340 



HISTORY OF THE VEGcETABLE KINGDOM. 



shape, varying in colour according to the varie- 

 ties, being green, white, red, yellow, and deep 

 purple; the skin is smooth, the pulp of a sweet 

 luscious flavour; the pulp incloses from three to 

 five heart-shaped small stones or seeds; some 

 varieties, however, as the ascalon, produce no 

 seeds. The weight of the grape depends not 

 only on its size, but the thickness of its skin, 

 and texture of the fleshy pulp. The lightest are 

 the thin skinned, juicy sorts, as the sweet water, 

 and muscadine; the largest of these measure an 

 inch and a half in circumference. A single vine 

 in a large pot, or grown as a dwarf standard, in 

 the manner practised in the vineyards of the 

 north of France, generally produces from three 

 to nine bunches; but by superior management, 

 in gardens in England, the number of bunches 

 is prodigiously multiplied : vines in pots have 

 ripened twenty bunches each plant the first year. 

 A Hamburgh vine in Hampton Court gardens, 

 produced the astonishing number of 2200 bunches, 

 i'.veraging one pound each, or in all, nearly a 

 ton.* 



The vine is a very long lived plant, indeed, in 

 warm climates, the period of its existence is un- 

 known. It is supposed to equal, if not surpass 

 the oak in this respect. Pliny speaks of a vine 

 which had existed six hundred years; and there 

 are vines in Burgundy, said to be upwards of 

 four hundred years old. In some parts of Italy 

 there are vineyards which have been in a flour- 

 ishing state for upwards of three centuries, and 

 there a vineyard of one hundred years' duration 

 is reckoned young. The extent of the branches 

 of the vine, in certain situations and circum- 

 stances, is commensurate with its produce and 

 age. In the hedges of Italy, and the woods of 

 America, they are found overtopping the highest 

 elm and poplar trees; and in England, one plant 

 trained against a row of houses in Northallerton, 

 covered a space of one hundred and thirty-seven 

 Bq[uare yards; and that at Valentines, in Essex, 

 above one hundred and forty-seven square yards. 

 The size to whicli the trunk or stem sometimes 

 attains in warm climates, is such as to have af- 

 forded planks fifteen inches broad. The timber 

 of the vine is of great durability. 



The grape seems to have been one of the ear- 

 liest cultivated fruits. We read in Genesis that 

 Noah planted a vineyard, and wine is mentioned 

 as a beverage among the earliest nations of the 

 world. Yet we are to this day ignorant of the 

 native country of the vine. The oldest pro- 

 fane writers ascribe its introduction to their 

 gods. According to the tradition of the Egyp- 

 tians, Osiris first paid attention to the vine, and 

 instructed other men in the manner of planting 

 and using it. The inhabitants of Africa ascribe 

 the same gift to the ancient Bacchus. We find 



,■ * Loudon. 



mention of the fermented juice of the grape as 

 early as that of its cultivation. Wine was among 

 the first oblations to the Divinity. " Melchizedek, 

 king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, 

 and he was the priest of the Most High God." 

 We may trace through all the most ancient 

 records of the human race, a conformity between 

 the chief articles of subsistence, and the sacri- 

 fices to heaven. In the earliest ages, herbs, fruits, 

 and plants were alone offered up ; the first liba- 

 tions were made with water, wine then being 

 unknown; gradually honey, milk, oil, wine, and 

 corn were added; and at last, when animals were 

 rendered domestic, and formed the principal 

 nourishment of man, the kid and the ox were 

 laid upon the altar. 



"The vine," says Humboldt, "which we now 

 cultivate, does not belong to Europe; it grows 

 wild on the coasts of the Caspian sea, in Armenia, 

 and in Caramania. From Asia it passed into 

 Greece, and thence into Sicily. The Phoceans 

 carried it into the south of France; the Romans 

 planted it on the banks of the Rhine. The 

 species of vites, which are found wild in North 

 America, and which gave the name of the land 

 of the vine f Winenland ) to the first part of 

 the New continent which was discovered by 

 Europeans, are very different from our mtus vini- 

 fera." It is a popular error that the grape vine 

 was common to both continents. 



It has been said that the vine was introduced 

 into England by the Romans; but if so, it could 

 not have been till near the close of their influ- 

 ence, for Tacitus mentions that it was not known 

 when Agricola commanded in the island. At 

 the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons, however, when 

 the country had been under the Roman dominion 

 four hundred years, and had received, during 

 that long period, all the encouragement which 

 that people gave to the agriculture of their pro- 

 vinces, the vine, without doubt, was extensively 

 cultivated. Vineyards are mentioned in the 

 earliest Saxon charters, as well as gardens and 

 orchards, "and this was before the combating in- 

 vaders had time or ability to make them, if they 

 had not found them in the island." In the Cot- 

 tonian Manuscripts, in the British Museum, 

 there are some rude delineations in a Saxon cal- 

 endar, which, in the month of February, repre- 

 sent men cutting or pruning trees, some of which 

 resemble vines. King Edgar, in an old grant, 

 gives the vineyard, situate at Wecet, as well as 

 the vine-dressers. In Domesday Book, vine- 

 yards are noticed in several counties. Accord- 

 ing to William of Malmesburgh, who flourished 

 in the first half of the twelfth century, the cul- 

 ture of the vine had in his time arrived at such 

 perfection within the vale of Gloucester, that a 

 sweet and palatable wine, "little inferior to that 

 of France," was made there in abundance. In 

 the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,' almost 



