THE VINE AND ‘CIVILISATION. 51 
‘*> Madeira Wine. There is much uncertainty respecting 
the period at which the grape was first introduced into Ma- 
deira; it was probably stocked with the Malvasia (Malmsey ) 
grape from Spain or Portugal, originally from Greece. Prince 
Henry of Portugal did not colonise it until 1421. Madeira 
was so named from the island being thickly covered with 
wood. The volcanic soil being singularly suited, the growth 
of the vine was early introduced. Sugar canes from Sicily 
were also first planted there. By a conflagration kindled by 
the discoverers the forests were consumed, and the soil in this 
way was cleared for planting, for it is on record that wine was 
exported from the island before 1460. The early colonists of 
North America were no sooner settled than they carried pipe 
staves to the island and exchanged them for wine, and within 
half a century past Charleston, South Carolina, was reputed 
as having within her warehouses the finest old Madeira, im- 
ported in times long gone by, this wine being much drank in 
the American colonies and in the West Indies. 
‘« The two kinds principally produced were the Malmsey and 
Madeira. The Malmsey, of which there was but one good 
vineyard in the island, was a most delicious wine, remarkably 
rich and luscious —a part being reserved for the royal table 
in Portugal —and is produced from an avalanche of tufa, 
lodged at the bottom of an almost inaccessible cliff. Of this 
vineyard the Jesuits were said at one time to have held a 
monopoly. 
‘‘'The vines in Madeira are planted in lines in front of the 
houses, trained on trellis work seven feet high; the branches 
are conducted over the tops so as to be horizontal to the sun’s 
action. They thus afford a canopy, yielding a delicious shade 
to those who walk under them. The vines give no wine until 
the fourth year, and the average product of all the vineyards 
