HORTICULTURAL SHOW. 51 



tage window, or trampled in the wine-press of the neighboring 

 seigneur. The name by which we know it is purely of English 

 origin, and in fact the grape is as well known there as the 

 "Hampton Court" as by its other title, for the fame of the 

 monster vine at Hampton Court Palace has filled the whole land. 

 That venerable vine, planted in the good old days of Queen Bess, 

 has grown and strengthened with each of the intervening two 

 hundred and fifty years, until it now bears 3,000 pounds of fruit 

 at a single crop, and has a stem as large as Falstafl"s body. 



Next the Black Hamburg may be seen magnificent specimens 

 of the while " Xeres " grape, from which the famous sherry wine 

 is made, and whose long pendent, loosely branched bunches hang 

 thick in the vineyards of Castile and La Mancha. Here, too, we 

 may see in miniature, albeit the specimens weigh several pounds, 

 the grapes which the spies of Moses found by the brook of Eschol, 

 and " cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, 

 and they bare it between two upon a staif." But we cannot say 

 the collection of foreign grapes at the American Institute show 

 is complete, for we miss the favorite Muscat of Alexandria, 

 whose luscious berries when dried in the sun make the amber- 

 colored Muscatelle raisins. To compensate in part, however, for 

 their absence, we may examine some fine specimens of the new 

 Trebiana, of which one of the bunches weighs at least five 

 pounds. We presume that Prince's new found Eureka grape 

 comes fairly in the " foreign " class, for he says it was brought 

 by the ghost of his father from the planet Juno. One solitary 

 unripe bunch on a dirty plate by itself, represents the heaven- 

 born vine for which the great yam propagator is prepared to re- 

 fuse a bid of $30,000. To our uninspired vision and palate it 

 seems marvellously like the Diana, only not quite so good, and a 

 suspicion was naturally awakened in our mind that if the 

 assumed celestial habitat of Eureka be no lie, the chaste goddess 

 after whom the other fine grape is named, has given it to the 

 happy possessor through the medium of a horticultural spirit 

 messenger with clear intent to defraud. 



In regard to the merit of this great display of fruits, we say 

 with the leading pomologists who composed the jury of award, 

 that it is the finest ever made in this city, and equal if not supe- 

 rior to the grand exhibition of the National Pomological Congress 

 recently held in Philadelplria. The pears and apples are more 

 numerous than in any preceding show in this city, and the plums, 



