60 THE BOTANY OF BERMUDA. 
XXXIV.—RHAMNEZ. 
Colubsina Asiatica, Brongn. 
Found growing on St. David’s Island by Dr. Greenwood, R. A. 
Phylica odorata, Cass. 
Identified in 1873; no note of its place of growth. 
XXXV.—AMPELIDE. 
Vitis vinifera, Linn. Grape-vine. 
‘““Vynes and vyne cuttinges” were furnished to the first settlers in — 
Bermuda in 1616. Probably white grapes from Spain; at least such are 
the oldest vines extant, and from the general resemblance which the 
climate of Bermuda bears to that of Madeira, which is especially close 
from November to May, the founders of the colony doubtless anticipated 
a similar success in their cultivation; in this, as in so many other ex- 
pectations, they were disappointed. Very fine grapes have been grown 
in Bermuda, but not in great abundance, and the climate is too near 
that of the West Indies, where the vine does not succeed, to be con- 
sidered favorable to it. The soil is also generally too poor. 
The vine loses its leaves in November, and begins to recover them 
in February. The interval of rest has not been observed with much 
accuracy, but does not appear to exceed 120 days. It is given by 
DeCandolle as 157 days at Medeira.* 
The writer imported and distributed a great number of the best English 
hot-house varieties, especially Black Hamburgs and Muscats of various 
denominations, and they bore in Mount Langton Garden, when only 
3 years old, fruit which as to flavor left nothing to be wished ; the best 
bearing vine, however, was one transplanted out of an old garden where 
it grew in amarsh. It was layered in marshy ground, where the water 
habitually stood, in a ditch close alongside the trellis, at 6 to 12 inches 
only below the level of the soil, having a mean temperature of about 
21° CU. (70° Fahr.). Under these singular circumstances it produced, 
very fine and highly-flavored fruit, akin to Black Hambro’, but redder 
in color. The bunches, however, rarely reached 1 pound, but single 
berries were often an inch in diameter. 
These vines were skillfully pruned, the bunches thinned, and the 
berries also thinned, by an English gardener. In general, vines in Ber- 
muda are left entirely to nature. It is customary to let them run over 
a horizontal trellis for shade, but they are scarcely ever touched with 
* Géographie Botanique, 1855, I., p. 47. 
