THE POX-GRAPE 5 



gold colour white wine: Tenii I'<il- the French man 

 of these four made ••! ^rli i sorts of excellent wine, and 

 of the Muscal acute boyled that the second draught 

 will fox [intoxicate] a reasonable pate four moneths 

 old: and here may be gathered and made two hundred 

 tun in the Vintage Moneth, and re-planted will mend." 

 These grapes which Plantagenet saw. were undoubt- 

 edly native to the country; for although he uses the 

 name Muscat, it must be remembered that this word, 

 and Buch other foreign names as Madeira and Tokay, 

 were freely applied to wild varieties which bore a 

 genera] resemblance to European varieties having 

 these names. One of the Bignificanl parts of this 

 account is the use of the verb to fox for "intoxicate." 

 The term fox-grape was evidently applied to various 

 kinds of native grapes in the early days, although it 

 is now restricted to the Vitis Ldbrusca of the Atlan- 

 tic slope. Several explanations have been given of 

 tin- origin of the name fox-grape, sum.' supposing 

 that it came t'n»m a belief that foxes eat the grapes, 

 others that the odor of the grape suggests that of 

 the fox — an opinion to which Beverley subscribed 

 Dearly two centuries air" — and still others thinking 

 that it was suggested bj some resemblance of the 

 a fox's track. William Bartram, writing 

 at the beginning of this century, in the MedicaJ I.'' 

 po8itory, i- pronounced in his convictions: "The 

 strong rancid smell of its ripe fruit, verj like the 

 effluvia arising from the body of the fox," "gave 

 rise to the specific name of this vine, and do! 

 many have imagined, from its being the favourite 

 1 1 of the animal: for the f.>\ (at least the Amer- 

 ican species) seldom eat- grapes or other fruit if 



