200 Royle's Illustrations of the Natural History 



Millingtojiiaceas contains several timber trees, some species of 

 which extend to a considerable elevation in the Himalayas, and 

 may, therefore, in time, be found in our parks and pleasure- 

 grounds. 



Melidcea; contains a number of trees which grow on the Hi- 

 malayas, the deciduous species of which would probably endure 

 the open air, in the south of England and Ireland, as well as the 

 common ikfelia Azedarach. 



h.mp elide ce. — The observations on this order are of very great 

 interest; and, for the benefit of the young gardener, we make a 

 very long extract from them. The order includes the two 

 genera Ampelopsis and Fitis ; the latter found in the equinoctial 

 parts both of the old and new world. By far the most interest- 

 ing species is the grape vine. 



" But the grape vine is alone of any importance for the utility of its pro- 

 ducts. The sap was at one time used in medicine, and the juice of the leaves, 

 particularly of a variety in which they are red, considered astringent. Ver- 

 juice, expressed from unripe grapes, is well known for its acidity and use in 

 making syrups, &c. Lieut. Burnes mentions that, in Caubul, they use grape 

 powder, obtained by drying and powdering the unripe fruit, as a pleasant acid. 

 When ripe, it is every where valued as a fruit, eicher fresh, or in the state of 

 raisins, and, of one variety, as currants. The juice of the ripe fruit, called 

 must, is useful as an agreeable beverage, from containing sugar. By ferment- 

 ation, other valuable products are procured, as wine, alcohol, and vinegar; 

 while the lees yield tartar or impure cream of tartar, from which tartaric acid 

 may be obtained : an oil is sometimes extracted from the seeds, and even the 

 ashes are considered useful in medicine, from containing, like that of so many 

 other woods, salts of potass. 



" The grape vine being a plant of so much value and importance, its dis- 

 tribution is an interesting subject of enquiry, though there is little prospect of 

 its becoming in India of greater value than as affording an agreeable fruit ,* 

 though this is of sufficient importance to render highly desirable the introduc- 

 tion and trial of different and superior kinds from Europe. The native 

 countr}' of the vine seems now to be better ascertained than that of many 

 other as extensively cultivated plants. Bieberstein, in his Flora Tauro-Cau- 

 casica (i. p. 174.) states — ' Nusquam non prseter alpestria, per omnem de 

 qua sermonem facimus regionem sponte in sylvis atque dumetis nascitur, et 

 altissimas quandoque arbores ascendens, totas quantas occupat.' [Throughout 

 the whole country of which we speak, except in the alpine districts, it is found 

 growing in the woods and thickets, and sometimes climbing the loftiest trees.] 

 The author of the MttJihzun-ool-udivieh, who was an inhabitant of the district, 

 describes the vine as found both wild and in gardens at Tinkaboon, in Deilim, 

 about lat. 37°, on the southern shores of the Caspian, and that it is there 

 called dewaz. Humboldt, also, in his GeograpMe des Plantes (p. 26.) men- 

 tions that the vine ' grows wild on the coasts of the Caspian Sea, in Ar- 

 menia, and in Caramania. The species of Vitis which are found wild in North 

 Amei'ica, and which gave the name of Winenland to the first part of the new 

 continent which Europeans discovered, are very different from our Vitis vini- 

 fera.' These, as we learn from Pursh, are Vitis Labrusca, called fox-grape; 

 V. aestivalis, summer grape; and V. cordifolia, winter grape. From the sacred 

 writings we know that the grape was cultivated in Asia in the earliest periods. 

 IVL Bove, the latest scientific traveller, informs us {Ann. des Sc. Nat., 1834, 

 p. 172.) that it is still cultivated, and a good wine made in the vicinity of 

 Jerusalem ; but that in Egypt he found wine made only at Medinet-el-Fayoum 

 (L c, p. 76.), which is in lat. 29° 20'. ' From Asia,' Humboldt continues, 



