of the Himalayan Mountains. 201 



' it passed into Greece, and thence into Sicily. The Phocseans carried it into 

 the south of France ; the Romans planted it on the banks of the Rhine ; ' and 

 we have it now extending to 51°, or even 52°, in England, where it ripens 

 well, as in the present fine season, in the open airj and wine is made in a few 

 places in Devonshire. Southward, the vine extends as far as 12° of northern 

 latitude; as we learn from Dr. Ainslie {Ind. Mat. Med., i. p. 156.) that ' the 

 French are particularly successful in cultivating the grape at Pondicherry, 

 notwithstanding the great heat of the Carnatic' The illustrious Humboldt, 

 in his Proleg. de Distrib. Geograph. Plant, (p. 159.), where, from the examin- 

 ation of a multitude of facts, he has deduced the requisites for the successful 

 cultivation of many plants, has observed, that ' the vine in Europe yields a 

 generous and excellent wine between the latitudes of 36° and 48°, where the 

 mean annual temperature is from 62° to- 50^, or even 47° 5', provided that of 

 winter is not below 38°, nor that of summer below 6Q° or 68°. These con- 

 ditions are fulfilled on the sea coast as high as lat. 47°, in the interior as high 

 as lat. 50°, and in North America only as high as lat. 40°. The vine may 

 therefore be cultivated for wine in a belt of from 12° to 15° of latitude in 

 breadth on both sides of the line ; though to a much greater extent if required 

 for its fruit only : but for both purposes, in a narrower space in the new than 

 in the old world. Farther north than 48° of latitude, grapes do not generally 

 secrete sufficient saccharine matter to undergo a proper vinous fermentation ; 

 and farther south than 35° (or 32°, in an insular situation like Madeira), 

 though they are both sweet and high flavoured, the temperature is so great 

 that the juice passes rapidly into the acetous fermentation; and therefore the 

 grapes of the most southern parts of Europe are more frequently dried as 

 raisins than converted into wine. The climate of India is such as to exclude 

 it from benefiting either by preserving the grape or converting it into wine j 

 though, in the north-western provinces, the vines thrive well and bear abun- 

 dantly. They flower in February, and ripen the fruit (which is well, though, 

 perhaps, not so delicately, flavoured as in more temperate climates) about 

 the middle of June, or about the time the vine is said to flower in Caucasus : 

 at this time the mean temperature, being about 90°, is evidently much too 

 great to allow of a slow and gradual vinous fermentation ; while the accession 

 of the rainy season immediately afterwards produces so great a degree of 

 moisture as to render it impossible to dry the grapes as raisins, unless this 

 could be effected in ovens, after being plunged in boiling water, as is done in 

 some parts of Europe. It might, perhaps, be practicable even to make wine 

 by growing the grapes at the foot of the mountains, where free from jungles, 

 as in the country beyond the Jumna, and conveying them to a moderate tem- 

 perature on the mountain's side. A brewery has been established in a situ- 

 ation where the mean temperature in the houses hardly ever varied fi-om 60° 

 in the warm weather, and the distance was so inconsiderable, that it was 

 thought preferable to bring the barley from the plains rather than use that 

 which was grown on the spot. The Deyra Doon would be a particularly 

 favourable situation ; but at present there is too much uncleared jungle, and 

 the climate too moist to ripen the grape properly in the short season from the 

 middle of March to the middle of June. The greatest pains were taken in 

 their cultivation, but without success, by the Hon. Mr. Shore, while resident 

 there. 



" But it is observed, that when the warmth of a low latitude is compensated 

 for by elevation, or a barrier is opposed to the inundating influence of the 

 rainy season, grapes are ripened as fruit, dried as raisins, and converted into 

 wine. Thus, in Kunawur, between n. lat. 31° and 32°, or nearly that of Ma- 

 deira, where elevation produces the same moderation of temperature, that is, 

 in the latter, the consequence of its insular situation, we have luxuriant vine- 

 yards between 9000 ft. and 10,000 ft. of elevation, with grapes of delicious 

 flavour, which the moderation of temperature in September allows of 

 being converted into wine, and the dryness to be preserved as raisins. 



