No. 199.] 539 



sur Vingeaiine, I visited the vineyard of Ihat honorable pastor three 

 times, and be gave rae the following information to which I have 

 added some observations of my own. 



In this plantation the medium distance between the vines, is a,s 

 near as possible, twenty inches, so that a spot of four ares (100 square 

 metres) in good cultivation gives 1500 vines ; some such spotshave 

 1200, and others nearly 2000. The rowsare twenty inches apart. No 

 manure is added after setting them out. The weeds are pulled out by 

 hand, and the rows are hoed. In pruning in the month of March, he 

 leaves from two to five shoots on each vine. 



GRAIN — GRAJWINACEA GRASSES. 



Nothing relative to this tribe can be uninteresting to man, when we 

 consider its vasj importance to him. The following geographical dis- 

 tribution of grasses by Sc/wuw is useful, (viz :) " This family is very 

 numerous : Persoon's synopsis contains 812 species^ being one twenty 

 sixth part of all the plants enumerated in it. In the system of Rcemer 

 and Schultes there are 1800, and if that work was perfected, it would 

 probably contain 40,000, of which the grasses would form a twenty 

 second part. It is more than probably however, that in future exami- 

 nations, it will be found that the number of grasses will be increased 

 in a greater proportion than the other phanerogamic plants. Among 

 the grasses there are both lard and water, but no marine plants. 

 They occur in every soil in society with others, and entirely alone, 

 the latter to such a degree as to occupy entirely, consitlerablc ilistricts. 

 Land is not favorable to this race, but even here and there are species 

 peculiar to it. This family has no limits other than that of the whole 

 vegetable kingdom ; seme grow under the equator, and the Agrostis 

 Algida, is one t)f the few plants found on Spitzbergen, The difference 

 between tropical grasses, and those out of the tropics, is their greater 

 growth ; some of them assume ahnosl the appearance of trees ; some 

 species of bambusa are from fifty to sixty feet high. The compact 

 green turf of the fields and meadows of the temperate zone, is entirely 

 absent from the torrid zone. Tiie distribution of the cultivated grasses, 

 is one of the most interesting of all subjects, and is not determined 

 merely by climate, but depends on the civilization, industry and trafic 

 of the people. 



