165 



I 



m 



In the case of these grapes, tlie largest berries have the most 



seed. 



Grape. Vitis vintkkra, L. 



The Geoponics^, as also Cohimella-, j^ives du'ectlons for ob- 

 tahiing grapes without kernels, and Palladius'' mentions a beauti- 

 ful sort without stones, and Pliny^ mentions the Rha:tica, as 

 possessing the thinnest skin of all the grapes and but a single 

 stone. The description does not further suggest the Muscat of 

 Alexandria grape, but specimens of raisins from these made in 

 California, I found, in i88i, to contain but a single seed, with 

 one other abortive remnant of a seed. In ISO^-S, Ludovico de 



Varthema^ found at Reame, a city of Arabia Felix, a white grape, 



which had no seeds within, than which, he says, 1 never tasted 

 better, Parkinson^, in 1629, says "the grape without stones is 

 also a kind of it selfc, and groweth naturally neere Ascalon, as 

 Brochard affirmeth,the wine whereof is redde, and of good taste.*' 

 The word *' raysons of corannte " occurs in "The Forme of 

 Cury *' an English cook book compiled about A. D. 1390", and 

 is the first reference I find to the Corinth grape. Dalechamp*^, in 

 1586, speaks of the apiirehoi, that is, seedless, which are com- 

 monly called Corinth, and grow in the gardens of Italy and 

 Piedmont. Modern authors describe the white and purple 

 varieties of the Corinth grape as seedless, and this grape furnishes 

 the "dried currants '' of our kitchens. In California I am told 

 that the Zante or Corinth grape so frequently seeds as to check 

 the attempt to prepare this article of commerce, and that \n Aus- 

 tralia the same thing happens"^. It would appear that this grape 

 has been transmitted throuiih cuttings for unknown centuries. 



t>" -^-'^v.^-j^ 



Among the grapes of Cabul is the '* ungoor-i-Kishmishee " a 

 fruit not large, round, transparent, seedless, sweet and luscious. 



1 Geopon. lib. 4, c. 7. 



2 Col. de arb. c. 9. 



3 Pal. de re rust, Feb. c. 29. 



4 Pliny, lib. xiv. c. 4. 



5 Travels of. Hakl. Soc. ed. p. 77. 



6 Paiad. 1629, p. 564. 



7 Warner, Antiq. Cuiin. 1791. The Forme of Curj', Kcceipt, 14, etc. 



8 Dalechamp, hist. gen. 15S6, p. 1406. 



9E. J. Wickson, San Francisco, Cal., in letter of Feb. 13, iS8o. 



-> 



