetrandrla. They were 

 first introduced into England in 1596. The Duke of Northumber- 

 land has four in his grounds supposed to be 300 years old. Gerard 

 in his description of the mulberry tree has the following curious para- 

 graph. "Alexander in Atheneus affirraeth, that the mulberry trees in 

 his time did not bring forth fruit in 20 years together ; and that so 

 great a plague of the gout reigned and raged so generally as not on- 

 ly men but boys, wenches, eunuchs and women, were troubled with 

 that disease." 



The Service Tree is cultivated in England, It belongs to the 

 twelfth class of Linnseus' system, called Icosandria Trigynia. It is a 



