THE VINE AND ITS FRUIT. 



91 



them, and even before they have ohtained their full 

 size. In other cases the seeds do not ripen tiU after 

 the fruit or seed-vessel has attained its maturity. 

 Hence, whilst some seeds require to be sown at once, 

 others germinate better if allowed to remain out of 

 the ground some time, so aa to allow of the slow 

 changes in the seed previously alluded to. Where 

 seeds qtdckly'lose their vitality, as by drying, the pro 

 cess of stratification, or packing in earth kept just 

 moist, is adopted, and this method is also one of the 

 best to secure safe transit of seeds from the tropics. 



on the shores of the Caspian, in Armenia and Cara- 

 mania, and is indigenous to a large portion of Asia, 

 whence it was introduced into Egjrpt, Greece, Spain, 

 Italy, and France. Its introduction into Britain is 

 shrouded in doubt. Some old writers think it was 

 brought over by the Romans a few years after the 

 Christian era, while others assert that it was not 

 grown in this country before the year 280, when 

 Probus, a great patron of agriculture in aU the 

 Roman provinces, was Emperor. Some have at- 

 tempted to make the PhcSnicians immortal by saying 



Fig. 1. — Leau-to Vikeet. 

 I i. Border ; B B, drainage ; c c, ventilators ; d, passage ; oo, pipes. 



THE VINE AM) ITS FRUIT. 



By William Colemah. 



INTROBUCTOBT. 

 rilHE Vine, Vitis vinifera, is one of the oldest, as it 

 X is certainly one o£ the most graceful fruit-bear- 

 ing trees we have in cultivation. Readers of the Old 

 and New Testaments are well acquainted with the 

 fact that its culture and uses were understood before 

 the time of the Deluge, and that Noah, after leaving 

 the Ark, planted for himself a vineyard and made 

 wine— pure and unsophisticated, no doubt, which is 

 more than consumers of the present day can say. 

 In the Book of Exodus we learn that the spies sent 

 by Moses into Canaan returned with an enormous 

 bunch, borne between them on a staff. David often 

 speaks of the vine, and finally, the Saviour Himself 

 makes every Christian believer acquainted with it by 

 His beautiful similes, and the way in which He has 

 commanded us to make use of the wine iu remem- 

 brance of Him. According to Siokler it grows wild 



they brought the vine in the time of Solomon, 

 when they visited the southern shores of this island 

 for tin. Be this as it may, the Venerable Bede, a 

 reliable authority, assures us that many vineyards 

 existed in this country in his time (731), and when 

 the Isle of Ely was known as the Isle of Vines, from 

 which the bishop of that diocese received an an- 

 nual supply of wine by way of tithe. "WilUam of 

 Mahnesbury, in the twelfth century, speaks highly 

 of the county of Gloucester as a wine-growing dis- 

 trict, where, as in the adjoining county of Hereford, 

 traces of the flats or slopes on which the vines were 

 grown not only e^ist, but stiU bear the name of 

 "The Vineyard." We learn that excellent Bur- 

 gundy was grown by the Duke of Norfolk at 

 Arundel, in Sussex, while Pains HiU, in Surrey, was 

 noted for the quality of its champagne. Walham 

 Green, Rotherhithe, Bury St. Edmunds, and Belvoir 

 Castle, on the borders of Lincolnshire, are also men- 

 tioned as having been famous for the excellence of 

 their wine, which was little, if at all, inferior to that 



