162 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM 



Witliin tlie tropics, wheat, barley, and oats, are 

 not cultivated, excepting in situations elevated 

 considerably above the level of the sea. 



The cultivated apple is thought to be a variety 

 of the crab, and may therefore be considered a 

 native of England. This fruit does not ripen 

 north of Sundswall, in Sweden, in latitude 62°, 

 nor in the east of Europe, beyond latitude 67°. 

 Its near relations, the pear and the quince, are 

 not natives of England, but are found wild in 

 the southern parts of Europe. The quince 

 scarcely succeeds in the northern counties of 

 England. It has not been known to ripen its 

 fruit beyond the Tees more than twice in twenty 

 years, though it flowers freely. The medlar, 

 the walnut, and the chestnut, succeed no better ; 

 and even the filbert bears very sparingly. The 

 vine seldom flowers ; and if, by chance, small 

 gTapes are produced, they soon drop ofi^. The 

 mulberry is there a low, stunted tree ; but in hot 

 summers bears abundance of small fruit, which 

 in part comes to maturity, and is well flavoured. 



We are thus able to assign the northei'n limit 

 to the cultivation of most of our common fruits. 

 But if we pursue the same inquiry on the west- 

 ern side of the kingdom, following the line of the 

 coast from Cumberland to Cornwall, we shall 

 arrive at Some very extraordinary and unex- 

 pected results ; results which serve' remarkably 

 to illustrate the peculiarities of an island climate. 

 At the further extremity of that long promon- 

 tory, which, projecting into the Atlantic, forms 

 at once the most southern and the most western 

 point of England, neither the apricot, the vine, 

 nor the greengage plum, produce ripe fruit, for 

 want, as it should appear, of sufficiently power- 

 ful sunbeams. Yet such is the mildness of the 

 winter, that the myrtle, the camellia, and other 

 greenhouse plants, grow luxuriantly in the open 

 air; and the ponds are seldom sufficiently frozen 

 to bear the weight of a man. 



An analogous observation was made by Ai-thur 

 Young, nearly forty years ago, with regard to 

 the climate of France. Having, in the course of 

 several tours through that kingdom, minutely 

 observed the agricultural productions of its dif- 

 ferent provinces, he found that the lines which 

 fonn the northern boundary of the cultivation 

 of the vine, maize, and olive, follow an oblique 

 direction from south-west to north-east ; an ob- 

 servation which appears, at first sight, strangely 

 at variance with the known mildness of mari- 

 time climates. But the apparent contradiction 

 disappears, when it is considered that the ripen- 

 ing of fruit and of grain depends altogether on 

 the force of the sun's rays in summer, and is not 

 affected by the severity of the winter. Now, as 

 before observed with regard to Lapland and Nor- 

 way, the interior of the continent of Europe en- 

 joys a hotter summer than the coast, though it 

 has to endure a colder winter. It would be I 



wrong, however, to suppose that the line drawn 

 by Arthur Young, as limiting the cultivation of 

 the vine in France, extends throughout the con- 

 tinent of Europe in the same direction. In that 

 case it would reach to Moscow, in latitude 66° ; 

 whereas vineyards are unknown in Russia to the 

 north of latitude 60° ; which is precisely the ex- 

 treme limit of the cultivation of the vine in 

 France. According to Malte-Brun, a line of se- 

 paration between the countries in which wine 

 forms the principal drink of the people, and those 

 in which they principally consume beer, may be 

 drawn from the south of England through French 

 Flanders, Hesse, Bohemia, the Carpathian moun- 

 tains, Odessa, and the Crimea. This line, it will 

 be observed, is not exactly the same as that which 

 limits the cultivation of the vine. Something 

 must be allow;ed for national custom. The 

 people of the north-western part of France drink 

 wine, though not produced on the spot, bui, 

 brought, at a considerable expense, from the more 

 southern provinces, because, to a Frenchman, 

 habit has rendered wine one of the necessaries of 

 life. The Russians, on the other hand, accus- 

 tomed to beer, do not drink much wine, even in 

 those southern districts where the climate admits 

 of the cultivation of the grape. 



Humboldt estimates that the cultivation of the 

 vine succeeds only in those climates wliere the 

 annual mean temperature is between 50" and 

 63°; or the mean temperature may even be as 

 low as 48°, provided the summer heat rises to 

 68°. In the old world these conditions are 

 found to exist as far north as latitude 60° ; in 

 the new world, not beyond latitude 40°. In 

 both hemispheres the profitable culture of this 

 plant ceases within 30° of the equator, unless in 

 elevated situations, or in islands, as Tenerifte, 

 where the intensity of the heat is moderated bj 

 the atmosphere of the sea. Thus the region of 

 vineyards occupies a band of about 20° in breadth 

 in the old world, and not more than half that 

 breadth in America. It may be observed, that 

 the wines produced in the northern part of this 

 region, as those of France and of the Rhone, are 

 lighter and more acid than such as are produced 

 nearer the tropic ; owing, probably, to the infe- 

 rior force of the rays under which the fruit is 

 ripened. In the southern hemisphere, the Cape 

 of Good Hope just falls within the latitude 

 adapted to the grape ; and a considerable quantity 

 of wine is annually exported from that settle- 

 ment. It is of very inferior quality to the wines 

 of Europe and northern Africa, having an unplea- 

 sant earthy taste, which is said to arise from the 

 clayey nature of the soil. 



In the north of Italy, west of Milan, we first 

 meet with the cultivation of rice. This is the 

 seed of a species of grass, bearded like barley, 

 which, having somewhat of a stiff and reedy 

 foliage, yields a whispering sound when agitated 



