No. 15L] 465 



after being saved from the deluge, was to plant a vineyard. This 

 species, however, has existed for ages, in a wild state, in the woods 

 and hedges of Provence, Languedoc, and Guienne, in France, where 

 it differs from the cultivated vine, in having smaller and more cottony 

 leaves, and very small fruit, rather austere than sweet. These wild 

 vines, which were called by the anc'ienis labrusca, are still known in the 

 south of France by the names of lambrusca and lambresquiero; but 

 whether these vines are. indigenous or have degenerated into their 

 present wildness from those originally brought from the East, we 

 have no means of knowing. 



The vines originally brought to France from other countries, it is 

 said, were not superior in quality to many of our native grapes, but 

 have since been improved by cultivation, from which it may be in- 

 ferred that, when a portion of the industry will have been bestowed 

 upon our Catawba and Isabella, that has, for so many ages and by so 

 many nations, been devoted to the melioration of the European grape, 

 we shall no longer be indebted to the Old World for wine. Hence 

 the importance of producing new varieties of our native grapes from 

 seeds, by grafting, or innoculation, and if possible by hybridization, 

 and doubtless many valuable varieties would be the result. 



The Almond. 



The Almond {Amygdalus communis^ was formerly classified in 

 the same genus with the peach, of which it is regarded, by many, as 

 the parent, as trees have been found with almonds in a state of transi- 

 tion to peaches. Du Hamel states that the fruits of the peach-like- 

 leaved almond (Amandier-pecher) vary upon the same branch, from 

 ovate to obtuse in its shape, with the husk rather fleshy, to ovate, 

 compressed, accuminate, and the husk dry. And Mr. Knight, late 

 President of the London Hort. Society, considered the fruit called 

 Tuberes, by Pliny, as swollen almonds, having raised a similar one 

 himself, by dusting the stigma of the almond flower with the pollen 

 of the peach, which produced a tolerably good fruit. 



The almond is indigenous to Syria and Northern Africa, and has 

 been naturalized in most of the temperate regions of the globe. In 

 a wild state, its fruit is sometines found with bitter kernels, and at 

 other times sweet. 



The Peach. 



It is not certain in what part of the globe the peach-tree {Persica 

 vulgaris,) was originally produced; for, although we have early ac- 

 counts of its being brought to Europe from Persia, it does not follow 



